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Feature Request: Bulk add rows in new generator UI

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Third suggestion:

The imported data is formatted in needlessly complicated way that takes up more space than is necessary:
Code:
      - m: 1
        v: Mikko
      - m: 1
        v: Jari
      - m: 1
        v: Antti

Due to the weighing value, each imported line results in 2 lines of data, with unnecessary control characters (m: and v:) preceding each line. Based on my experience with generators, I'd say that for the vast majority of use cases, this is an unnecessary complications. It would be much easier to further edit the data in a simpler form:
- Mikko
- Jari
- Antti

The simpler formats makes it also possible to automatically alphabetize the lines when new content is added, for example. The simpler format is also less prone to breaking when the data is edited.

I wish it was possible to omit the weighing directives and use the data in its simplest form.
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
I wish it was possible to omit the weighing directives and use the data in its simplest form.
I am thinking of such an improvement!
 
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ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
I am thinking of such an improvement!
Wow, I support your thought patterns! :)

Originally I thought that I would not be needing this kind of functionality even if I use spreadsheets for some types of data collection, as it is possible to do the data transformation with a text editor macro. But now that I have tested the CSV import, I got to admit that it is handy.
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
Solved! In my version there were still tabs on the lines I had removed. Seems that those confused the import process. After I removed the lines containing just tabs, the import worked.

Suggestion: an error message for failed imports so that the user gets some kind of reaction even for incompatible files.

Another: Even better if the import function could ignore extraneous white space (outside of the actual cells), as these 'invisible' errors can be hard for users to solve.
Fixed accordingly. Your original CSV now imports without errors.
 
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ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Fixed accordingly. Your original CSV now imports without errors.
Wow again, you work fast!

I tried to repay your kindness by breaking the import functionality in new ways, with an even more difficult CSV file. But it was imported without problems. I'm impressed! :love:
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
Wow, I support your thought patterns! :)

Originally I thought that I would not be needing this kind of functionality even if I use spreadsheets for some types of data collection, as it is possible to do the data transformation with a text editor macro. But now that I have tested the CSV import, I got to admit that it is handy.
I started to improve file layout (YAML and JSON) by ordering the properties in a better way than alphabetically. Now name comes before entries, e.g.

Next, I will look into simplifying entries.
 

ELF

Generator Sage
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
I started to improve file layout (YAML and JSON) by ordering the properties in a better way than alphabetically. Now name comes before entries, e.g.

Sounds good! I think it will encourage the use of generator writing best practices if also imported files have the meta data (such as name, categories, explanation, path, date, author and the resultPattern) as the first items in the file. It will also make it easier and faster to browse the generators and quickly find what you are looking for.
 

JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
Third suggestion:

The imported data is formatted in needlessly complicated way that takes up more space than is necessary:
Code:
      - m: 1
        v: Mikko
      - m: 1
        v: Jari
      - m: 1
        v: Antti

Due to the weighing value, each imported line results in 2 lines of data, with unnecessary control characters (m: and v:) preceding each line. Based on my experience with generators, I'd say that for the vast majority of use cases, this is an unnecessary complications. It would be much easier to further edit the data in a simpler form:


The simpler formats makes it also possible to automatically alphabetize the lines when new content is added, for example. The simpler format is also less prone to breaking when the data is edited.

I wish it was possible to omit the weighing directives and use the data in its simplest form.
Fixed that as requested.
Also fixed global and variable serialization from
Code:
export: {
  "global": { "v": "..." }
}
to
Code:
export: {
  "global": "..."
}
 
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JochenL

CL Byte Sprite
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Gamer Lifestyle
Borderland Explorer
Update Time!
  • Generator UI now supports the upload of CSV, too (not just JSON)
    • The first CSV row is treated as a header row
    • Values within a row need to be separated by COMMA (not semi-colon)
      • Double-quotes around a value must be used to have commas within a value
    • Each column will become its own table
    • The filename will be the name of the new generator
    • The column names (from the header row) will become the names of the tables
    • The column names will be the categories of the new generator
    • The column names will form the auto-created result pattern from where one can adjust the generator manually
  • All imported generators now get "[IMPORTED] " prepended to their name - that can be changed to whatever one desires after a file has been imported
To test this:
  • Click Upload as for JSON:
    View attachment 1037
  • Select or Drag/Drop a CSV file instead of a JSON file
  • Done! You can now change your new generator as desired!
Just a short reminder for everyone: Mass-data is easily curated in Excel/Google Sheets and then exported/saved as CSV!
 
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