GameBase database Importer

[JoeViking245]

5 hours ago, foleyjo said:

I'm sharing it here as my steps may allow JoeViking to incorperate it into his app

First off. nicely done!!

I had looked at this a little bit when creating the plugin, but there were too many inconsistencies amongst the various databases. Namely how/where the different metadata (other images, music etc.)  where named/stored.  "Screenshots" was the only consistent one across the several databases I looked at.

In other words, I would need to go through each individual GameBase database file and account for its structure and naming convention.  No offense, but not happenin'.  

 

5 hours ago, foleyjo said:

the other mdb files I have won't open for me in the latest version of access.

If you wanted to get creative, you could import the [converted database] xml file into Access (EXTERNAL DATA tab, XML file).  You might get some "ImportErrors", but most likely nothing that would hinder what you're wanting to accomplish.  Another option is to parse the xml itself.  That's basically what the plugin is doing.  In the plugin folder, there's "Database2XML.exe" which will convert them for you.  Or if you've already used the plugin on a specific Gamebase database, the xml file will be in the same folder as your original mdb.  (at least I think I didn't tell it to delete it after importing was complete)

Although you can, you don't want to open the xml's in a standard text editor (i.e. Notepad++).  The files are quite large for a text editor.  For quick viewing, I use the free FirstObject xml editor ("foxe").  It's a single file, less that 1MB, and can handle 'large' files without too much lagging.

Just a thought. 

[foleyjo]

2 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

 No offense, but not happenin'.  

Ha no offense taken.

I only use 3 gamebases (c64,spectrum and acornmania) and using the batch files I created I was able to import everything I wanted. I updated the spectrum gamebase and for the acornmania I just needed to extract the games csv.

These 3 were mostly the same structure but there were some differences in folders so I had to update and run my bat files more than once. So I understand why you wouldn't want to try and do a catch all for every possible combination.

[foleyjo]

Quick question about the workings of this.

If you import again does it overwrite what you already have or does it add the new games to the list?

Gamebase64 has been updated and I want to import only the new games into launchbox and unsure if i can add them directly to my current collection

[JoeViking245]

5 hours ago, foleyjo said:

If you import again does it overwrite what you already have or does it add the new games to the list?

No.  You can't import into an existing Platform.  It only imports into new Platforms.

If you delete the existing Platform (and don't have Allow deleting ROMs when deleting games checked) and then click No when asked about deleting media, when you [re] import your GB64, any media you added since the last import will still be there.  As long as the game titles haven't changed.  But any metadata (Notes and such) or other game-specific changes/additions you made will be lost.

 

[foleyjo]

Thank you.

Its the meta data I'm trying to keep so I'll import into a new platform.

 

[signotime]

Hello, vic Your plugin is great but I'm having trouble getting it to work properly. I tried with the vic 20 gamebase and it works very well, imports the extras correctly. At this point I wanted to try with the amstradmania gamebase, but it was impossible to import the extras correctly. I tried to edit the script as you suggested in a previous post, but nothing. could you help me? thank you

[JoeViking245]

45 minutes ago, signotime said:

Hello, vic Your plugin is great but I'm having trouble getting it to work properly. I tried with the vic 20 gamebase and it works very well, imports the extras correctly. At this point I wanted to try with the amstradmania gamebase, but it was impossible to import the extras correctly. I tried to edit the script as you suggested in a previous post, but nothing. could you help me? thank you

Thanks, Glad you like it.  Regarding amstradmania, which "extras" specifically aren't importing correctly?  Is anything for amstradmania importing at all?  I don't use GameBase so don't really know it that well. But I do know a little.  If you could provide more detail, that would help a lot.

The script you edited, are you talking about the batch files that @foleyjo created?

[signotime]

So the plugin doesn't care about the extra games. in the amstrad mania gamebase the subfolders are "original disks", "original tapes" etcetera .... by script I mean the anck file you created.

[JoeViking245]

4 hours ago, signotime said:

So the plugin doesn't care about the extra games. in the amstrad mania gamebase the subfolders are "original disks", "original tapes" etcetera .... by script I mean the anck file you created.

amstradmania database file must be formatted differently from other GameBase databases.  I can't find that database file.  When you ran the plugin to import it, the plugin created a file called amstradmania.xml.  Can you zip up that file (.7z or .zip works) and attach that file here? (not amstradmania.mdb. The xml file)  

Can you also attach the latest log file when the import failed.  The Log file will be in the same folder as the plugin.  "LogFile xxxx.txt"

I think you mean the AHK script that's included with the plugin for running the games.  If the games won't import, the script can't launch them.  We need to get them to successfully import 1st.

Thanks for your patience. 

[foleyjo]

11 hours ago, signotime said:

So the plugin doesn't care about the extra games. in the amstrad mania gamebase the subfolders are "original disks", "original tapes" etcetera .... by script I mean the anck file you created.

Can you confirm if the games themselves work and its just the extras files you have an issue with.

Have the extras imported? If so in launchbox view the extras and make sure the ones relating to game files have the correct emulator assigned. The extras sometimes don't have an emulator assigned to them so just use the default file type

 

[signotime]

OK Joe, here are the files

Amstrad CPC.zip LogFile 2022-09-04 19-37-48.txt

[JoeViking245]

@signotime Thanks for the files!  That helped a lot.

I updated the plugin to hopefully accommodate importing AmstradMania (Amstrad CPC) Extras.  The Extras I added in are "Original Disk" (2122 items), "Original Tape" (2670), and "Alt Version" (117).

I also updated the AHK script to account for the 3 additions.

This zip file only contains the plugin file (ImportGameBase.dll) and the AutoHotkey script (GBlaunch.ahk).  Unblock the zip file and replace the 2 existing files in your Plugins/ImportGameBase/ folder with these 2 files.  (You should still have the Database2XML.exe file in that folder.  Making up the 3 required files for the plugin to work)

When you have a chance, would you please test this and let me know your results.  Thanks.

ImportGameBase (v1.1).zip

 

[signotime]

Many thanks
I try the new version and let you know

[signotime]

now the roms of the gamebase extras appear in launchbox but do not start with gblauncher instead any custom emulator works

[JoeViking245]

57 minutes ago, signotime said:

now the roms of the gamebase extras appear in launchbox but do not start with gblauncher instead any custom emulator works

 

These go far beyond the scope of this plugin and my personal knowledgebase.

I'm glad I was able to get the Extras to import for you.  As for getting the games to run, all I can say is good luck and I hope you find out how.

Thank you for taking the time to test the update.