LP64

On 13.26 I can verify that switching to grid view and then back to list view makes the headers appear again. On next launch of Launchbox the headers disappear again.

Seems to be working perfectly now, thank you! Also it picked up a missing parent rom in the log file that it wasn't notifying me of in the previous version so that's a nice little bonus . The parent rom was "cobra" and the clones were "cobram3" and "cobram3a". I really like that the log file notifies of missing parent roms because in the Working Arcade Clean Set that I use, some parents are missing as they are not working in MAME but their clones are and this allows me to manually add those non-working parent roms to the ini file. Initially I was using it to import a Final Burn Neo Romset which works great after a little tweaking of the xml so the plugin can read it. Then you taught me how to make a custom xml so I started using Progetto Snaps "Working Arcade Clean.ini" category file to create and import a MAME romset of regular arcade games that are working. So I end up with my usual FBNeo Romset but then also a simplified MAME romset for the games that don't work with FBNeo. I find the wizard doesn't handle FBNeo nor curated romsets as well as your plugin especially with regards to parents and clones and I like that I am in charge of the filtering rather than relying on Launchbox. I prefer the UI to your importer as well as it has the options I need rather than checkboxes and extra options that confuse me more than help me. 😅 Thanks again Joe, love this plugin and I greatly appreciate all the support and updates you've provided over the years!

Sure thing, thanks Joe. I included a much smaller Test file as well, exporting the xml from MAME while using search term "tetris" if that makes troubleshooting any easier. The full XML is exported from MAME after applying ProgettoSnaps "Working Arcade Clean.ini" file. MAME 0.285 Working Arcade Clean.xml MAME Tetris Test.xml

Hi Joe, I have encountered a bug with the xml importer with regards to clones being listed as additional apps under the wrong parent rom. In my testing, the clones of "tetris" have appeared under the parent roms "phtetris" / "atetris" / "vstetris" and it can alternate on each import. It can appear under the correct parent rom "tetris" as well. I found it interesting that the "tetris" clones can show under "vstetris" parent, as it has a different title - "Vs. Tetris". The others are listed as "Tetris" in Launchbox. I also find it interesting that it is only the "tetris" clones that end up in the wrong place and that the clones of "atetris" always seem to be under the correct parent rom. The xml importer page seems to identify the correct parent rom for the clones before importing so it appears the importer knows what it is meant to do, something just goes awry during the actual import. This is using plugin v 0.0.9 on Launchbox v13.26. I tested Launchbox v13.18 with beta v0.06 and could not replicate the issue. Thanks for this suggestion, unfortunately Launchbox's metadata is still having issue using the correct metadata . While I get the full extended title when I use your method, the title is for the incorrect version, for example "atetris.zip" and "tetris.zip" both end up with the name "Tetris (Atari) despite there being separate Launchbox database pages for both those versions and the PlayChoice-10 entry isn't used for "pc_1942" either. I've found a few posts on the forums about Launchbox having issues with some roms when it comes to having duplicate names so I might explore that a little bit and see if there are any solutions. It's no big deal though, as it is easy enough to manually edit the incorrect entries and seems to be the main suggestion for this problem on the forum posts I have seen. Many thanks again for all the work you have done on this plugin, it's been great! I was happily going to stay on v13.18 to keep using it but very cool to see you updated it to v13.19+ I especially like the log file addition

Hello, I was wondering how you use the plugin to make Launchbox show the extended names of the roms? I have issues with LB identifying some games incorrectly, for example the PlayChoice-10 version of 1942 will be identified as the standard 1942 and downloads the incorrect metadata. If I change the full game title to 1942 (PlayChoice-10) it will download the correct metadata, so I thought maybe you have a solution to this problem with the extended names. Many thanks!

Correct! I am on 13.11 and can confirm that it is working perfectly with version beta-6a. This is a very nifty tool. Thank you for all the work and time you have put into this plugin. Being able to import custom xmls makes arcade gaming so much better! My current use for the plugin is importing an FBNeo romset using the xml importer, and then using LaunchBox to gather the metadata, generate arcade playlists and mark games as favourites. It's the best way for me to have an easily managed arcade romset. This tool is a 5 star, would highly recommend from me!

Thanks for looking into it and fixing it so quick Joe! Unfortunately the updated plugin isn't showing after I add it to the Plugins folder and start LaunchBox. I've made sure to unblock the zip file after downloading it and am using the correct file structure, but no luck. If I revert back to 0.0.5 it shows in the Tools menu again. I tried a fresh installation of LaunchBox too. Might be a problem on my end I have to figure out. Whoops! I was testing changing the version name to see if that had any impact on the issue and forgot to change it back. 🙃 I changed Jumping Pop to "Jumping Pop (Aladdin 1)" too. Sorry about that!

I did some testing to see if I could isolate the issue and I may have found something. I created an XML file with just four games which I had observed the issue with to see if there was anything in particular that stood out. It turns out that the order in which they are listed after importing (when sorted by title) would determine whether or not a subsequent import would function correctly, or if one of the games would inherit the launch file of the other. From the testing I have done so far, it seems that if the games' filenames are ordered in alphabetical order, the problem will occur. If they are in reverse-alphabetical order, the problem will not occur. I've attached an example of what I mean below. Whether the game files are in alphabetical order or not seems to be random, and will sometimes change at random just by closing and reopening LaunchBox even after they have already been imported. As you can see, the Boulder Dash files (alphabetical order) end up with the error after the second import, whereas the Jumping Pop files (reverse alphabetical) do not. If the Jumping Pop games were the other way around, they would display the same behaviour as the Boulder Dash games. I tested across all 3 import options (import everything, clones as additional apps, no clones) and the issue was consistent across all 3. I attached the XML file I have been testing with in case that is of any use. No problem if you don't get around to checking this out, I just enjoy helping to troubleshoot 😀 importer boulder dash.xml

Thanks for the reply Joe and no problem for the report! The xml was exported from within MAME using the “Export list in XML format (like –listxml, but exclude devices)”. I don't usually use MAME in Launchbox, just FBNEO, but I wanted to test if the problem still occurred with a MAME xml and make sure I wasn't introducing any other variables by using a different xml file from FBNEO. Seems I picked a poor example! 😅 Thank you for the advice on filtering and removing mechanical games for MAME though, I'm definitely going to have a play around with this. That's the main reason that I use FBNEO, because it's already trimmed down quite a bit. I'll do some further testing and see if I can identify any kind of pattern to why some games are inheriting the wrong launch file. And I'm going to use a trimmed down MAME xml to do it rather than importing every machine known to man 😅

Hi Joe 😀 I'm having a little problem when updating a romset (MAME) using the xml importer. So the problem seems to be that when an xml file is imported to a romset that has already been imported using your plugin, a game that has the same name as another game, but is not a clone, will sometimes inherit the launch file of the game it shares the name with. I have saved some images that hopefully explain this better. EDIT: I should have mentioned that I have only tested this problem when using the "import clones as additional apps" feature. As you can see, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (World 4 Players, version X)" is incorrectly launching using the same file as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (USA 1.04, display A1.04)", "tmnt_104.zip". However, if I go into the additional apps menu for (World 4 Players, version X), the correct file shows as "tmnt.zip" as you can see below. So it is only the launch command that is inheriting the incorrect value. I tested this with both an updated xml and also just using a duplicate xml of the original and both displayed this problem, which indicates that it's not a problem with there being changes to the xml file, but rather repeat uses of the xml importer for the same romset cause this issue. I was also able to observe the same problem when updating an FBNEO romset as well. The workaround to the problem is to just delete the rom entries from launchbox and run your importer from scratch to update a romset, but I thought I'd check with you in case there is any easy fix 😀 Hopefully I've made sense here and thanks again Joe, this plugin is my favourite.

Hi Joe. Still loving this plugin! I have a question about the additional apps importing option. Is there any way to also include the default rom/zip in the additional apps list when importing? It's just a small difference I have noticed between Launchbox's MAME importer and your plugin. It's not a big problem at all, I only noticed it because I changed the default app for a game and then sometime later decided to change it back to the original, but had to manually enter the launch path as it wasn't in the additional apps menu to re-select as the default. Hopefully I've made sense here and it's absolutely no problem if it's not within the scope of this project, just thought I'd ask. 😀

If you select the "import clones as additional apps" option when importing, it will do as you mentioned (make sure you grab the newest version of Joe's plugin though, as he just released a fix for this option today/yesterday!) As you are doing a fresh Launchbox install, this is what I would do to make sure you get the playlists working (as the plugin won't automatically generate playlists): Use the plugin to import your romset. Right-click on your newly generated platform and select "Create Missing Arcade/MAME Playlists". Now you'll have your playlists (CPS1, Capcom, etc.) but the imported romset will initially be missing the metadata required to fill these playlists. Select all your FBNeo games, then click "Tools>Download>Update Metadata and Media for Selected Games". Keep "search for game information in the local database" checked. Skip downloading the media initially and just update the metadata to ensure things are working. When prompted, select "Yes, but do not replace any existing fields or media". Hopefully everything is now set up the way you want!

I've tested "beta-04" and can confirm that you are indeed a legend and the "import clones as additional apps" is now showing the additional clones! Thank you very much Joe, this makes importing a breeze. 😄

Thanks for this great plugin Joe. I was wondering if you might be able to help with a problem I am having when importing clones as additional apps through your plugin with the FBNeo romset. If I choose the "import everything" option, all the clones get listed perfectly and separately as they should. However, when I choose the "import clones as additional apps" option, it seems that quite a few don't end up showing after the process is completed. What is odd is that all the clones show up fine when selecting the xml file as you can see below, however once the process is completed, only 1 version of "Sunset Riders" is available. Another example is "1000 Miglia: Great 1000 Miles Rally", which has 6 versions I believe, but only 3 end up available. After looking through the xml files I can't seem to figure out a pattern with regards to why some additional versions appear whilst others do not. So far my only theory is that it is maybe a problem with the romset being a split set, but I don't have a non-merged set yet to be able to test this. Most likely I'm missing something obvious but I can't figure it out so I thought I better ask the expert. Thanks again!

Thank you for this advice! I also replaced "</game" with "</machine" but I wouldn't have had a clue to do so without your guide. (EDIT: And plugin 😀) @FishMonkeyif you follow Joe's advice and also do the extra step I mentioned above you can have the complete FBNEO Romset in Launchbox. Or if you want me to share the working XML file with you, just let me know.

Many thanks Jason

Hello, I've noticed that LaunchBox has a feature that automatically expands a columns width (title, genre, platform etc) if all of the text within the column does not fit while in list view. This ends up pushing columns further and further to the right as you scroll through your games if they have longer titles, multiple genres, longer publisher/developer names etc. and ends up pushing them off the screen, so you have to use horizontal scroll to see some of the games information columns or resize the columns manually each time you open LaunchBox. Is there any way to stop LaunchBox from automatically expanding the width of columns in list view? Thank you for the great program!