E-TOOLS > Development of the Tool > Productive Comments Only

[Davin]

Just to let you know Davin, I just completed the FR Deities and Domains and your new version of ETHelper kept all the links intact as far as I can tell.

Thanks! Let me know if you run into any more difficulties.

 

[Davin]

Something I've been wondering about is whether we need to apply some "organizing" to the various additions being made.

Organization is definitely an issue that should be addressed to keep from confusing everyone who wants the results. I'd recommend some one person volunteering to combine & republish all the results from one area. For instance, several people might work on FR stuff, but then one person should take all those files and then combine them together and republish it as a single file (with appropriate attributions, of course, and also of course assuming that the IP holders are agreeable).

However...how can we avoid "duplication of effort"?

Actually, my take on that is to not avoid the duplication, but make use of it. *Let* 2 or 3 people enter the same set of gods (or spells or whatever), then have the coordinator compare those files against one another. If they're identical, then we can be reasonably assured that they're done correctly and in a way that most people would like to see. If they're not identical, find out where and go back to the individual authors to see if some agreement can be reached on the exact spelling (or whatever is different) that should be used.

Any thoughts on organizing the data, other than just dumping everything into the database or the e-tools directories?

How about creating subdirectories by author and keep all that author's files there so you can backtrack where it came from? Unfortunately, eTools doesn't provide for any external author identification mechanism once it's in the datbase itself.

If I spot a mistake in one, admittedly I can fix it pretty quickly, but the "appropaite" thing to do is also let the package author know so he can fix his package (for the benefit of others).

Hopefully, the review and combine processes noted above can help get a consistent set of files without errors so this problem doesn't crop up much (we hope!).

What happens if I import two different versions of a the same ET Helper set?

This one I can answer... Duplicate items (as in, from the same initial creation, not just things with the same names) are overwritten (updated) when they're re-imported. So in the case where you're putting out updated files with simply additional information in them, just having the users re-import them is perfectly acceptable. (If you delete something or recreate it from scratch or want to overwrite someone else's data, *then* you have to have them delete it from their file before adding your stuff back in.)

 

[Darud]

Perhaps someone has a website to add all these E-tools additions? It would be easier than searching the forums for them.

 

[Feaelin]

Organization is definitely an issue that should be addressed to keep from confusing everyone who wants the results. I'd recommend some one person volunteering to combine & republish all the results from one area. For instance, several people might work on FR stuff, but then one person should take all those files and then combine them together and republish it as a single file (with appropriate attributions, of course, and also of course assuming that the IP holders are agreeable).

Hmm. Sounds like an excellent plan. I had actually thought about something of the sort (people reviewing the submissions, basically), but I hadn't put it into words.

Actually, my take on that is to not avoid the duplication, but make use of it. *Let* 2 or 3 people enter the same set of gods (or spells or whatever), then have the coordinator compare those files against one another. If they're identical, then we can be reasonably assured that they're done correctly and in a way that most people would like to see. If they're not identical, find out where and go back to the individual authors to see if some agreement can be reached on the exact spelling (or whatever is different) that should be used.

You're right, that'd be a better plan. And if some doesn't "come through" with their version, oh well, we'll hope that person A's and B's are reasonably accurrate, at least until we find some kind of error.

Originally posted by Davin
How about creating subdirectories by author and keep all that author's files there so you can backtrack where it came from?

I think that's as good as it gets. Although, to keep it nice, I may need to include the _url_ I got it from (forum post, website, etc.)

Originally posted by Davin
Hopefully, the review and combine processes noted above can help get a consistent set of files without errors so this problem doesn't crop up much (we hope!).

Originally posted by Darud
Perhaps someone has a website to add all these E-tools additions? It would be easier than searching the forums for them.

I've been thinking the same thing, that we need a "central repository" or clearing house for it all. The problem is, whoever hosts the site is probably going to have to deal with a huge amount of traffic (after talking to Fluid about their message problems, I found out just how big it was!).

Certainly something to think about, if we can find somewhere to host it.

 

[Darud]

Perhaps we can get Wizards to post some of it under their download section? It is their baby after all. Perhaps someone like Eric Noah can approach their webmaster and ask? I would, but I kinda burned a few bridges with the webmaster over the whole FR Interactive Atlas update fiasco. (Don't ask, but involved sending a nasty email from the webmaster to ProFantasy, then from Profantasy to the Prez of WOTC).

 

[DarthPedro]

file formats for data not in Access

Has anyone deciphered the file formats for some of the different data that's not in Access?

Specifically, I was interested in the native Monster and Character formats (.mon and .chr files). Any suggestions?