DnD 4e Compendium 1.2.6

I've just submitted version 1.2.6 of the DnD 4e Compendium to the App Catalog.

That's a pretty big jump in the version number, which I'd like to explain.

Firstly, version 1.1.0 was an interim step, wherein I changed a significant chunk of the back-end from using the built-in Mojo/Prototype code for doing requests, over to jQuery. There were a couple of reasons for doing this; partly for readability, but also because it makes the groundwork much easier to enable the app to manage login information.

Probably the most-requested feature since the app first launched - apart from people who want access to the Compendium's information without having to pay for it - is a way to automatically log into the Wizards.com website when viewing an entry. Until now, the app simply opened a browser card and pointed it at the entry page; in almost all cases*, that presented you with a login screen.

Now, the DnD 4e Compendium app can store your login information and automatically pass that to the Wizards Compendium when you view an entry - which brought the app up to version 1.2.0. The handful of revisions since then were to make sure that another important feature, although one which didn't require quite so much work, didn't get left behind.

One side-effect of the way the app handles login data, and limitations in the webOS SDK is that compendium entries no longer open in a browser card - instead, the Compendium app launches its own card containing that entry. When I originally implemented the auto-login, it was only possible to have a single card open at a time - but having multiple entries open at once for comparison was one of the main things I wanted to be able to do with the app when I wrote it.

One other minor addition I made was to enable landscape viewing. One of the advantages this presents is on results screens where the sourcebook information is cut off. By rotating the phone, you'll be able to see a bit more of the source's name, which will hopefully prove useful. You can also view the compendium entries in landscape mode, which avoids some of the formatting issues when the entry is displayed in the app.

So that's what's going to be in the next update of the DnD 4e Compendium. Hopefully it'll get through the submission process quickly and be on your App Catalog in no time.

That's also the end of what I have planned for the app, beyond maintenance and bugfixing. I'm still open to new ideas and features, however - so long as they don't involve bypassing Wizards of the Coast's login system.

If there's something you think it should do, let me know and I'll do what I can to add it. I'd also ask that, if you like the app, you leave me a review - it seems like the only reviews I get are from people with grudges, and it's dragging my average down. Some positive reviews would really cheer me up!

* The Wizards Compendium uses a session cookie to store your login credentials, meaning if you close the browser it forgets who you are. If you logged into one entry and left that browser card open, all subsequent entries that were opened would bypass the login screen.

Compendium 1.0.0 - Backgrounds, Companions and a New Look

I've just put the finishing touches on the latest build of the DnD 4e Compendium for webOS, and have submitted it to the App Catalog.

Normally I'd say that it'll be good to download shortly, but this time I'm not releasing it as a beta app - this is version 1.0.0, and will be going into the full App Catalog, once it's made its way through the Palm validation process.

New in this version are added filters for searching Backgrounds and Companions, and I've given the interface a lick of paint, instead of just using the default Palm styling. The colours and icons used are influenced by the new online Character Builder just released by Wizards of the Coast.

Hopefully the app will make it through the submission process fairly quickly and I'll have another post up here as soon as I know it's live.

New Features

• Filters have been added for searching Backgrounds and Companions
• New look - UI elements have been reskinned.

Known Issues

• On webOS 2.0, the filter fields for XP and Cost will not accept input. This is a problem with the current version of the operating system, and should be fixed by an update in the future.
• Searches can cause hangs if there are a large number of results. Be as specific as possible when searching to avoid this - search titles only, or use the filters to narrow down the results. Don't try to get a list of every power, item or monster.

Open Source

I've finally gotten around to uploading the source code for the Compendium to the Sourceforge project I created for it months ago.

As always, comments/suggestions are welcome - but be nice. I know my code needs a lot of improvement. :)

Almost ready?

Over the last couple of days, I've made some good progress on the next release of the Compendium.

In addition to fixing a couple of bugs with the previous iteration, I've tidied up the validation on the new XP and Cost filters to avoid a problem with the Wizards.com API.

I'll be putting the current version - 0.4.8 - through its paces over the next couple of days, and hopefully should have a date in mind for the next release by the end of the weekend, pending any further issues.

XP and Cost filter progress

After taking some time away from the development of the app, mostly just to start seeing it more like an end user might, I've started back on the code to get cost and experience fields added to the filter searches for items, monsters and rituals.

I spent a significant amount of time tonight working on the layout - unlike the level filters, the cost and XP fields have a huge number of potentially infinite values, and the kind of granularity that might be required when searching is much higher. With that in mind, I couldn't just use the same integer picker widgets as before. I had to arrange two text fields in a way that made sense and didn't take up too much space - which is more awkward than it first sounds when you're working mostly with pre-defined widgets.

I've come up with a solution that will hopefully work, although it still needs some tweaking - making it obvious where to tap to highlight the field is the first order of business now that the fields exist at all.

I'm not going to make any promises about when the next iteration will be available, but hopefully it'll be soon.

Field Test Results

Last night's D&D game was the first opportunity I've had to test my app in a real-world situation: at the table, with people asking questions about rules, powers and items.

It went very well, and in addition to helping us work out exactly what a Woundpatch does, I managed to find a couple of bugs - both in the DnD 4e Compendium and the Wizards.com API.

One of the recent changes I've made is to allow filtered searches to find unlevelled results - items and powers that don't have a required level for using them; like race or class abilities or the Adventurer's Kit. I'd made a slight error when coding that bit though, which resulted in the inability to view any Power results.

Another issue I discovered is that the Wizards API, when running a simple keyword search or a filter search (with no filters provided) has an indication of whether the item is available publicly as a teaser, or if you'll need a D&D Insider account to view the full compendium entry. I was hoping to use that to provide an indication in the app, but if you do pass filters for a search it's marking everything as requiring an Insider account. So, that particular feature is going to be boxed indefinitely, since I can't get it to work consistently without some changes on Wizards' end.

I've also made some changes to the way results are displayed: a simple search now only lists the types that have results, and any filtered or type results with a level value now display that next to their entry instead of the source name.

There's some more testing to do over the coming days, but I'm still hopeful that the next version will be available for download this weekend.