AgentJohnnyP Posted July 17, 2023 Share Posted July 17, 2023 Hey everyone! My first post and thought I would share a tool I created to check your games collection against the LaunchboxDB. I looked for a plugin or similar but couldn't find anything, apologies if this has already been done. I gave a stab at doing a proper plugin in C#, but it's been eons (and many versions ago) since I worked in it and gave up quickly lol. Went back to my comfort zone and made the tool in JavaScript. Game Checker Expectations Just to give some heads up on what to expect from this: This only checks against local copies of the XML files and local Metadata.xml file (NOT the actually LaunchboxDB website). Some basic validation to verify files. Designed against Launchbox 13.5 file formatting and XML naming conventions. This is not a complete platform library check as Launchbox states their DB may not be complete and could be missing games. Feel free to leave feedback and any issues you might find. Also, my chance to give a shoutout to all the folk that make this scene possible!!!! Excelsior! https://www.johnprinz.com/gamechecker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeViking245 Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 I presume you need to choose Platforms.xml located in ..\LaunchBox\Data\ Takes quite a while, which is somewhat to be expected. But after 20 minutes, it started reminding me of a song about a spinning wheel goin' round. So closed the page. Would it be possible to do this on a platform-by-platform basis instead? like selecting ..\LaunchBox\Data\Platforms\Arcade.xml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 (edited) Hey thanks for the feedback! I had an urge and just started coding with no plan in place, so it is a little rough 😬 The UI is still very BETA lol and I will clean it up. Until then let me clarify it a little. These are based on the base files/locations in Launchbox: The Platforms.xml (Step 1) and Metadata.xml (Step 4) are from the ..\Metadata\ folder. The platform XML (Step 3) is from your ..\Data\Platforms\ folder (should be based on your collections). The Metadata.xml is BIG (370+MB) so depending on the computer, it might take awhile. I've run it on my i7 3xxx with 16gb Alienware laptop and it does take a few minutes. I was testing with a "trimmed" version of the Metadata.xml file until I got the async code in to handle the larger file. ONLY DO THIS IF YOU'RE FAMILIAR WITH XML AND TAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR LAUNCHBOX!!!! lol (Just had to FYI that). So I made a copy of the Metadata.xml and stripped out the excess code so it only included 2 platforms. But you have to make sure the base structure of the XML is intact. Then use that file as your 'Metadata.xml'. You could in theory make a copy for each of your platforms to speed it up. But I do believe the Launchbox Metadata.xml file is updated often which will put your copies out of sync. Hope that helps and thanks again! I'll pick away at it as I can 👍 Cheers! Edited July 18, 2023 by AgentJohnnyP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 (edited) I see what's happening! I didn't see there is a Platforms.xml file in the ..\Data\ folder which causes the page to hang. I'll have to work a better validation in to make sure it get the right file. Make sure to use the Platforms.xml file in the ..\Metadata\ folder. Thanks again for the feedback! Edited July 18, 2023 by AgentJohnnyP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeViking245 Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 1 hour ago, AgentJohnnyP said: Make sure to use the Platforms.xml file in the ..\Metadata\ folder. I went back and forth about using that one, but it didn't make sense to me as this was to compare my collection (held in Data) against the database (held in Metadata). I'm usually pretty good about following instructions. So according to your screenshot, it looks like Step #2 takes care of my platform-by-platform question. I'll try again tomorrow using the 'correct' file and report back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 Awesome thanks! I just point to the Platforms.xml to populate the dropdown for the platform selection and use that to query against the larger Metadata.xml file (try to trim the process lol). I've updated the UI so it's a little clearer as to what files to use. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeViking245 Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 10 hours ago, AgentJohnnyP said: Make sure to use the Platforms.xml file in the ..\Metadata\ folder. Ya, that works much better. Since this is a web-based JavaScript app, I presume that we need to drop each individual file vs the script being able to "grab" files based on a relative path. (This may be where re-learning C# & plugin creation skills could definitely help to 'trim the process'. lol) My suggestions*: Step #1: Use \LaunchBox\Data\Platforms.xml. From it, grab the users platforms' Name and also grab its ScrapeAs value (to use later). Then use those Names to populate the dropdown box in step 2. aka. Show only the platforms the user actually has. (i.e. I might have simply "Famicom" and not "Nintendo Famicom Disk System") Step #3: Can Java set filters for the open file dialog? If so, set the filter to the Name selected in step #2, .xml. This way, people [that aren't stress testing the app] can't inadvertently choose the wrong platform_name.xml. Compare: Use the ScrapeAs value from step #1 to grab the platform from Metadata.xml. (ref: "Famicom") Total missing count: No cheating! lol Maybe break it down. Total LBDB games xxxx. Your total yyyyy. Then have the missing games be a count of the datagrid items. Save results to a text file(?), Excel file(?) button? *These are my thoughts only and may only be worth the 2 pennies you found on the ground or the piece of gum you stepped on. Do with 'em what you will. 🙃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted July 18, 2023 Author Share Posted July 18, 2023 You read my mind for some of the enhancements I'm looking to do with it! And thanks, I was hoping someone with familiarity with the structure would give me some advice, appreciate it! I wanted to add additional filtering as well to weed out hacks/beta/etc.. from the list. And yeah, validation for the user platform xml to the platform selection was probably the next thing I was going to tackle. I'll be changing the code to verify against the other platform file (..\Data\) and will probably work it in then. Honestly, my boss has been wanted me to 'branch' out so I'll be digging into .net 6 this fall and will use the plugin as my learnding project lol I haven't touched .net since the ASP.NET 4.5 👴 But I was looking over the API docs and there's a lot of good stuff to use so excited to get in and make it happen! Thanks again for the input! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted July 21, 2023 Author Share Posted July 21, 2023 Thanks again for the feedback! I've worked some changes in to the page, probably about the best I can get with the XML files. I got the validation down pretty good so users shouldn't be able to proceed with the wrong info. I'll try and work some export options in at some point too, but I've already started down the C# path lol ... Gonna take a bit, but I'll get a plugin working which I suspect will be a lot better. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Sock Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 It would be really cool to be able to view all the games from a chosen system in order of Star Ratings. I'm trying to get the best games for all my systems to discover and play but there's currently no way to get this information without downloading a complete romset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted September 7 Author Share Posted September 7 (edited) I finally got around to it, but I've released the web version of the Missing Games Checker as a full LaunchBox plugin! Haven't touched C# in about 10 years, but it was a fun project 😁 Check out the release in the Downloads section. Let me know if you find any issues or have any suggestions. Star Rating sorting is available as well with export functionality 👍 Edited September 7 by AgentJohnnyP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troybrwr Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 I just tried to use it and I am only getting the list of owned games from the platform I select, the dll file is in the correct location, if there can be an settings to confirm that the xml file is required to locate owned games and to get missing games is present, cause at the moment the plugin load up and cant tell if its using the required xml file. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted September 7 Author Share Posted September 7 Hummm... I know I've seen with other plugins you have to right click on the file and go into the properties to unblock it? Let me know. I'll look into adding some checking to make sure the metadata file is loaded. Thanks for the feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troybrwr Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 I will try the unblock in properties to see if that works . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troybrwr Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 the unblock is not there any more and after selecting platform the missing games section say missing launchbox DB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 First off, I have to say "THANK YOU" for helping out and sending the feedback! I've uploaded version 1.1.1 now. I don't think it will fix the issue, but it should help understand what's happening (or not happening). There will be better error messaging that shows up in the Missing Games table if you could pass that along. Thanks again and let me know how it goes 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuscan Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 The selected platform "XYZ" was not found in the LaunchBox DB. ;( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troybrwr Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 maybe you could add a settings option or directory prompt to make sure the launchbox db is loaded, cause the platform cant be found, so you may need to have metadata.xml and platform.xml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 (edited) The code is set so if the Metadata.xml file is not found it would post a different error in the table other than NoPlatformFound. Could be how I'm checking for the ScapeAs field for the platform. I'm working on some additional checks around that and the metadata right now, should have it posted shortly.Thanks again! One of those situations where it works in mine lol I'll nail it down. 👍 Edited September 8 by AgentJohnnyP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AgentJohnnyP Posted September 9 Author Share Posted September 9 Ok, I've posted v1.1.2 now with enhanced error checking and better messaging for errors. Could you download the new version and if still not working, post another screenshot? It'll have more messaging now to help figure it out. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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