DnD 4e Compendium 1.3.6

Version 1.3.6 of the Compendium has just been submitted to the App Catalog for review.

I've fixed a couple of bugs around filter searches for Items and Classes caused by changes to the API that I hadn't noticed, and added one new feature.

IMPORTANT: This new version of the Compendium will only be available on devices running WebOS 2.0 and above.

Open File...
In the App Menu (the one you get by tapping on the app's name in the top-left corner), there's now an entry marked "Open File..."; selecting that will open a list of all the Character Builder files (.dnd4e) on your device¹. Tapping on any of those will open the file and pull out a number of your character's attributes which can be opened in the Compendium².

1. You can get them onto your phone by hooking it up to a PC and drag-and-dropping them onto the USB drive (which means you can put them in a nice neat folder if you're like me), but it'll also work if you Save the file from Dropboxify (and possibly other cloud saving solutions - I haven't tried them).

2. Due to changes with the new online Character Builder, this can be a bit unpredictable, especially when it comes to characters created by importing a file from the old, offline CB.

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.

Review feedback

The Compendium's been available in the full webOS App Catalog for nearly two weeks now, and has just passed the 2,000 download mark.

However, with this added exposure comes the risk of more complaints - a couple of which I wanted to address here.

All Pages require an activation.
By Mark C

The app says "some pages may require an active D&D Insider Account to view." So far ALL pages have required an account to view! And thus I have found this app compleetly non-helpful. If it atleast tld me what book-source and page to find the information I would give it more than one star!
By Edward F

Firstly, the fact that all of the Compendium entries require a D&D Insider login is completely outside my control. Wizards of the Coast have, it seems, decided to remove unpaid access to content from early books; when the Compendium app was first written and released as beta, it was possible to read entries from the first Player's Handbook without needing to log in, so the wording of the disclaimer reflects that position.

I'd not gotten around to updating that notice on the app though, partly because it's just a boilerplate and partly because I don't know how Wizards might change access in the future. The next time I put a change into the app, I will have to change the wording on it though, just so people don't misunderstand.

The second point I wanted to address is the minimal information available within the app itself about Compendium entries. Again, this is outside of my control; the Compendium API provided by Wizards of the Coast is pretty bare-bones, and I can only use the information they've decided to include in the API when displaying results in the application.

As an example, here's the data available for a Power:

<Power>
    <ID>463</ID>
    <Name>Magic Missile</Name>
    <Level>1</Level>
    <ActionType>Standard</ActionType>
    <SourceBook>Player's Handbook<SourceBook>
    <SourceBook>Wizard</ClassName>
    <Teaser>463</Teaser>
</Power>

That's the information that the DnD 4e Compendium app has available to it when listing a Power, but there aren't many differences for other search types.

In most cases, the DnD 4e Compendium app will provide the Source Book information for the results it displays, although it will display Level information instead if that's available. I made that decision because if you're looking for a Power, Item or other level-sensitive entry and there are several similarly-named results, you don't want to have to open several web pages to find the most suitable one.

I am monitoring the changes and additions that Wizards are making to the Compendium API, and will continue to add or change things in the app when anything crops up that might be useful.

I do appreciate all the feedback I receive from users of the DnD 4e Compendium app, and if you have any ideas or suggestions for how I can improve the app, please let me know either via email, leaving a comment on this blog, or by leaving a review in the App Catalog.

Compendium 1.0.0 Now Available

The update seems to have gone through, and should now be appearing in the Updates section of the app catalog for anybody who's already got any of the beta versions installed.

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.