Fantasy Grounds Editor

[Rhaegys]

Well... for what I heard I probably should wait for the release of 1.06 but having no new about it and me being such a coder friki... I started to work in a FG Editor :D

I got the program last week to use with Anima RPG (very new spanish game, that I think it will be released in english on September). It has a bit complex charsheet so I decided to do the editor first (yeah... i know... but I'm like that ;)

For the moment on it is focused on the character sheet. So far I managed to render the sheet with all the fields and you can move them around, resize and change their properties (for the most part). Though still it needs a few stuff like adding or deleting controls/subwindows and more important to save the changes back ;)

For those interested in these thigns, I'm coding it in C# and it will be open source. In fact, I'm waiting for sourceforge to approve the project.

As soon as I happy with a more polished version, I will show you something to you all.

Rhaegys

[rh4300]

what's the sf-project name?

[Rhaegys]

Fantasy Ground Editor (shortname: fgeditor). But it haven't been approved yet, so more likely you won't find it. I will post here when it is available.

[richvalle]

Very cool!

And thanks for sharing (when you do. :) )

rv

[Oberoten]

Just the tool we have all been waiting for. With a good charactersheet and a GM most games can get of the ground no matter what the system is.

Keep up the good work and please keep us informed

[rh4300]

i'm more interested in helping you ;)
(c# developer, too)

[Griogre]

i'm more interested in helping you ;)
(c# developer, too)
Me also. I was thinking about doing something like this as summer project.

[Rhaegys]

Hi. This is a screenshot of how it's looking right now.

https://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7986/fgeditorpreview2dv.jpg

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting (https://imageshack.us)

[wavecutter]

Awsome! Keep up the good work!

[Oberoten]

This is the very kind of tool I have been dreaming of seeing for FG. Need a Beta anytime soon?

[Rhaegys]

This is the very kind of tool I have been dreaming of seeing for FG. Need a Beta anytime soon?

More likely ^^

[DarkStar]

Wow, it looks better than I was expecting! I am waiting to test it. :)

[joeru]

I guess I have to chime in and say it looks awesome.

[Kalan]

This looks very very well done Rhaegys!

Are you planning any kind of support for making rulesets? Primarily tables are the pain in the behind atm...

[mr_h]

Whooo.. *throws himself into the line forming for this program*

[Rhaegys]

This looks very very well done Rhaegys!

Are you planning any kind of support for making rulesets? Primarily tables are the pain in the behind atm...

The first version is focused on the character sheet. The rest will come when that is done.

[Ganadai]

Why do I keep clicking on the picture trying to change to the Main tab? :confused: I don't often say this, but very nice job!!! Can't wait to play around with it.

[Tailz Silver Paws]

Same here, I look forwards to tinkering with it

[joshuha]

Just a quick question. Is the screenshot we are seeing you building a form in Visual Studio or is it your executable actually building the form with its own code for creating textboxes, labels, etc.?

[ByteBandit]

Very nice job indeed :) This will take a lot of the tedious work out of creating a character sheet. Can't wait to give it a try.

[Rhaegys]

Just a quick question. Is the screenshot we are seeing you building a form in Visual Studio or is it your executable actually building the form with its own code for creating textboxes, labels, etc.?

No, it's the executable actually building the charsheet from the info in the xml. I just gave it the look&feel of Visual Studio.

So far it only allows you modify the things that exists (though it doesn't save it yet). Next step, I hope to work on that this weekend, is to add/delete controls, frames, etc.

[Rhaegys]

This looks very very well done Rhaegys!

Are you planning any kind of support for making rulesets? Primarily tables are the pain in the behind atm...

I've been looking in more detail the rest of the files and most of the stuff is the same as the character sheet. What really change is the stuff in the database folder... which it doesn't seem to be hard to do. I will just need to find/do a nice simple html-like editor.

But, just one step at a time. :D

[kalmarjan]

One thing that would really shine is a story/items editor.

Right now we have to work with a word converter, and that is a little clunky.

The ability to copy and paste large amounts of text, format them as the way we want would really help out.

Sandeman

[Kipol]

Just wanna say it looks fantastic and I think i'm going to have to get in the back of this very long line and say "i can't wait". Great job!

[wavecutter]

Where did the screenshot go?

[Rhaegys]

Where did the screenshot go?

Good question. No idea :confused: I'll try to put it back. Anyone know where I can upload the image?:(

[DarkStar]

Anyone know where I can upload the image?:(

ImageShack (https://imageshack.us/)?

[Rhaegys]

ImageShack (https://imageshack.us/)?

Great! Thanks and the screenshot is up again.

[Nayr]

-Wants- That is very cool, I want this so bad so I can make my own character sheet, just for meh XD

[mr_h]

Ooooh, I see this finally got approved on Sourceforge.
But no files yet.
*shakes a stick* Upload files! Do it.....doooo it!
(all the cool programmers are doing it!)

:b

[Rhaegys]

*sighs* work... work.. and more work... that's keeping me from upload anything. I will put something there as soon as I have a decent running version.

[Shrp77]

I'm really looking forward to seeing this!

Do you have a linkedlist follower so that you can quickly follow the chain of references used in FG?

Looking forward to looking at your code too :D Seems very neat :)

[wavecutter]

I also am enthusiastic about this project.

[Grymn]

You are like a god amongst gamers. :) Looking forward to using this project. I much prefer the graphic side of design work. This would allow me to make the visuals and then mold the cold to those visuals. I hate coding...though it is a necessary evil. You my friend, are making a way of circumventing this evil. You are my hero. :)

[Oberoten]

What is the status of this project? It isn't mothballed as everything else (including my own ArsMagica project) in waiting for v 2.0 is it?

*edit : Need to use spell-check I do... *

[Rhaegys]

What is the status of this project? It isn't mothballed as everything else (including my own ArsMagica project) in waiting for v 2.0 is it?

*edit : Need to use spell-check I do... *

It's not mothballed. The one mothballed is me no the project :( At work we are implementing the new software at the client and we have been working for 3 weeks on a row (weekends included), so as you can imagine I haven't had too much time to work on the editor :( Sorry

[Oberoten]

It's not mothballed. The one mothballed is me no the project :( At work we are implementing the new software at the client and we have been working for 3 weeks on a row (weekends included), so as you can imagine I haven't had too much time to work on the editor :( Sorry

Don't sorry us. ;) Just curious as to the state of things and wether you were waiting for 2.0 ... a tad worried that things might break when the new scripts come out.

[Shrp77]

Just wondering; are you using the Model View Controller pattern for the editor? Will you be implementing a plugin architecture for it?

[Snikle]

Yeah I just saw this...a little slow I know....looks great! Let us know if you need any help on this, we have a great little community here and we all love to work and play nicely together.

[demonsbane]

I just saw this thread.

Great work it seems! I'm eagerly waiting for some beta release of the editor. Very useful and good for FG.

Keep it going, please :o
Demonsbane

[Grymn]

The dog's are still salivating....and a bump..

[Alarian]

Looking forward to seeing something as well. Been to Sourceforge but nothing has been posted there either (other than a generic front page) since this was announced.

Alarian

[Shrp77]

This program looks sooooooo nice :P

I got tired of waiting and decided that such a program would, if nothing else, be good practice on segregating business, data access and entity layers.

I have been working a bit on and off on my own editor. For the time being I'm spending more time making sure its architecture is sound than actually working on the functionality. My goal is to have a program that will allow the user to create complete rulesets with minimal effort (compared to Notepad and XML files).

As it stands right now I have serialization objects for database xml's (contained in the database folder) including non-standard HTML formatted text (in the formattedtext nodes), desktop.xml and (of course) base.xml.

The idea is that you can open the base.xml file and the program will load all the data linked to it (thus creating a tree of references so that you can look up values in other XML's from entries - i.e. the source tag on the charactersheet). Alternatively you can open up any of the other xml files and edit it separately.

The program is nowhere near completion as most of the GUI entities (document model, ruleset explorer, property grid etc) have not been linked up yet and I still haven't debugged and validated the remaining serialization objects...

Of course, as soon as this project comes back to life, I'll offer my code base for integration with Rhaegys's project. I'll probably still continue with my own as it's turning out to be nice practice :)

[Grymn]

If you need a ginea pig to test it out, Shrp77, let me know! :P

[joshuha]

Also I hope to release soon a quick little app to help people generate tables of XML data. This is really just for a fancy string replacer but has saved me tons of time. This is for instance if you have a list of fields you need that only vary in name and maybe the coordinates.

For example, Gear1_Name with coordinates x,y and Gear1_Wt with coordinate x1, y. Then you just want to repeate the elements except with Gear2 instead of Gear1 and y+20 pixels. Save a lot of copying and pasting. I have it in a script I already do but gonna design a GUI around it but it may take a bit.

[deckyon]

Add me to the list for Beta Testers.

[Shrp77]

Taking a break from KOTOR 2 (I needed a break from the code while sick) and will now continue with the next element. I'm saving the charsheet file for last, as it's the biggest and the most prone to cause headaches...

The amount of work I will be able to put down will me minimal for a short while (couple of weeks) as I'm in the progress of moving into my new house.

I should be able to work on it a few hours here and there, but all in all progress will be slow:P

I'll get there though!!

Unless 2.0 get's released before then...

[nezzir]

When I built the Warhammer Ruleset, I did all this the quick and dirty way with a spreadsheet. Essentially I set up formulas like this:

"</td> "&H8&G8&"</td></tr>"

In this case, I would enter data in the cells H8 and G8, lets say test1 and test2, and it would output the line:
</td> test1test2<td></tr>

I would build entire XML strings like this and line them up into data blocks. Then I would go through, enter the data in the marked fields (or use the defined dropdowns) and cut/paste the formatted output into the XML sheet.

I even did entire sheets like this. For example, I figured out the format of a character generator. I would generate a character and paste it into a sheet. It would then automagically output the XML formatted code to paste into the XML file, using the format codes similar to the ones above.

While this worked very well, a more polished tool will be very welcomed.

[deckyon]

Just wanting to Bump this again. Is there any timeframe to getting a working Alpha or Beta for testing? I would love to see this in action and give a hand if possible. I have an account on SF and have done some VB development and limited VC as well.

[Shrp77]

My application is still in the "get the thing to read the data right" phase.

I've got 3 files remaining and 1 that I'm 60% done with (working on Utility.xml). To-do are charsheet, adventure and reference -- which are the biggest files for me to work on (schema wise).

Once that is done I still have to implement actual editor functionality and I'll have to go over the data layer again to code in the property editor correctly...

oh the joy...

[joshuha]

Also 2.0 will change the XML tags significantly. I am holding off on any apps and rulesets for that matter until 2.0 is released.

[Shrp77]

Regarding that... any ETA on the vaulted 2.0?

[Tailz Silver Paws]

I think more and more stuff is going to go on hold till 2.0 comes out, I know the fellow I was working with stoped as he didn't want to code my World War II ruleset, and then have to recode it again when 2.0 comes out.

Lets hope its not too much longer.... till then we have to wait.... and wait....

[JemearlS]

Hi. This is a screenshot of how it's looking right now.

https://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7986/fgeditorpreview2dv.jpg

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting (https://imageshack.us)

Looks good! :) I have a few questions if you don't mind:

1) What are you using for resizeable runtime controls?
2) How are you implementing the fly-out toolbars ala Visual Studio?

thanks!

Jemearl Smith

[Shrp77]

Looks good! :) I have a few questions if you don't mind:

1) What are you using for resizeable runtime controls?
2) How are you implementing the fly-out toolbars ala Visual Studio?

thanks!

Jemearl Smith

I would imagine he's written his own control - maybe inherited from the Panel control?

Under the Drawing namespace there's functions for drawing size handles, but you need to implement the functionality yourself (it's a step in the development that I'm planning on doing myself - to learn how to write controls).

When it comes to the docking manager and the toolbar controls - use Weifen Lou's dockpanel suite on SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/dockpanelsuite

It's simply put: AMAZING!

[Shrp77]

After a long time spent moving into my new house (including stuff like trips to IKEA, running cat 6 cables through the house and misc other household chores) I've finally picked up on my own editor.

The current state of the editor is that I can open the ruleset XML files located in the \ruleset folder. Still haven't implemented the data objects for the core XML files.

The base editor (for direct editing of the XML files) now features a "bookmark" navigator allowing for quick navigation to the different nodes in an XML file (base key is that it will display any node that contains children. Click the node in the navigator and the corresponding section of code will be highlighted*)

Right now I'm working on the Ruleset Explorer. The base concept is that FG uses a lot of cross-linked fields (i.e. fields that derive their data from other XML files' definitions). Some times it can be a pain to navigate back and forth - so I'm writing a module that can load the entire ruleset (from Base.xml and out) and displays all internal and external links to the XML files. This will eventually be mirrored back into the raw editor so that you can context-click (right click) on a line of code and select "Go To Definition..." (or something similar) and it will take you to where the code is pointing to.

For the code monkeys out there:
The rewrite of the XML reader is as follows:
1) Deserialize the XML code into its object
2) Serialize the XML code back into a memory stream
3) Strip out the XML Header and modify the output (add the end </root> tag)
4) Create an XML Document from the memory stream
5) Create an XPathNavigator from the XML Document

The raw code handler and the bookmark system use the XPathNavigator. If any changes are made to the raw code (text) the base object is re-serialized to pick up the changes. If any changes occur to the base object, the data is deserialized to display the changes.

[tdwyer11b]

Thanks for the update and keep up the awesome work. I'm sure I can speak for a bunch of us who create rulesets, this is a much needed app.

[Murdocking]

Wow cool , where I can download this program please ?

[mrbyte]

This sounds great, I came to the forum looking for advice on creating character sheets
I want to run Squadron UK on FG and really only need to put up a character sheet to kick the game off (the ruleset can come later) but I have no idea how to do this.
is there any ETA on a beta for this program?

Steve

[Shrp77]

Can't say for Rhaegys's application... but I wouldn't hold my breath for mine (was able to spend a little time on it this weekend, but it's still in its infancy).

[deckyon]

quick bump, hoping for status update. ;-)

[mr_h]

*pokes this topic*

Any updates from anyone? I want to redesign a character sheet...but the XML part frightens me (Done one charsheet, scared for life :) )

[Blue Haven]

Can you send me a copy of the program or you still don&#180;t have it finished...?

[Dennis Morton]

Wow! Yeah! I will Beta it for you too! My home game uses a very altered version of 3.5 rules with a contested combat system (attack, dodge, and parry), a totally altered save system and so many feat, skill, and spell variants that I cant run a game on FG without majorly changing the char. sheet! PLEASE keep us posted on the development!

[Dennis Morton]

any updates on this?

[rom90125]

I am a C# developer with over 3 years experience with .NET (currently working exclusively in Visual Studio 2005) and over 10 years experience with C and C++ (Borland to Visual Studio 6). I would like to contribute to this project if it means we can get it released sooner than later. If you are interested in my services, let me know and I will drop you a line.

Thanks.

[osarusan]

Wow... I just found this thread. Is this project dead altogether? I really need a character sheet editor, and this looks amazing. Is a beta version available yet?

[DrDeth]

Its been quite a few months since there was a status update on this project - too bad really, it had a lot of promise.

However, we have started our own editor which has just started - so far we have the database editor. See this thread for details:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5764

The next section I will be tackling will be a frame/window editor which will allow you to edit character sheets.

[Tailz Silver Paws]

Will this be an editor for FG2.0?

[DrDeth]

Eventually... it seems that I joined the community a tad late to sign up for the 2.0 beta, but I've gotten my hands on a beta ruleset from 2.0 which is quite different. Until 2.0 is actually released, we'll be focusing on 1.05 - at which time we'll probably run parallel projects for both versions.

[sloejack]

Eventually... it seems that I joined the community a tad late to sign up for the 2.0 beta, but I've gotten my hands on a beta ruleset from 2.0 which is quite different. Until 2.0 is actually released, we'll be focusing on 1.05 - at which time we'll probably run parallel projects for both versions.

If you're looking for a challenge with a big upside to the community, while you're looking at the new 2.0 stuff, you might see if it's possible to figure out how to convert 1.05 rulesets to version 2.0 if possible.

[Valarian]

IF there were a list of equivalent tags, a converter should just be a case of having an XML reader, some code in the middle doing some mapping, and an XML writer to create the converted file. From what I've seen so far, the trick is getting the list of tags. Documentation for extending the product is not extensive or comprehensive.

[joshuha]

You are correct in regards to documentation for the current version. However, if you look at the beta doc reference you can see for each control type the tags listed near the beginning before it goes into the available functions. It lists what each tag does for that control as well.

[Valarian]

The documentation for FG2 is better, and has the content of each tag. What it doesn't have is where the tag is valid (i.e. where it fits in the overall structure), or the files where the tag can be used.

e.g. can I put a numbercontrol element directly under the root node, or does it have to be in a windowclass element?

Plus, the FG2 documentation seems to mix objects and XML elements liberally. A separate class API reference (with class diagram) and schema reference would be helpful.

[DrDeth]

A converter will definately be on the cards. It wont be as simple as mapping XML between versions as the FG2 rulesets are a lot more complex and the 'structure' of the physical files is a little different.

The reason why the FG2 documentation seems to mix objects and xml is that the XML is a representation of objects within the app. With their standardisation to have proper XML complient files, it would be easy to serialize the objects from the xml.

An API would be a huge help to developing tools, but that API would probably constitute most of the internal workings of FG, so Im not sure if that will ever happen.