[DDI] Droid Accessible Compendium

[Caliber]

Hello everyone!

As the owner of a nice shiny Droid Eris, I was disappointed to find that the Compendium doesn't seem to work in any of the browsers I have available to me, nor is there an app to search it.

So, possessing some programmatic muscles myself, I figured I'd go ahead and write an app to give me some Compendium searching. Depending on how feasible this is, I'd even be willing to publish it.

Obviously though, I don't want to do anything illegal. The user is going to need a DDI account, and is going to need to log in ... somehow.

I think other services out there (iplay4e maybe?) query the Compendium for information. How do they handle logging the user in? I've figured out how to run the searches programmatically, but the login API is still obscured to me.

Any help? Further, any interest assuming this gets off the ground and works?

 

[Piratecat]

That's weird, in that I have Compendium access through my iphone; it should work in any browser.

 

[malraux]

snip

You can search the compendium without having to log in. You only need to log in to see the specific items/monsters/etc. I have no idea how the droid handles web views, but the web viewing part of the system should be the thing to deal with that.

There's no legal problem with writing an app to search the compendium. In fact, WotC have been pretty open with giving info on how to do it. You just need to deal with some XML stuff. The only thing that violates the terms of service are data mining applications. Good luck with it. If you know what you are doing, it shouldn't more than a day or two to get something written, so it took me a week or two to get my compendium browsing app working.

 

[Obryn]

Is this an R2 unit or a 3PO?

-O

 

[Gorok]

I too have been unable to use any of the browsers supplied with the Droid to work directly with the Compendium. I have found a 3rd party tool which allows me to browse the Compendium for Monsters and Items. Check out:

Scryer - D&D Insider Compendium Searcher

Good luck!

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Also it works with Opera Mini on the Droid, there's a funky CSS thing with android browser that is causing the problem.

 

[Caliber]

Unfortunately, the device known as the "droid" is actually a family of devices and OS versions. My issues are on a Droid Eris running Android 1.5. Later version may correct it, but until they roll out the OS upgrade or I buy a new phone, even Opera Mini won't let me run Compendium.

Good advice though; my proto-app now can run searches and receive results. I just need to get it interpreting them and hope I can toss the direct link into a browser that will handle the logon stuff. Will keep everyone posted.

And Obryn; it's obviously a detective model 501-Z. Duh.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

As far as I know the Compendium queries are run from a web service the API is described here and here. The web service is here WOTC_Frazier never gets around to explaining how to submit credentials so you will have to work that in yourself. It does not apprear to be part of the SOAP header but calling the compendium url while logged in seems to work. There is probably a separate url to login. In fact with some quick browsing I am certain of it.

If you search the community.wizards.com site in google you can see that others have built Compendium search apps so they might be able to help more.