IO feature request

[Moon Wizard]

I know that you probably disabled file IO in the LUA scripting for security reasons, but lack of IO makes it very hard to import data from other applications such as PCGen.

I would like to request that some sort of limited file IO be added to FantasyGrounds 2. Perhaps it could be limited to only a single folder under the application data folder hierarchy.

My goal is to create both PC and NPC output sheets for PCGen, which can then be quickly imported into a campaign using a LUA script. This will make it much simpler than the current DB fiddling, cut-and-paste approach required now.

Also, where should we post feature requests in the future? I didn't see an obvious spot.

Thanks,
JPG

[Hamish]

I prefer the security of FG above the ability to import or export to a file. Perhaps you can build a separate utility to perform this IO on the database. Access to files from within the program makes it a target for viruses etc.

[Foen]

Perhaps sand-boxed (local directory only?) file access, with read-only permissions would be a reasonable compromise, although I agree that a utility outside of FG for adding PCGen characters to an existing DB.xml file would be the best solution.

Stuart

[Dachannien]

You could have the PCGen data converted into a Lua script that would insert the data into the database when the ruleset is loaded, and modify the ruleset to set it up for that script to run. Then before running FG, you drop the script file into the appropriate place, and FG would handle the database modifications.

Probably not any easier than doing it the way Hamish suggested, but at least there are options.

[Ged]

We are looking into making this possible in some way. The security issues need to be considered first and foremost, but restricting the scope of the I/O to certain components reduces the risk to e.g. just a single campaign. For now, I cannot tell more, but eventually we'd like to enable other programs (such as character generators) interface directly with FG.

Feature requests can be posted to the Tavern, if they are generic. If the feature request deals with scripting and what should be exposed to it, also Workshop might be a good place. If the feature request is somehow correcting a faulty behaviour, then House of Healing is best. But if you don't find a fitting place, please post wherever, we'll take notes.