TOAWxml Editor

[biddrafter2]

Thrilled to see you are still working on this 76mm!! Your event viewer looks great.

I'll try to do some testing over the long weekend but a couple of potential comments:

1. Perhaps a toggle that allows the name of the top level event tree node to be either the current "Event # - Description" format, or switch to an "Event # - News" format. Sometimes news may be more descriptive than the number.

2. I had done initial work on event Groups. The idea was to layer another level of information above the events called groups. This would allow a batch of events to be grouped even if they did not have sequential event IDs. So, if a scenario designer had a set of common events for a particular purpose they could be grouped logically. Downside, since the XML does not have this field I was creating the group concept in local storage only, which raised the difficulty level. If you are interested, take a look at that old code I shared with you.

3 Longer term request - I had sketched out ideas to run Scenarios. Targeting the group concept in #2, I was going to allow a designer to simulate inputs to see how they flowed through the event tree, with the output being the call stack of events.

Keep up the excellent work!!

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: biddrafter2
Thrilled to see you are still working on this 76mm!! Your event viewer looks great.

Thanks!

ORIGINAL: biddrafter2
1. Perhaps a toggle that allows the name of the top level event tree node to be either the current "Event # - Description" format, or switch to an "Event # - News" format. Sometimes news may be more descriptive than the number.

Yeah, I thought about some kind of toggle like this but wasn't quite sure what would make the most sense. Also, I was thinking that I would keep the base view as only the event numbers, but have some kind of toggle for the text shown in association with the various filters...hadn't really thought about news, but that could be useful. This would be a pretty easy change, but I wasn't sure I wanted to clutter the interface with another toggle. But maybe worth it, dunno...

ORIGINAL: biddrafter2
2. I had done initial work on event Groups. The idea was to layer another level of information above the events called groups. This would allow a batch of events to be grouped even if they did not have sequential event IDs. So, if a scenario designer had a set of common events for a particular purpose they could be grouped logically. Downside, since the XML does not have this field I was creating the group concept in local storage only, which raised the difficulty level. If you are interested, take a look at that old code I shared with you.

Actually, this ability to store data in addition to what is in the exported XML data would be great for several things that I want to do...I will try to take a look at your code but am sure I'll have some questions.

ORIGINAL: biddrafter2
3 Longer term request - I had sketched out ideas to run Scenarios. Targeting the group concept in #2, I was going to allow a designer to simulate inputs to see how they flowed through the event tree, with the output being the call stack of events.

I had a similar idea, which I called "causal chains" (although without simulating inputs) to show how events were linked together, but decided I would save this feature for later. As it is, I've put in a check so that if you delete an event used by another event, you will get a warning to that effect.

Thanks for the ideas!

[John T_MatrixForum]

I have one problem that I can't solve easily in the XML,
and XMLED throws a bug at me..

I try to change a already deployed unit to be a reinforcement, the user interface looks good
but at save I gets an error "Duplicate attribute"

attached gam-file




the log says:

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.InvalidOperationException: Duplicate attribute.
at System.Xml.Linq.XElement.AddAttributeSkipNotify(XAttribute a)
at System.Xml.Linq.XContainer.AddContentSkipNotify(Object content)
at System.Xml.Linq.XContainer.Add(Object content)
at TOAWXML.xmlform.<btnSave_Click>d__8.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.AsyncMethodBuilderCore.<>c.<ThrowAsync>b__6_0(Object state)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3416.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_B
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v4.0.30319/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
TOAWXML
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 1.0.0.0
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/JohnTuresson/AppData/Local/Apps/2.0/EW74HK41.MOR/JGDJTK5V.JEB/toaw..tion_bb51667b7c9905d2_0001.0002_5368c0835e9a41b9/TOAWXML.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3324.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3416.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_B
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3056.0 built by: NET472REL1
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3056.0 built by: NET472REL1
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Core
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3429.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Core/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Core.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3056.0 built by: NET472REL1
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml.Linq
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3056.0 built by: NET472REL1
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml.Linq/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.Linq.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3056.0 built by: NET472REL1
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Data
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.7.3260.0 built by: NET472REL1LAST_C
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_32/System.Data/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Data.dll
----------------------------------------

[John T_MatrixForum]

and here's the picture:

hmm..




and while I'm at it,
my filepath is too long for the textbox, could you right-justify the text och just get the file name in the top border,
"TOAWxml--TOAW IV XML File Editor - <Scenarioname>"

[76mm]

John T, thanks for the info, and sorry for the bug...have not heard of that one before. I leave tomorrow morning for a week long trip, so will not be able to look at this until the first week of August, but will definitely take a look then. Can you tell me what deployment the unit was in before you set it to Reinforce?

In the meantime, I can think of two ways you might be able to get around the error:
1) Set the deployment to something other than Reinforcement, save, then try reinforcement again; OR
2) Copy the unit you are trying to set as reinforcement, delete the original unit, and then try to set the copied unit as a reinforcement.

Please let me know if either of these expedients work.

[EDIT] If these methods don't work, I might be able to look at the gam file in the next couple of days to see if I can find and fix the issue there.

[John T_MatrixForum]

The unit I tried with are the one in the picture above.
It might be that this unit's XML are a bit weird, they have an entry tag even thou they are deployed on map.

Workaround 1 did not work, and I now understood that the Status tag has to be 1 for turn reinforcements.
It was the status tag that tricked me so now I can edit the XML directly - not much extra work for me
So have your next week free !

cheers
/John

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: John T_MatrixForum
It might be that this unit's XML are a bit weird, they have an entry tag even thou they are deployed on map.

Thanks for the update; the issue that you note above could definitely cause the error that you encountered, although I will take a look at adding some checks to prevent similar issues in future.

[sPzAbt653]

they have an entry tag even thou they are deployed on map.

No idea if it makes any difference, but I thought I should mention the newer feature that we can change those coordinates and the unit will relocate on the map. This means that we don't have to physically move a unit from one location to another. The practical usefulness is questionable, but it is nonetheless a feature [:)]

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
...I thought I should mention the newer feature that we can change those coordinates and the unit will relocate on the map.

Actually this has been a feature since the beginning...didn't realize that people didn't notice it.

It's obviously not intended for deploying a whole force, but it might be handy if someone wants to reposition a handful of units rather than the left click/right click rigamarole.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Tom:
I tried to load the 19th Century database into your magnificant tool and it threw an exception. I chose to "ignore" and it went into an endless loop so I caused the same exception again and this time chose "quit" and it ended "normally".

I'm attaching the file I attempted to load here below so you can play with it, should you desire to do so.
It's name is American Civil War 1861-1865 vB09.zip

EDIT: Part of the problem may be that I was trying to load an EQP file as if it were a GAM file.
EDIT2: I used the TOAW 4 editor to produce the proper GAM file it loaded without any problems. Sorry
for the false alarm.

[76mm]

Hi larry, thanks, I will check this out. I know that I've loaded the 19th Century DB in the past without any problem, but I'll try to check the one you sent over the weekend.

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
EDIT: Part of the problem may be that I was trying to load an EQP file as if it were a GAM file.
EDIT2: I used the TOAW 4 editor to produce the proper GAM file it loaded without any problems. Sorry for the false alarm.

Hey Larry, thanks for the update. One more question: how did you load the eqp file as a gam file? That shouldn't be possible unless you had misnamed the eqp file as a gam file?

[larryfulkerson]

unless you had misnamed the eqp file as a gam file?

That's what I did alright. I learned my lesson.

[76mm]

Great, thanks, just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something in the file-selection interface...

[76mm]

I'm going to spend more time on this for the next couple of weeks after having been distracted by some other stuff for awhile. I've already tweaked the form for adding new equipment so that it doesn't show a bunch of "EMPTY" slots. Anybody have any burning requests?

If not, I think I'll try to add propagating icon colors among units and dates corresponding to Turns for events/reinforcements, and then various clean-up stuff.

[76mm]

FYI, just tested this with the latest patch; seems to work OK, although I have not thoroughly tested very function. The patch also included a fix for the XML files that will allow us to set/change release turns for locked formations...in previous versions there was no XML access. So that's good news!

Also, I've been making other changes, including showing the game dates for turns for events and reinforcements, allowing propagation of unit icon colors, and fixing bugs. Currently I'm fixing issues relating to deleting units and formations, what happens to formations/events featured in events when that happens. Then I'll turn to including formation release turns in the editor.

[ncc1701e]

Thanks for what you are doing @76mm.

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: ncc1701e
Thanks for what you are doing @76mm.

My pleasure. For now, I wouldn't delete any units or formations if you have events featuring units or formations, or the numbering will get screwed up, maybe corrupt the events, dunno. Working to fix that now.

[76mm]

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be releasing the next version soon. This version will include a couple of substantive updates, such as including the "ENTRYTURN" attribute from the last TOAW patch (which allows you to set the turn when static formations will become free), and a bunch of bug fixes which I've come across, most of which stemmed from deleting formations and units. Such deletions should not cause problems with things such as events or recombining units any more.

Anyway, this version is basically finished, but I need to do more testing before I post it here.

[rhinobones]

Is there a tutorial for this application? XML is basically a foreign language to me.

Regards