Add To Games DB

[UnderwoodNC]

Add To Games DB

View File

---

*** Updated for Initial Support for LaunchBox v.Next ***

AddToGamesDb:  A plugin to help automate the process of submitting all of your game information and images from your collection to the LaunchBox Games Database.

About the Plugin

This plugin makes use of an application traditionally used in automated testing (Selenium) to automate the process of submitting games to the LaunchBox Games Database.  It will open an instance of your default browser (provided that browser is either Chrome or Firefox.  If some other browser is your default, it will try to open Chrome), and attempt to submit the selected game to the LaunchBox Games Database based on the information provided in your collection. 

• If the game does not exist in the database, it will create a new game entry and submit it to the database.
• If you have added additional information or images to a game that already exists in the database, it will enter the title and platform, then pause to let you choose the existing game, then add any additional information from your collection to the LaunchBox Games Database.

Installation Instructions

Note:  For this plugin to work, you will need to have either Chrome or Firefox installed.  If you have both installed, it will use whichever you have set as your default browser.  If you are using Firefox as your default browser and have enabled Firefox Profiles, please note that this will run under the default profile.  For any and all other cases, Chrome is the preferred browser.

1. Unzip everything to the Plugins folder.

Usage Instructions

Note: If, in editing your collection, you are prompted to download an update for the LaunchBox Games Database, afterward you will need to close and re-open LaunchBox for the plugin to detect the changes.

1. Open LaunchBox and browse to a game that is either missing from the Games Database, has additional information not in the database, or has images not in the database -- right click that game, and select the appropriate option, it will show either:
   • Add Game to LaunchBox Games Database
   • Update Game in LaunchBox Games Database
   • Add New Images to LaunchBox Games Database
2. The first time you run the plugin, you may be prompted to login to LaunchBox Games Database.  If so, the plugin will pause here to allow you to login as normal. Check "Remember Me" to skip this step going forward.  Your login information is not read or stored in the code, it is stored in Chrome or Firefox's normal AppData cache on your system.  If you do not login, the plugin will time-out after 5 minutes and close the browser. 
3. Depending on the game, you may be prompted with a screen that identifies similar titles and you will be asked to either select the correct title, or click the button to add a new game.  If so, the plugin will pause here until you make your desired selection, then automation will resume for the remainder of the process.

Logging

By default, the logging is only set to a general "Info" level and up that contains generic start and submission successful messages, along with any errors encountered.  If you continue to encounter an error somewhere along the way, please take the following steps:

1. Browse to the plugin's folder -- LaunchBox\Plugins\AddToGamesDb
2. Open NLog.dll.nlog in Notepad or another text editor.
3. Scroll down to the bottom and find the <rules> section of the configuration.
4. Find this line: 

   <logger name="*" minlevel="Info" writeTo="file" />

   And change it to this: 

   <logger name="*" minlevel="Trace" writeTo="file" />

    

5. Try to submit the problem game, if it is a particular game causing the issue, or another game in general otherwise.

6. Browse to the log file in the plugin's folder -- LaunchBox\Plugins\AddToGamesDb\log\AddToGamesDb.log

7. Feel free to post the error and preceding trace either on the plugin's support page or PM me either the entire log or the part pertaining to the last issue, whichever is easier for you.  From there, I'll investigate and make any updates necessary.

Supported Fields

Auto-population of the following fields is currently supported:

• Name/Title
• Platform
• Release Date
• ESRB
• Developers
• Publishers
• Genres
• Wikipedia URL
• Overview
• Max Players
• Cooperative
• Images

Known Issues

• Context Menu (right-click menu) does not refresh on Audit window.
• If you update the information for a game in LaunchBox (clicking Edit from the right-click menu for the game), you will need to click away from the game (click some other game, for example), and then right-click on the updated game again for the context menu to update.  Even without doing so, however, the correct process should run even though the text and icon on the menu haven't yet updated.

A lot of work has gone into stabilizing the initial release and this latest release, but if you encounter any issues, please let me know and I will be glad to work with you to update the plugin accordingly.

Thanks, Jason, for providing your amazing software and thanks again to Jason, the LaunchBox staff and the community for your support in developing this plugin.

---

• Submitter
  UnderwoodNC
• Submitted
  05/20/2017
• Category
  Third-party Apps and Plugins

 

[fromlostdays]

For your next release, can you have it autopopulate a "steam banner" or "Steam Grid Icon" folder for additional art? I know they aren't officially supported by launchbox yet, but I have thousands of them (also uploaded them to LB downloads section) and this would make it so easy to add them to the database. 

Either way, great job man!

[Chris Kant]

awesome tool that hopefully help to fill the database faster than the actual way

[UnderwoodNC]

@Chris Kant Thanks!  I hope it helps to make the submission process easier for everyone.

@fromlostdays  Thanks!  I'll definitely look into it.  I'll probably need to put in a request to have the additional image types made available in the Plugins API so that I can write a more long-term solution, but I'm glad to extend the plugin to include whatever fields and image types are available.

[kerszr]

Im so excited

[jchasa]

Hello, So Awesome idea, but I am getting the error below when I right click on any game.

Could not find a part of the path 'G:\Games\Current%20Launch%20Box\LaunchBox\Metadata\Metadata.xml'.

App:     LaunchBox
Version: 7.10-beta-7
Type:    System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException
Site:    System.Object MarshaledInvoke(System.Windows.Forms.Control, System.Delegate, System.Object[], Boolean)
Source:  System.Windows.Forms

   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.MarshaledInvoke(Control caller, Delegate method, Object[] args, Boolean synchronous)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.Invoke(Delegate method, Object[] args)
   at (MainForm , Game )
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Desktop.Forms.MainForm.SetOneSelectedGameState(Game game)
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Desktop.Forms.MainForm.gamesControl_SelectedGameChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Desktop.Controls.GamesControlBase.OnSelectedGameChanged()
   at Unbroken.LaunchBox.Desktop.Controls.ImageGamesControl.<selectionTimer_Tick>b__63_0()
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state, Boolean preserveSyncCtx)
   at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
   at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()

So I also don't have most of my games in the default game folder in side LB's main folder.  Which might be what the first part is referring too.  Thanks in advance

My folders look like this :

G:

Games

    Games

        Current LB

              Launch Box (main LB folder)

              Games (main game folder)

[UnderwoodNC]

Hi @jchasa -- I'll take a look at this.  Currently, the code is trying to find your Metadata.xml file, which is usually in your LaunchBox install folder, in the Metadata folder.  Do you have a Metadata folder with Metadata.xml in your Launch Box (main LB folder)?

[jchasa]

I did look there and it is there [emoji3]

Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk

[UnderwoodNC]

Hm.  The code is looking from the LaunchBox.exe that's running, then looking for a Metadata folder from there, then that Metadata.xml.  Not sure why it can't find it, but in any case, I need to handle that exception.  Is this the path to your LaunchBox.exe?  

G:\Games\Current Launch Box\LaunchBox\LaunchBox.exe

Edited May 21, 2017 by UnderwoodNC

[jchasa]

Yes

Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk

[UnderwoodNC]

Submitting an update now, when it goes live, please let me know if you continue to receive the error.

[UnderwoodNC]

Update is live, including initial logging support and support for Screenshot - Gameplay image types.  

@fromlostdays I'm still looking at Steam Banners, hoping to get that in soon.

[jchasa]

2 hours ago, UnderwoodNC said:

Submitting an update now, when it goes live, please let me know if you continue to receive the error.
 

So just now had a chance to try something. I moved my main LB folder to the root of my G: drive and it works fine no error, this is without the update. Thoughts? [emoji2]

Sent from my Z987 using Tapatalk

-Update, I also just downloaded the update and  am able to make submissions and everything seems fine.  Not a big deal for me if I have to leave my LB folder in the root of my G drive.  The added functionality of your plugin is awesome, Thanks. 

Edited May 21, 2017 by jchasa

[UnderwoodNC]

Thanks, glad it's working for you now!

[polocatfan]

I can't get it to update existing games. When I click the existing game in the list it just stops doing anything.

[Chris Kant]

I found out that one problem during the submit process is, that the "add image" button is pressed by script but not work. I have to press it again to continue the process.

[JamesBond@ge]

Great plugin!

Just one issue and it is to do with non-standard platform names.

I have renamed Nintendo Entertainment System (Standard) to Nintendo NES. The browser instance closes when it gets to the part where the platform is entered. I guess it needs a "scrape as" type of option?

I considered renaming back to the standard name but it would break all my image paths :-(

Great work mate.

[DOS76]

by going into the LB folder you can simply rename the Images\NES to images\Nintendo Entertainment System and it would fix your image paths right up then you would need to do the same for Music Manuals and Video also if you have those you can also go to tools manage platforms edit the new Nintendo Entertainment System platform and point it to your NES folders but that would be more work than the 1st method.

[UnderwoodNC]

I'm going to be running around much of today, but I'm working on a 2.0 version that I hope to have ready to test sometime tomorrow.  I'm doing a re-write taking into account the issues that have come up here and there so that it better handles those situations, logs errors, provides feedback for the user, and so forth.  

I think you're right about the Scrape As issue.  It's going to try to match against the options available in the form, so I'll need to add a check to get the Scrape As name.  I've added that to the code for version 2.0 and will include that in testing.  Good find!

[Chris Kant]

now again, this PlugIn needs a LogIn and PW every time I want transmit some new images or games.