Hero Lab Online Integrating Project

[Frodie]

Is anyone working on integrating Hero Labs Online with FGU. It seems like this is a big project that will need to be updated often and should be something that is paid for. It would be great if this could be bought through the store here. The issue we are having in our groups, is character creation and upkeep on FGU can be "off putting" a bit, and can only be done when everyone is connected to the GM's campaign.

One issue might be the syncing of books between the two. You would need to have the books bought on both platforms to sync, I think that is fair.

So is this something that we can pay someone to do as a store addon here? How do we get this started?

[Zacchaeus]

Well first I think there'd need to be some kind of licensing agreement between Lone Wolf and Smiteworks.

[Frodie]

I guess your right, my only question is with HLO Public API. https://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=64920
Is it open for this kind of integration?

[Talyn]

Best case scenario in the short term would be if someone in the community built their own website that would poll the HLO API and generate your FG character .XML file from that, similar to how one of the users did for the D&D Beyond character export. It would be a while (if ever) before SmiteWorks had the time to devote to some other external project like this, would be my guess, plus dealing with licensing between the two companies.

[Trenloe]

See this community member developed web site: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?63709-Herolab-Online-Starfinder-Character-to-Fantasy-Grounds-Converter

The OP was made aware of this in another thread. @Frodie - did you look into this?

[Frodie]

Yep, it's great that they made that for starfinder, but we also need one for P2e.

[Trenloe]

Never say never! But, to be realistic, I very much doubt there will be an official product developed along the lines presented in the first post of this thread. Especially the sharing of book purchases between FG and HL.

And, to be honest, once you've created your character in HL, imported it into FG at level 1 and started playing in FG, the need/desire for Hero Lab import into FG reduces - as you don't want all of the FG effects/actions you've setup to be overwritten by a new import.

The best approach currently is something along these lines for Starfinder. There is no current converter for PF2 - maybe someone should look into that!


If you have Hero Lab - create your PC in Hero Lab, then import into FG using the above mentioned website. If you don't have Hero Lab then create the PC directly in FG.
Once the PC is in FG, do any further editing to create actions/effects to aid your in FG play.
When it's time to level up, those with HL can level up their PC - paying attention to the changes that are made. The player can then edit their character as needed. They can do this in a copy of their game character offline (using Manage Characters in FGC or a character editing campaign in FGU). If the player has access to the FG Starfinder products they can drag/drop the newly needed records as needed; if they don't have access then they can manually edit records as needed. When the player next joins the GMs campaign they can upload their edited copy and start playing with that.
If the players don't want to update their PC offline, they can make the changes needed when they next join the GMs campaign.


The above steps will help to keep any FG specific data intact on the character, but will allow the player to use the character generation aspects of Hero Lab,

[Talyn]

Best bet there would get the person who did the Starfinder site to do the PF2 version since they're already familiar with both the HLO API and the FG XML structure, which was pretty much what the guy who did the Foundry version said to you in the HLO thread (minus the "just buy Foundry" snark).

[Frodie]

Thank you, that is some great info. I do wish FGU had a "Manage Characters" option like FGC. Something a little more straight forward for new players. Yeah, maybe I can see if he can help and see if he has a donate site for his work.

[Trenloe]

I do wish FGU had a "Manage Characters" option like FGC.
It does have the same functionality, it's just not called "Manage Characters". Create a character editing campaign in FGU - players can do this even with the free license. That's why I mentioned this for FGU in the bullet points in my previous post. Then they can import a PC from any game they've joined on that computer, edit the PC and have that available for uploading when they next join a campaign. It's actually easier that Manage Characters.

[Frodie]

This may be helpful - https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?65246-Experimental-APIs-for-FGU