Per-campaign extensions

[Imagix]

A random thought passed through my mind regarding extensions. I was discussing elsewhere about storing one's campaign data in source control, and noticed an "extensionstate.xml" file. A thought popped into my head that perhaps it would be useful to copy the extensions into the campaign folder to make committing the entire campaign into source control easier. You'd have the extensions right with the campaign. Just clone it to a new installation of FG and it would Just Work (instead of having to go hunt down the extensions and manually copy them to the FG data folder).

I've not fully thought out all of the mechanics of it. Things like: what if the FG-level extension is newer than the campaign's... re-copy it? (Ask the user?) What about the reverse? Copy from the campaign to the FG-level? Scan all campaigns on launch to synchronize all of the extensions?

[Zacchaeus]

I'm not really following what you are on about; but if you set up your extensions in one campaign then you can copy the extensionstate.xml into any other campaign folder and it will load those same extensions in the campaign you copied into.

[Imagix]

Sure, but the extensions themselves won't have been copied over. Was thinking of the idea that one has a desktop install of FGU set up with a campaign and extensions. Now the user gets a laptop and goes to the friend's house (OK, in a non-covid world...) to go run a session. So they install FGU, copy the campaign over and go to the friend's house. Whups, forgot to copy the extensions. Where with something resembling my idea, copying the campaign would also copy the extensions (one directory instead of two). And 3 months down the road when they want to do it again, and the extensions have been updated on the desktop (but not the laptop.. it's been sitting in a corner) we end up with a similar problem.

[LordEntrails]

Yep, in that case you would need to copy/install the extensions as well. But, you can't change the folder architecture of FG. Extensions have to be stored in the extensions folder outside the campaign folder. Though in your use case I can see the convenience, architecturally it would be a bad thing since that would mean in a normal use case you would have to install and maintain copies of extensions in every campaign.

So, if you want to make run-ready backups of your campaigns, you will need to make backups of your extensions folder, as well as your modules, tokens, etc folders since all of those are stored outside the campaign folder and referenced as well. At that point, just make GIT copies of your FG Data folder (except vault folder) and be done with it

[Imagix]

Sure, as a user I can't change the folder structure of FG. But Smiteworks on the other hand... This probably all boils down to campaigns not really being designed to be "portable". (Nor do I think that this is a world-shaking problem. There are more important things that people want than this....)

I suppose a quick script, and commit each piece (extensions, tokens, individual campaigns) into a separate git repo each. (A monorepo might be a little overkill, particularly if one wished to collaborate with someone on an individual module.)

[ColinBuckler]

I have all of my FG and campaign data under a single folder (I know ... not the normal, but it works for me).

I have written a batch command which copies the entire folder ( FG, campaign data, extensions, & modules) to a location on my NAS drive as well as copies it to my one drive for it to get synched to the cloud as a backup. On the NAS drive I retain multiple copies just in case...

If I need to restore, its a just question of copying the data back.

@echo off
cls
echo ==============================
echo ==  Backup Fantasy Grounds  ==
echo ==============================
echo ==
timeout 10

echo ==
echo =========================================================================
echo == Fantasy-Grounds-Unity
echo =========================================================================

echo ** Delete Oldest
if exist  ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.004"    rmdir ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.004" /s /q

echo ** Rename
if exist  ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.003"    rename  ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.003"    "Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.004"
if exist  ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.002"    rename  ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.002"    "Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.003"
if exist  ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.001"    rename  ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.001"    "Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.002"

echo ** Copy to NAS
xcopy    "c:\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity\*.*"    ".\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity.001\*.*"    /E

echo ** Copy to OneDrive
if exist  "d:\OneDrive\Backup\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity\"    rmdir  "d:\OneDrive\Backup\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity\" /s /q
xcopy  "c:\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity\*.*"   "d:\OneDrive\Backup\Fantasy-Grounds-Unity\*.*"    /E

echo ==
echo =========================================================================
echo ==
echo ================
echo ==  Finished  ==
echo ================
echo ==

timeout 10

[Nylanfs]

But what about hard copy backups?

[LordEntrails]

But what about hard copy backups?

I print those out every other week. They get sent to Iron Mountain on a monthly basis. While still onsite they are in a fireproof safe inside a panic room.