GCStar game library import

[EricZ]

Hello, I am new user of the Pedias (and mac computers too) , so far I managed to import my GCstar movie database (through export to an intermediate xml and character coding change, I am French, and some editions with help found on forum). And for the Books and Comics, I just use the iSight scanning feature, it is just so simple.

But I didn't find a way to import my GCStar game library, some help would be much appreciate.

Here is a sample of GCS game library xml export :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<collection type="GCgames" items="368" version="1.6.1">
<information>
<images>GAME_pictures/</images>
<lang>FR (Français)</lang>
<maxId>377</maxId>
<name>Jeux vidéos</name>
</information>



<item
id="1"
ean=""
name="Chopper Command"
boxpic="images/no.png"
backpic="images/no.png"
platform="A2600"
players=""
editor="Activision"
developer=""
released=""
web=""
genre="Shoot"
rating=""
ratingpress=""
case=""
manual=""
exclusive=""
added=""
completion=""
resolutions=""
location=""
installationsize=""
installationsizeunit=""
executable=""
screenshot1="images/no.png"
screenshot2="images/no.png"
code=""
unlockable=""
region=""
serialnumber=""
borrower=""
lendDate=""
borrowings=""
favourite=""
tags=""
>
<description></description>
<comments></comments>
<secrets></secrets>
</item>

</collection>


Thanks for these great softwares that Pedias are !

Cheers from France,
Eric

[Conor]

Thank you for the sample file. Sorry it took me a few days to write the XML importer and upload a new beta. Since the file is a bit sparse I had to guess at the format of the date fields and did not import the covers as I do not know the full path of where the covers would be located, however you should be able to pull them from the internet using Gamepedia "get more info" command. You can get the latest Gamepedia Beta from our server and if you have any issues importing the GCStar file do let me know.

[EricZ]

Many thanks, Conor.
I am not in a hurry, so a few days is not a problem. You still have a very good "after sale" service

1st thing, the import works.

About the images, I have corrected my xml file to delete the subfolder and put the image files in the same folder as the xml file.
See below for an another sample of my collection as an example. These is important as some pieces in my collection are rare and I really appreciate to keep the pictures I made for theses games.

A details (these are easily corrected with a text editor), GCStar put "none" as borrower to some games, not obvious but I did not have any friend with that name

And I discover the "platform image" column, great idea, but systems are sometime called differently in foreign country. How do we manage it ?

ps : the link to the beta is broken, you forgot an 'e' in the url. That what happen when you do late forum posting

Code: Select all

<item
  id="61"
  ean=""
  name="Dark Messiah of Might and Magic"
  boxpic="Dark_Messiah_of_Might_and_Magic_0.jpg"
  backpic="Dark_Messiah_of_Might_and_Magic_1.jpg"
  platform="PC-DVD"
  players="Lan et Internet, jusqu'à 32 joueurs"
  editor="Ubisoft"
  developer="Arkane Studios"
  released="26 octobre 2006"
  web="http://www.jeuxvideo.com/jeux/0001/00015090.htm##jeuxvideo.com"
  rating=""
  ratingpress=""
  case="1"
  manual="1"
  exclusive=""
  added=""
  completion=""
  resolutions=""
  location=""
  installationsize=""
  installationsizeunit=""
  executable=""
  screenshot1="Dark_Messiah_of_Might_and_Magic_2.jpg"
  screenshot2="Dark_Messiah_of_Might_and_Magic_3.jpg"
  code=""
  unlockable=""
  region=""
  serialnumber=""
  borrower=""
  lendDate=""
  borrowings=""
  favourite=""
  tags=""
 >
  <description>Dark Messiah of Might and Magic sur PC est un jeu de rôle à la première personne se déroulant dans le monde d'Ashan. Incarnez le jeune Sareth, entraîné aux arts de la magie et de la guerre pour empêcher la prophétie du 'Messie de l'Ombre' de se réaliser. Devenez guerrier, mage ou assassin, et utilisez armes blanches et sortilèges pour parvenir à vos fins. Le destin du monde est entre vos mains.</description>
  <comments>Ed. Collector</comments>
  <secrets></secrets>
  <genre>
   <line>
    <col>FPS</col>
   </line>
   <line>
    <col>RPG</col>
   </line>
  </genre>
 </item>

[Conor]

Thank you for the extra details. Here is the new Gamepedia beta 36, now with more e's in the path.

1. Added a check for "none" and ignored it.

2. Covers are looked for in the same folder as the XML or the location stated under <images>. So for example in the first XML you sent it would be: GAME_pictures/images/acover.png in the second one it would be just acover.png directly in the same folder. I pick up the cover and the extra images are linked directly at their location. So if you would like to keep the images in a specific folder is best to put them there before the import and set <images> to the path.

<images>/Users/me/Documents/GameScreenshots/</images>

3. Added web information into the url field, so that you can open the web pages with one click.

4. Added Genre from the additional genre tags if not present under the genre attribute.

The platform image tries to do the best matching possible, but obviously this is not possible in all languages or for all platforms. So you can add your own images or duplicate the ones already present. Inside the Gamepedia application there is a folder called ~/Contents/Resources/GameIcons. If the platform name, all lowercase, matches any icon name in this folder it will use it as the image. For the example below you could duplicate the windows.png icon and name it pc-dvd.png to add the platform image for PC-DVD platform.

[EricZ]

Thank you Conor, this is really great and quick support.

Images , web link and genre are all imported correctly.
From my point of view, you have a decent import of GCStar game collection xml template.

I will try to post a list of systems' name in french matched with english name, plus an archive of icons (I must have these somewhere), maybe for a next release ?

Now that I switch all my collections to Pedias softwares, all I need his a good accounting soft to get rid of my Windows PC. Do you, guys at Bruji, intend to publish one ? I will be happy to beta test and once ready, buy it. I am sure you can do something nice to use...

Cheers from France,
Eric

[Conor]

Happy to hear the importing is working well. Do send the icons along and we can include the most common ones in future version of Gamepedia. Do keep a copy of those icons outside of Gamepedia as after an update you would need to copy them back in. We have no plans for accounting software, but there quite a few out there for the Mac that should fit your needs.

[EricZ]

About the icons, I was thinking of sets found with some MAME emulator ports.
A example is found at http://www.rotheblog.com/2008/02/arcade/gaming-console-icons-for-mame/

By the way, I have difficulties to set custom icons. It is not a big deal, I can live without it but as I found the idea great, I was justing trying.
I will wait for next releases to see if It turn out to be useful but It could be nice if systems names/icons are simply customizable.

Thanks for the support, Conor.