"Roster Master" - Guild Roster for Your Personal Guild Website

[Dark_Grue]

God, I can't believe the characterIDs have gotten that high...

I'll get right on it. I just got back from the holidays, so I'm still catching up with stuff.

EDIT: Should have a working fix. It really helps to have a text editor that can do global directory file searches using regular expressions, let me tell you!

Dsotmlynx or anyone else experiencing this issue, PM me with a e-mail address that can take attachments and I'll be happy to send you a preview copy to make sure your issue is resolved.

[Dark_Grue]

Just as a FYI for everyone, EQ2Players is no longer providing a CSV feed for guilds, the returned data only contains the column headers (which were never correct to begin with). XML data is still available, but it contains very little information, and its accuracy is suspect.

Obviously, this affects both RMSA and RM4DF. There's nothing we, as authors, can do.

[Technically, there's still some other things we can do, but it's very slow and process-intensive. Also, it would be pointless to invest that much effort in coding for a service that SOE refuses to support or maintain.]

It's my hope that the Velious expansion might bring that vaporware data server API that they talked about at last year's Fan Faire, but SOE is continuing a long tradtion of contempt for the customers with this latest outage with absolutely no explanation, notice, or expectation of a solution. This forum might as well not exist, for all the attention the serious issues that EQ2Players has had that remain unaddessed and unexplained.

[Lantis]

First I hear about this.  I just tried one CSV for my current guild, and it's working:

http://everquest2.com/guilds/guild_...guildId=4922104

Could this be happening with merged servers?

[Dark_Grue]

Lantis@Antonia Bayle wrote:

First I hear about this.  I just tried one CSV for my current guild, and it's working:

http://everquest2.com/guilds/guild_...guildId=4922104

Could this be happening with merged servers?

If that's the case, it was affecting more than just the servers merging. Not much makes sense about the way EQ2Players operates or is managed.

I can confirm it's back up. I just pulled a good roster off the CSV and XML feeds. Search on the website also appears to be working. My RM4DF log says the data feeds were bad from at least the 15th, right up until this evening. I know earlier this evening they were not, since I working on troubleshooting and verifying the outage, so it *just* came back - as mysteriously as it went.

It may be back up, but I think most would argue that a service that comes and goes at a whim, without explanation, is no service at all. =/

[Lantis]

Dark_Grue wrote:

Lantis@Antonia Bayle wrote:

First I hear about this.  I just tried one CSV for my current guild, and it's working:

http://everquest2.com/guilds/guild_...guildId=4922104

Could this be happening with merged servers?

If that's the case, it was affecting more than just the servers merging. Not much makes sense about the way EQ2Players operates or is managed.

I can confirm it's back up. I just pulled a good roster off the CSV and XML feeds. Search on the website also appears to be working. My RM4DF log says the data feeds were bad from at least the 15th, right up until this evening. I know earlier this evening they were not, since I working on troubleshooting and verifying the outage, so it *just* came back - as mysteriously as it went.

It may be back up, but I don't think most would argue that a service that comes and goes at a whim, without explanation, is no service at all. =/

After all those years, there's nothing new there in regard to the service level offered by EQ2Players.  I've given up on them.

[Yimway]

Dark_Grue wrote:

It may be back up, but I think most would argue that a service that comes and goes at a whim, without explanation, is no service at all. =/

Don't worry, the fact that it was up, was short lived, as its down again.

These feeds being down is a real shame.  RM has been an awesome solution for us for so many years now.

I'm now looking at building my own xml set to manually update so we can continue to use the system effectively.

[Skandragon]

The most frustrating thing about this is that providing the raw data should be very, very easy to do, compared to the pre-formatted HTML output.

Perhaps they should hire someone who understands REST and databases well enuogh to put the two together in a meaninful way.

[Lantis]

Skandragon wrote:

The most frustrating thing about this is that providing the raw data should be very, very easy to do, compared to the pre-formatted HTML output.

Perhaps they should hire someone who understands REST and databases well enuogh to put the two together in a meaninful way.

When I ported RMSA to LOTRO, it was actually a pleasure to do so.  Within a few hours I already had a fully functjonal standalone parser, the rest of the work was to integrate it into the RM codebase, and adapt the rest of the code.  LOTRO relies on REST and XML.  It means all data can easily be obtained, and you can decide what you want to use or not.  And when they added new data to the feeds, I didn't even need to rewrite my parser - the new data (which I didn't need) was simply ignored by my parser, as they added it in a clean way to the existing XML data.

Turbine (LOTRO's publisher) limited access to their feeds by requiring devs to register for an API dev key (which was easy to obtain, I was even able to go through a current LOTRO player to ask one for me on my behalf, I got it the next day or something like that).  This is mostly to ensure that random people don't start hammering the feeds like mad, and that if one specific application was to misbehave (they ask you for example to avoid hammering the feeds more than once per second), they can block it, preventing their servers from becoming overloaded.

But considering EQ2 is having trouble obtaining the required resources from SOE (from what SJ posted, it's like there's one team of web dev at SOE, and each department takes their turn at abusing them assigning them to their game), I suspect EQ2players shall always remain just an afterthought at SOE.

Shame really, since I bet that if they were to provide all the required data through feeds, the community would come up with something that would quickly rival, and eventually surpass what SOE is offering for free with EQ2Players.  Just look at what this community has been able to do so far with very limited and quirky data feeds (RosterMaster).

I wonder what happened with those talks of a third party getting involved that someone told Grue about at FF?

To be honest tho, I'm not sure I'd care anymore at this point, even if it did happen.  I've mostly moved to other projects these days.

[Seagoat]

Well, Lucan D'Lere was merged into Crushbone yesterday (howdy, neighbor Grue!), and I'm curious about how RM4DF will handle this when EQ2Players finally catches up. I'm hoping "Oh, the suspense!" doesn't become "Oh, the humanity!"

[Dethdlr]

Seagoat wrote:

Well, Lucan D'Lere was merged into Crushbone yesterday (howdy, neighbor Grue!), and I'm curious about how RM4DF will handle this when EQ2Players finally catches up. I'm hoping "Oh, the suspense!" doesn't become "Oh, the humanity!"

When Kithicor merged into Butcherblock I ended up going in to the database and updating all the character IDs so they matched the new ones on Butcherblock. 

If I remember right, everything is tied to the character IDs.  Problem is, part of the character ID has to do with the server you're on.  So if your guild moved from one server to another, your guild ID changed and so did all your character IDs. You'll need to modify RM to point to the new guild ID.

Your guild will probably be listed on EQ2Players twice, once for each server.  Same thing with each of your characters.  The LDL one will become stuck in time and nothing will ever change until they finally delete them.  The Crushbone guild will slowly populate on EQ2Players as people log in again until eventually, you have your whole guild listed again.

That's at least how it went for mine.  Your mileage may vary.  Good luck!

[Chanson]

I'm not going to pretend to know even half of what has been discussed here. I'm just curious about the EQ2 Mobile app. It seems if the app can get current character information that there must be a data feed somewhere that is current and updated. Or perhaps my ignorance of the details is the problem (proprietary data feed that can be easily parsed or something?).

[Seagoat]

EQ2 Mobile is provided by SOE and has nothing whatsoever to do with Roster Master. Your best bet would be to post in the EQ2 Mobile thread here.

[Dark_Grue]

Mmmn, I think what nipxus is asking is if the mobile application is getting its data feed from elsewhere (presumably the mythical data server), then could we reverse-engineer that application to get the interface. Though since what what I've gathered, the mobile app's been failing at the same time EQ2Players has, I'm not sure it actually has a better data feed.

The answer is maybe. I've not been all that interested in seeing if that's the case. It'd be a mild PITA to set up. I'm not sure I want to put effort into trying to keep up with whatever stunts they're trying to pull off behind the scenes though, as you could end up spending a lot of effort just to have them pull the rug out.

...which is what they've been doing all along.

[Dark_Grue]

It's been a long time since any news, but I have some to impart.

I managed to get a few moments to speak with Smokejumper regarding the state of EQ2Players.com, and confirmed a few things, and a few new tidbits.

First, the things we knew:

• The team that maintains the websites isn't part of the EQ2 team. They're shared by all the games. I got the impression that despite what arguably was a legitimate need, they couldn't directly task or control the Web group.
• EQ2Players wasn't high on their list to fix.
• EQ2Players wasn't high on Corporate's priorities.
• He was pretty embarassed about the subject. He said he'd actually asked the site be taken down, as he'd rather have no site at all, then have a site so broken (a sentiment I think we all resonate with).

And here's some of the new news, which I should temper by saying that Smokejumper couldn't make any commitments about when we could see it happening:

• The new API and data server is still an ongoing project, and there is an intent to release it.
• Corporate's attitude with regards to its priority has changed.
• Smed's behind getting EQ2Players fixed as a priority, which should help immensely.

During today's (Saturday) EQ2 Q&A session, a few other folks brought up the issue as well, and the deveopers did mention the new data server system that was announced at last year's Fan Faire. So, it seems the intent to get that out and running is still there. I'm cynical enough that I'm not holding my breath, but I did want to let the folks here know the front lines of the Roster Master community haven't been abandoned. I hope we won't have long to wait.

[Seagoat]

Well, it's something, anyway...acknowledgment is the first step to recovery, right?

[Yimway]

Dark_Grue wrote:

God, I can't believe the characterIDs have gotten that high...

I'll get right on it. I just got back from the holidays, so I'm still catching up with stuff.

EDIT: Should have a working fix. It really helps to have a text editor that can do global directory file searches using regular expressions, let me tell you!

Dsotmlynx or anyone else experiencing this issue, PM me with a e-mail address that can take attachments and I'll be happy to send you a preview copy to make sure your issue is resolved.

Was this fix ever released?

We actually got our feed working reasonably well, but around 1/5 toons don't parse due to the characterID.

[Yimway]

Just wanted to add, still running GEM and working fine.

There were several updates before the creator vanished.

The last release I know of is 1.4.2.0  and I can zip that up and send it to anyone that needs.

[Mican]

It has been a long time since I used Roster Master, so have not kept up with all the developments.

However, I have a guild on the EQ2 Extended server Freeport - which does not have a roster feed (or one that is publically available anyway) - but I would like to use Roster Master and/or GEM. 

Is there a way to create my own XML file for uploading in order to be able to use these two programs?  This would be the Stand Alone version - unless there is a Joomla version.

[Lantis]

Mican wrote:

It has been a long time since I used Roster Master, so have not kept up with all the developments.

However, I have a guild on the EQ2 Extended server Freeport - which does not have a roster feed (or one that is publically available anyway) - but I would like to use Roster Master and/or GEM. 

Is there a way to create my own XML file for uploading in order to be able to use these two programs?  This would be the Stand Alone version - unless there is a Joomla version.

Yes, tho it's not officially supported or documented.  If you look in the parser.php, there are some commented out lines where you could retrieve the XML off a local file instead of a remote URL.

[Dark_Grue]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Dark_Grue wrote:

EDIT: Should have a working fix. It really helps to have a text editor that can do global directory file searches using regular expressions, let me tell you!

Was this fix ever released?

We actually got our feed working reasonably well, but around 1/5 toons don't parse due to the characterID.

I, uh, fixed it and forgot to publish the new version. Thanks to Atan, I posted 7.2.1, which should resolve the issue.

 Mican wrote:

It has been a long time since I used Roster Master, so have not kept up with all the developments.

However, I have a guild on the EQ2 Extended server Freeport - which does not have a roster feed (or one that is publically available anyway) - but I would like to use Roster Master and/or GEM. 

Is there a way to create my own XML file for uploading in order to be able to use these two programs?  This would be the Stand Alone version - unless there is a Joomla version.

RM4DF can use input files rather than pulling data from the Web server, look at the read file hack in the config.inc file. There's a minor typo in the documentation for the feature, it doesn't mention that roster.xml is the file that it reads for XML (if XML parsing is enabled).

I don't know if Lantis created a similar feature in RMSA. I don't think so. [See Lantis' reply, above.] It probably wouldn't be too difficult to alter the parser.inc file from RMSA to add the feature though, there was a lot of collaboration, and there's a lot of similarities that should make it relatively easy.

[Yimway]

If anyone has also updated GEM for the larger ID's please let me know.

I'm finding the same people that previously didn't show up in the roster list are now unable to sign-up in GEM.  I'm slowing going thru the code, but well, I'm not a php dev so its going REAL slow.

Update-

Yeah nevermind, I've got GEM working again.  I can provide an updated zip file if anyone else needs.

I have to say it is nice having Roster Master and GEM working again.

[Mican]

So is GEM only for DragonFly?

My previous guild we did use DragonFly and used Roster Master and GEM - but new guild is using Joomla (it has a cool little ACT parser program for it that we use a lot).  We are having a hard time finding a calendar/raid sign up module for Joomla that allows sign ups... GEM would be perfect if I could get it all working with the Stand Alone version.

[Yimway]

I honestly don't know.  I've only used it with dragonfly.

I don't actually know php at all really, I just worked my way thru the code, found the problems and fixed it   I don't understand it well enough to know what would happen if you tried running it outside of dragonfly.

It would appear to me in what I figured out of how it works is that it is dependent on Rostermaster, and if it was attempted to run outside dragonfly, at the very least the admin panel for settings wouldn't be available (since that is part of the dragonfly integration).

[Dark_Grue]

Speaking of long-standing issues never addressed. I finally found where the patch notes for the updater are hidden. Apparently, patching the patcher to get the new update notes is too... difficult for SOE. So, most of us (i.e. those of us using the retail patcher) are stuck forever looking at the update notes from, I dunno, April or something.

I found the new page using Google, completely by accident.

Version 2.0 of SOE Update Notes fixes that, and that feed appears to be working as one might expect.

[Lantis]

Some news...

The good: New website will launch in early December, along with the expansion and the new free-to-play model.

The unknown: they haven't specified if that new website includes the mythical data feeds promised long ago

The bad: I probably won't be there to update RMSA to those new feeds.  I'm quitting EQ2 this month, which means I will most likely lose forum access at the same time.  My interest in EQ2 has simply decreased to be next to non-existant after 6 years playing this game non-stop.  If someone wants to take over RMSA development, please contact me (only SERIOUS persons, not just "Oh, I think I can do it, maybe, sometime, perhaps, it's just HTML, right?").  If not... If I can have access to all the necessary data feed and I get bored enough during the winter I _might_ work on it. I expect the code change to be non-trivial if they change the whole data feed setup and start adding more data, so it will require a certain amount of motivation to get me started on such a non-trivial amount of work.

In which case I'll make sure Grue or someone else gets notified so they can update this thread.

[Dark_Grue]

Lantis@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Some news...

The good: New website will launch in early December, along with the expansion and the new free-to-play model.

The unknown: they haven't specified if that new website includes the mythical data feeds promised long ago

This is new news, although it would fit what we're seeing. Still blows my mind SoE think they can ignore customer-facing services like this. I mean, Blizzard is going CRAZY with their products. Blizzcon is on Pay Per View on cable and sat, for crying out loud.

Dumb people, doing dumb business. =/

Lantis@Antonia Bayle wrote:

The bad: I probably won't be there to update RMSA to those new feeds. I'm quitting EQ2 this month, which means I will most likely lose forum access at the same time. My interest in EQ2 has simply decreased to be next to non-existant after 6 years playing this game non-stop.

Geeze, that is bad news. Very sorry to hear that, really enjoyed working with you on the Roster Master project. I do hope the new feed comes to pass soon, and perhaps renews your interest.

I'm keeping an eye on things periodically, but untill SoE gets off thier collective duffs, there's not much for any of us to do on this. =(

[Lantis]

Looks like the F2P conversion has given me back forum posting access   Let's hope it will stay that way.

More news update:

1) According to SJ's recent Producer's Letter, the new website is being delayed by a week2) I will have time this month to look at adapting the new XML feeds for RMSA.  I already started talking with Grue over some technical details on the parsing.

As an aside, kinda bummed that some bloggers got early access to those feeds, but developpers who could actually use them (and provide enlightened feedback as they actually use them while developping) didn't   That could have helped us ensure that RosterMaster projects are ready to land running once the new website launches.  Oh well.  At least it seems the backend was done by an EQ2 programmer, and not SOE's generic webteam, so I am hopeful for something far more suitable to our needs than the previous offerings.  Time will tell.

EDIT: All sorted out.  Thank you to you-know-who-you-are

[Lantis]

Request for feedback!

I am seriously considering switching the XML parser to use SimpleXML, as it makes the code much simpler and more robust (IMHO).  However, I need to see first if SimpleXML support is something common enough with modern hosting companies, or if there are still quite a few lagging behind.

I need as many RosterMaster users (both RMSA and RM4DF) as possible to run the small bit of code below, which will report wether your server supports SimpleXML or not:

";echo "Version: ".phpversion()."
";?>

Just create a simple testing.php page with this code in it, and access the page from your browser.  Please send me a PM with the results (1 or 0 for SimpleXML support, and the PHP version)  If I see too many users whose server doesn't support it then I'll drop this idea, and simply stick with the current parser.

[Dethdlr]

I know ya said PM, but here's what the response should look like:

SimpleXML support: 1Version: 5.2.9

[Dethdlr]

Lantis@Antonia Bayle wrote:

EDIT: All sorted out.  Thank you to you-know-who-you-are

You're welcome.