SteamGridDB Scraper

[JoeViking245]

SteamGridDB Scraper

View File

---

Preview and import images from SteamGrid Database directly into your LaunchBox collection.
 

• A personalized SteamGridDB API Key is required.  (See below about getting yours)
• Downloaded images are saved to the default LaunchBox image folder(s).

 

Installing
Download and extract the contents of the download to your /LaunchBox/Plugins/ folder.
    i.e.  D:/LaunchBox/Plugins/SteamGrid Scraper/SteamGridScraper.dll

 

First Time Run
Select a game, right-click it and select SteamGrid Scraper.
    The "API key Required" window will open.
Paste (or manually type in) your personal SteamGrid API key.
Click Save

 

Using
Select a game, right-click it and select SteamGrid Scraper.

In cases where an exact match for the game Tite is not found, a window will popup listing 'close matches'.
Double-click a game from the list to select it.

Click on the SteamGrid image group you'd like to view.  Options are:
    Grids
    Heroes
    Logos
    Icons

Up to 50 images will show in the Gallery.  If the selected group has more than 50 available, click "2" to see then next 50.

Use the Zoom slider to increase/decrease the image sizes in the Gallery.
Double-click on an image to see a larger view. (Opens in a separate window).

The Icons group is pretty much useless in LaunchBox.  But since they're available, they're included.

 

Saving an image
To add an image to your game, right-click the image in the gallery and select Add Image.

Select the Image Type (folder) you want to save it as from the dropdown box.  (It doesn't change automatically for you.)
    Only a few select image types are shown by default.
    To see all image folders (types), check the box "See All available image types".

(Optional) To view your existing images for the game, click View Existing Images Gallery. (Opens in a separate window)
    This shows only the images for the selected image type. 

(Optional) Click Open Image Folder to open Windows Explorer to the folder where your existing images are and where the image will be saved to.

Click Save to save the image.

 

Getting your SteamGridDB API Key

Log into your SteamGridDB account.
Go to your Profile - Preferences - API
Click 'Generate API key'
 

 

As always, all comments and suggestions are welcome. 😎

---

• Submitter
  JoeViking245
• Submitted
  08/18/2024
• Category
  Third-party Apps and Plugins

 

[bob_the_blob2]

Absolutely love this plugin, but today I went to update to the latest 1.2.3 and it asked me to re-enter my API key. However, upon pasting the API key in and pressing "save" I get this error.

I thought it might be a problem with the way I'd pasted it, but I tried manually inputting it, and even revoking the old key and creating a new one, but sadly still same error.

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

'.', hexadecimal value 0x00, is an invalid character. Line 1, position 1.

App:     LaunchBox
Version: 13.17-beta-2
Theme:   Default
Type:    System.Xml.XmlException
Site:    Void Throw(System.Exception)
Source:  System.Private.Xml

   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(String res, String[] args)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ThrowInvalidChar(Char[] data, Int32 length, Int32 invCharPos)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseRootLevelWhitespace()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
   at System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Load(XmlReader reader, LoadOptions options)
   at System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Load(String uri, LoadOptions options)
   at System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Load(String uri)
   at SteamGrid_Scraper.APIkeyRequired.Save_Click(Object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args)
   at System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase.OnClick()
   at System.Windows.Controls.Button.OnClick()
   at System.Windows.Controls.Primitives.ButtonBase.OnMouseLeftButtonUp(MouseButtonEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target)
   at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.ReRaiseEventAs(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args, RoutedEvent newEvent)
   at System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs.InvokeHandler(Delegate handler, Object target)
   at System.Windows.EventRoute.InvokeHandlersImpl(Object source, RoutedEventArgs args, Boolean reRaised)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseEventImpl(DependencyObject sender, RoutedEventArgs args)
   at System.Windows.UIElement.RaiseTrustedEvent(RoutedEventArgs args)
   at System.Windows.Input.InputManager.ProcessStagingArea()
   at System.Windows.Input.InputProviderSite.ReportInput(InputReport inputReport)
   at System.Windows.Interop.HwndMouseInputProvider.ReportInput(IntPtr hwnd, InputMode mode, Int32 timestamp, RawMouseActions actions, Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 wheel)
   at System.Windows.Interop.HwndMouseInputProvider.FilterMessage(IntPtr hwnd, WindowMessage msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
   at System.Windows.Interop.HwndSource.InputFilterMessage(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
   at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
   at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs)
   at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Int32 numArgs, Delegate catchHandler)

Recent Log:

   PM 08:27:40 Exception

 

[JoeViking245]

56 minutes ago, bob_the_blob2 said:

Absolutely love this plugin, but today I went to update to the latest 1.2.3 and it asked me to re-enter my API key. However, upon pasting the API key in and pressing "save" I get this error.

I thought it might be a problem with the way I'd pasted it, but I tried manually inputting it, and even revoking the old key and creating a new one, but sadly still same error.

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

First off, thanks for loving the plugin!

It shouldn't have asked you to re-enter your API key if you had a valid one in there already.

After downloading the update, did you copy the .dll to the same location as the old one? Overwriting the existing .dll?

Make sure your Plugins folder doesn't have 2 instances of the dll file.  i.e. 

• /Plugins/SteamGrid Scraper.dll  
• AND 
• /Plugins/SteamGrid Scraper/SteamGrid Scraper.dll

 

If that's not the case:

• Close LaunchBox
• in the /Plugins/SteamGrid Scraper/ folder, delete Settings.xml
• Start LaunchBox
• 'Attempt' to scrape and paste in your API Key
• Click Save

 

If that don't fix it, something's really screwy. 

• Close LaunchBox
• Delete the /SteamGrid Scraper/ folder
• Unzip the download into the /Plugins/ folder
  • resulting in "/LaunchBox/Plugins/SteamGrid Scraper/SteamGrid Scraper.dll"
  • and no other files in that subfolder.  Just the (1) .dll file
• Start...
• 'Attempt'...
• Save

 

If you still get the error, send me the most recent log file (/Plugins/SteamGrid Scraper/Logs/log xxxx-xx-xx ....txt) and your Settings.xml file.

[bob_the_blob2]

Sorry for the delay, but thanks for the update there. You were right, in that it was the `Settings.XML` file. I guess it was somehow corrupted, as I blew that away, and after that was able to save the API key no problem.

Thanks so much for the support here, and great job on all the updates 

Edited October 9 by bob_the_blob2

[jmandmc]

Hi there - got a suggestion to check this plugin and it does work quite well! One possible bug:

When trying to select multiple titles to scrape, I noticed it will do nothing. I figured that it didn't find any titles in the DB, but when I select one item from that same group it popped up a game window.  I have the latest version and saw that one of the versions added the ability to select multiple files.  I did try it with a large group and it did pull up the first game, but doesn't seem to work with other groups that actually have content in the DB.  

One more thing I noticed is that after adding the clear logo, I have to edit the file and save to see it.  This may just be that it doesn't refresh in the same way that pulling metadata media files directly from launchbox DB works.

[JoeViking245]

8 hours ago, jmandmc said:

When trying to select multiple titles to scrape, I noticed it will do nothing. I figured that it didn't find any titles in the DB, but when I select one item from that same group it popped up a game window.  I have the latest version and saw that one of the versions added the ability to select multiple files.  I did try it with a large group and it did pull up the first game, but doesn't seem to work with other groups that actually have content in the DB.  

When selecting multiple files, then start the plugin, you still need to go through them one-by-one (use the << and >> buttons to go to the previous/next game).  If the game doesn't find an exact Title match, you will see a popup where you can select a 'close match'.  (Same thing as if you start the plugin with just one game selected.)  When having started with multiple files selected, you can optionally click "Just Grab 'em All".  Select the image type and size and click Start.  For 'Grids' Try selecting "600x900" (the most common size).  If no images of your selected size [and type] are found, well... it won't download anything.

If that doesn't help clear things up, can you be more specific with "it will do nothing"?  Are you saying you select multiple games, then right-click one of them and select "SteamGrid Scraper", nothing happens?  As in, the plugin window doesn't even appear?

 

8 hours ago, jmandmc said:

adding the clear logo, I have to edit the file and save to see it.

I suspect you mean edit the 'Game'.  The plugin won't (and can't) delete existing files to replace them.  So if you have an existing Clear Logo and you download another one using the plugin, you'll have 2 [for that game].  When you have more than one image of a specific type (say, Clear Logo), LaunchBox will randomly alternate which image is displayed. So if you click a different game, then back to the one with 2 Clear Logos, the 2nd image may show. If not, do that several times and it should eventually appear.  If it never does, then it's possible LaunchBox doesn't alternate Clear Logos like it does other images (i.e. Box-Fronts, etc.). 

[jmandmc]

27 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

If that doesn't help clear things up, can you be more specific with "it will do nothing"?  Are you saying you select multiple games, then right-click one of them and select "SteamGrid Scraper", nothing happens?  As in, the plugin window doesn't even appear?

Yes, that is what I'm experiencing. There are times where I right-click a single game and nothing happens. Other times it will pop up. I thought it had to do with the plug-in checking the database and only displaying results when it finds a close match.  More often than not, when I right-click the pop up window does not appear. Even less so when I select multiple games.

29 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

I suspect you mean edit the 'Game'.  The plugin won't (and can't) delete existing files to replace them.  So if you have an existing Clear Logo and you download another one using the plugin, you'll have 2 [for that game].  When you have more than one image of a specific type (say, Clear Logo), LaunchBox will randomly alternate which image is displayed. So if you click a different game, then back to the one with 2 Clear Logos, the 2nd image may show. If not, do that several times and it should eventually appear.  If it never does, then it's possible LaunchBox doesn't alternate Clear Logos like it does other images (i.e. Box-Fronts, etc.). 

These are for games where no clear logo is available.  Here is the workflow I have to use

1. I right click on the game.
2. If the game exists in the database, the window opens and either the game assets appear or I select a matching game from a list
3. I click Add Logo
4. The window appears to do something indicating it has downloaded the logo. 
5. When I close the window, the logo does not appear in the game space
6. I click Edit Metadata
7. I then press OK without editing anything
8. The logo finally appears in the game space.

When I typically edit metadata and download a clear logo from the Launchbox DB, the logo appears directly afterwards. Perhaps it's because SteamDB Scraper is a 

[jmandmc]

One more issue I came across:

I selected all the games in a platform, and upon clicking the >> button to select the next game, I received this error (attached photo).  Subsequent tries at advancing to further games kept popping up this error. When I came across a game it had in the database, the error disappeared. Once it again found a game without a title in SteamDB Scraper, the error would return. 

[JoeViking245]

46 minutes ago, jmandmc said:

One more issue I came across:

I selected all the games in a platform, and upon clicking the >> button to select the next game, I received this error (attached photo).  Subsequent tries at advancing to further games kept popping up this error. When I came across a game it had in the database, the error disappeared. Once it again found a game without a title in SteamDB Scraper, the error would return. 

I which I could blame it on The Matrix, but it's a "glitch in the" last release. It has to do with the "Improvement" that attempts to match to the game's Title and Release Year.  If your game doesn't have a Release Year in its metadata, the plugin 💥 blows up.   

Thanks for binging this to my attention.  I'll have my team 'get on it'.

[jmandmc]

40 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

I which I could blame it on The Matrix, but it's a "glitch in the" last release. It has to do with the "Improvement" that attempts to match to the game's Title and Release Year.  If your game doesn't have a Release Year in its metadata, the plugin 💥 blows up.   

Thanks for binging this to my attention.  I'll have my team 'get on it'.

Oh I see - the reason some games don't have a release date filled in is because they don't yet appear in the LaunchDB, and therefore metadata is not yet available.

[JoeViking245]

Just now, jmandmc said:

Oh I see - the reason some games don't have a release date filled in is because they don't yet appear in the LaunchDB, and therefore metadata is not yet available.

Yeah, it's not yours nor the LaunchBox Games Database's fault.

This has been fixed in v1.2.7.  Download the latest release (top of this thread, View File) and let me know if you have any further issues.  And thanks again for letting me know.

Version 1.2.7 - Fixed:    Games that don't have a Release Date cause the plugin to crash. (Introduced v1.2.6)
 

[jmandmc]

41 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

Yeah, it's not yours nor the LaunchBox Games Database's fault.

This has been fixed in v1.2.7.  Download the latest release (top of this thread, View File) and let me know if you have any further issues.  And thanks again for letting me know.

Version 1.2.7 - Fixed:    Games that don't have a Release Date cause the plugin to crash. (Introduced v1.2.6)
 

Works great now - if the game does not have a release date because Launch DB metadata is blank, the plug-in opens a new window showing similar named titles it has access to. If it does find a title in SteamScraperDB, it displays that even if metadata is missing from LaunchDB. Thanks!

[jmandmc]

Hey I wanted to ask a question to the devs of SteamgridScraper.  I visited the site to find a game and add a clear logo. The game was Overdriven Evolution 2022.  On your site there is a link to "View Original Steam Assets", which display all of the assets for the game. What I was confused about was that these same assets are not part of SteamGridScraper, but can be accessed from the site. Is there a reason why those files are not added to the DB? I'm guessing copyright, but then, aren't the files users upload also copyrighted?

Update: Reading rules mentions the following about asset deletion:
 

Quote

Uploading Steam assets from the past is okay, but current ones will be deleted. Storage space doesn’t grow on trees!

I was a bit confused about this - you mention "Storage Space doesn't grow on trees". In a perfect scenario, users would upload their related game assets to SteamScraper DB and fill all of the blank asset games that exist on SteamGridScraper. Wouldn't that occupy the same storage space than Steam asset would under a similar scenario, if not possibly more depending on the user asset?
 

Edited November 4 by jmandmc

[JoeViking245]

6 hours ago, jmandmc said:

On your site there is a link to "View Original Steam Assets", which display all of the assets for the game. What I was confused about was that these same assets are not part of SteamGridScraper, but can be accessed from the site. Is there a reason why those files are not added to the DB?

To clarify, the StreamGridDB website is not my site, nor am I affiliated with them in any way, shape or form.  I am merely the developer of this SteamGridDB Scraper plugin.  This plugin accesses StreamGridDB's available assets via their generously provided API.  Also note that SteamGridDB (website) is not affiliated with Valve Corporation or the Steam platform.

 

The Original Steam Assets are not accessible via the SteamGridDB API.  But I'm pretty sure when you import a Steam game, there's an option to prioritize Steam Images, which should get those. I presume the auto-import feature grabs those as well.

To help with your endeavors to attain those specific assets, version 1.2.3 of this plugin added a clickable SteamGridDB hyperlink.  Click the Games Title [red arrow in the image below] to navigate to the games SteamGridDB webpage.  From there you can click "View Original Steam Assets" (if available).

 

 

7 hours ago, jmandmc said:

Quote

Uploading Steam assets from the past is okay, but current ones will be deleted. Storage space doesn’t grow on trees!

I was a bit confused about this - you mention "Storage Space doesn't grow on trees". In a perfect scenario, users would upload their related game assets to SteamScraper DB and fill all of the blank asset games that exist on SteamGridScraper. Wouldn't that occupy the same storage space than Steam asset would under a similar scenario, if not possibly more depending on the user asset?

To reiterate, SteamGridDB Scraper (this plugin) and SteamGridDB website are 2 separate things.

You need to contact SteamGridDB (website) directly regarding the assets they maintain and allow to be uploaded.  Click Help at the top of the SteamGridDB website's main page, then scroll down to the bottom and see "Contact Us" for more information.

[jmandmc]

2 hours ago, JoeViking245 said:

To clarify, the StreamGridDB website is not my site, nor am I affiliated with them in any way, shape or form.  I am merely the developer of this SteamGridDB Scraper plugin.  This plugin accesses StreamGridDB's available assets via their generously provided API.  Also note that SteamGridDB (website) is not affiliated with Valve Corporation or the Steam platform.

 

The Original Steam Assets are not accessible via the SteamGridDB API.  But I'm pretty sure when you import a Steam game, there's an option to prioritize Steam Images, which should get those. I presume the auto-import feature grabs those as well.

To help with your endeavors to attain those specific assets, version 1.2.3 of this plugin added a clickable SteamGridDB hyperlink.  Click the Games Title [red arrow in the image below] to navigate to the games SteamGridDB webpage.  From there you can click "View Original Steam Assets" (if available).

 

 

To reiterate, SteamGridDB Scraper (this plugin) and SteamGridDB website are 2 separate things.

You need to contact SteamGridDB (website) directly regarding the assets they maintain and allow to be uploaded.  Click Help at the top of the SteamGridDB website's main page, then scroll down to the bottom and see "Contact Us" for more information.

Oh - I wasn't aware that you were not affiliated with SteamGridDB. I thought the plug-in was made by the same people. Sorry abbout that.  Thanks so much for the help here, especially updating the plug in to link to the website's asset page. I'll also reach out to the website authors to ask about API access. You're also correct about prioritizing steam images. 

[JoeViking245]

8 minutes ago, jmandmc said:

Oh - I wasn't aware that you were not affiliated with SteamGridDB. I thought the plug-in was made by the same people. Sorry abbout that.  Thanks so much for the help here, especially updating the plug in to link to the website's asset page. I'll also reach out to the website authors to ask about API access. You're also correct about prioritizing steam images. 

No worries.  But I'm flattered you think my plugin is good enough to have been associated with them  

 

My guess is they'll tell you they don't have permission to include links to those assets directly in their API. 

When you click "View Original Steam Assets", you'll notice those images are linked directly to Steam (steamstatic.com, to be precise).  And possibly..., SGDB (tired of typing the whole thing out. lol) uses the Steam API to capture/link those [Steam] assets to their [SGDB] popup window.

And from SGDB's point of view, why store those assets on their site when they can directly link them from the original source.

But this is all just speculation.

[jmandmc]

I get it - I asked them but haven't heard back. 

At the same time, it would be great to at least have the API capture the files from Steam and then to your app.  

Perhaps there something I cannot understand about the entire process of Steam Scraper DB. I mean, where else are these user files coming from but the original steam repository? Who would go through the trouble to recreate an asset that exists in the best quality on Steam? Why then store those user assets on SteamDB when they are likely pulled from Steam anyway? None of it makes much sense to me. 

A note: I understand some user uploaded files are for titles that have no representation on Steam. For those that do however, it seems to make sense that those files are available by the API, or perhaps the scraper app could work around this to capture those official Steam files?

Edited November 8 by jmandmc

[JoeViking245]

9 hours ago, jmandmc said:

Perhaps there something I cannot understand about the entire process of Steam Scraper DB. I mean, where else are these user files coming from but the original steam repository? Who would go through the trouble to recreate an asset that exists in the best quality on Steam? Why then store those user assets on SteamDB when they are likely pulled from Steam anyway? None of it makes much sense to me. 

It may just be semantics, but when you say "Steam Scraper DB", I assume you mean the SteamGridDB website.  vs. this plugin which is considered a scraper ("scraping" from SteamGridDB).

Pretty sure SteamGridDB in NOT storing Steam original assets. You click the button ("View Original Steam Assets") and yeah, you can see those images.  The same way when you open my plugin for a particular game and you can see all the grid/hero/logo images (that the SteamGridDB site does store).  In both cases, they're merely accessing the images [from the respective sites].

 

10 hours ago, jmandmc said:

perhaps the scraper app could work around this to capture those official Steam files?

No.  That would a duplicative effort.  

Instead of clicking the game and running the plugin, edit the game and go to download images and select the Steam Assets directly from within LaunchBox.

Or... select multiple Steam games and go to Tools < Download < Update Metadata and Media and on the image selection screen, uncheck all the boxes leaving the above 3 checked.  

 

The intent of this plugin [and all my plugins] is to provide features/enhancements (and many times just silly little niche things) that are not [currently?] inherent to LaunchBox.  Not reproduce things LaunchBox can already do for you.  Granted, a couple of my older plugins DO duplicate what LB can do for you.  But that's because they were made before LB added those features.  

[jmandmc]

I guess the problem I have is for other games that aren't bought on Steam, such as ones for the Nintendo Switch that also have a steam presence, but obviously do not refer to a Steam ID.  Launchbox does not grab those assets consistently. It's gotten better however, sometimes pulling the windows metadata and assets if a Switch equivalent is not available.

It's a moot point, I guess.  At least your scraper app can now point to the SteamGrid DB and on occasion pull the data from Steam DB or I can grab the assets from the website. 

 

Edited Sunday at 02:53 PM by jmandmc