DKP List Updater

From LokDoc

DKP List Updater (DKPLU) is a program designed to enable people to see the DKP standings from EQDKP inside EverQuest and EverQuest 2 through the UI. Basically the program downloads the standings and transforms them into an XML file for the game's UI (replacing a selectable UI window). The user can then call up the list via the appropriate commands and look at the standings sorted via either name or points.

The program has to be run every time one wants to update the list. But once the options have been entered there's no extra work required as the updater will pop up, update, close and then launch the game. So basically one gets an in game list of the DKP without any extra work.

Contents 1 Installation 2 Results 2.1 EverQuest 2.2 EverQuest 2 3 Interface 3.1 Progress window 3.2 Options window 3.3 EQDKP reader window 4 Menu 4.1 File 4.2 Configuration 4.3 About 5 Options 5.1 Options that must be configured 5.2 Optional 5.3 UI options 5.4 Color options 5.5 Automatic start 5.6 UI window selection 5.7 Browser view 5.8 Recommendations 6 EQDKP reader 7 UI commands 7.1 EverQuest 7.2 EverQuest II 8 UIW templates 8.1 The tags 8.1.1 EverQuest 8.1.2 EverQuest 2 9 Handling errors 10 External links

Installation

The porgram is only available for Windows and can be downloaded from http://www.lokorin.com/dkplu/download .

The installation itself should be quite straight forward. The first time you open the program you will have to set a couple of options.

• Url for member standings
• Your UI directory

Another thing that you might have to do is log in into EQDKP through the browser view (this is only necessary if your guild's standings are not publicly accessible). To do this you should attempt to start the process through the progress window by clicking on the Start button. It should return an error message saying that you have to configure the program or log into EQDKP (or something like that). After that you go back to the options window and you should now see your guild's EQDKP page in the browser view. Log in as you would normally do but through the browser view (and be sure to select "Remember me (cookie)" when logging in).

Results

The created DKP list replaces or augments a UI window, you can choose from a wide array of windows in the UI window selection.

EverQuest

In EverQuest the list is represented by two tabs, one with the list sorted by the players' names and the other sorted by points.

EverQuest 2

In EverQuest 2 the list is represented by a table which can be sorted by name or points.

Interface

The program is designed to be fairly unnoticeble when configured correctly. Therefor you wont normally see a lot of interface.

Progress window

The progress window is the screen that opens when one starts the program. It displays what the program is doing (downloading standings, creating the XML file and so on). You will have to press the Start button on the top of the screen to start the process if you do not have the program set to automatically start. The menu gives you access to the interesting places like the options and the EQDKP reader configuration.

Options window

The options window contains all the options along with a browser view. From here you can configure what you want the program to do.

EQDKP reader window

The EQDKP reader window contains a manual configuration tool for telling the program how to read the EQDKP page (which can be heavily modified). This tool is normally not needed as the program is generally able to figure out how to read the EQDKP page on it's own. View this window as a last resort if it's apparent that the program is unable to read the EQDKP page correctly.

Menu

File

• Exit: Exits the program.

Configuration

• Options: Opens the options window.
• EQDKP readming: Opens the EQDKP reading window.
• Reset settings: Restores all settings to the state they were in when the program was first installed.

About

Opens a basic about box with some standard details about the program.

Options

Options that must be configured

• URL for the member standings: The address to your guild's EQDKP page with all DKP standings (for example http://www.lokorin.com/eqdkp/listmembers.php).
• Your UI directory: The directory in which you keep your UI (for example C:\EverQuest\uifiles\DKP\).

Optional

• Auto start: Checking this makes the process automatically start when one starts the program (so one doesn't have to push the Start button all the time).
• Close after finishing: Checking this makes the program automatically close after successfully updating the UI's DKP list.
• Generate debug info: Writes a lot of debug info to a file while processing. This is used when handling errors.

UI options

These options only apply to EverQuest.

• Column width: How many pixels wide you want the list columns to be. (default: 70)
• Column spacing: How many pixels you want separating the two columns (names and DKP). (default: 8)
• Label height: What you want the labels' height (in pixels) to be. (default: 14)
• Label spacing: How many pixels you want separating the labels vertically. (default: 4)

Color options

These options only apply to EverQuest.

• First alternating color: The first alternate color that should be used for rows. It can be changed by clicking the Change button.
• Second alternating color: The second alternate color that should be used for rows. It can be changed by clicking the Change button.

Automatic start

• Automatically start EQ after finishing: Checking this will make the program start the specified program after the update is finished. It's meant for automatically starting EverQuest but it works with any program, so one can use EverQuest 2 and EQW too.
• Program path: The path to the program that is automatically started (for example C:\EverQuest\Everquest.exe). One can use the Browse button to help.

UI window selection

The list contained here contains all approved UIW templates found in the UIWindows subdirectory. They each correspond to a UI window inside EverQuest or EverQuest 2. For example "EQUI_FriendsWnd.uiw" will replace the friends window inside EQ with a DKP list. Pick the window that you want replaced in this list.

Browser view

From here one can view the EQDKP page and it's from here that one might have to log in.

Recommendations

The following options are recommended.

• Auto start
• Close after finishing
• Automaticaly start EQ after finishing

Those options make it so that one can replace the EQ or EQ2 icon (or what every one uses to start the game) with DKP List Updater. The process becomes something like thw followin.

DKPLU starts --> the UI list is updated --> DKPLU automatically starts the game --> DKPLU automatically closes

EQDKP reader

The EQDKP reader window can be accessed through the menu. Its purpose is to provide a last resort if the DKP List Updater program is unable to read an EQDKP page (i.e. because of some very heavy modifications to the EQDKP standings page). Through this window you can manually override DKPLU's guesses of where the correct data is (names, current DKP and more)

The browserview will start loading the EQDKP page that is entered in the options on startup. After it is loaded the program will display where it think the correct data is and then it's up to the user to correct it.

There are four simple steps to configure the reading.

1. If the tables in step 2 and 3 are not displaying the right data then one has to change the number in the group named Stage 1 - Enter the table's number. Start at 0 and keep increasing the number by one until step 2 and 3 display the correct table.
2. Select the row in the table (inside the group box named step 2) that contains the character's names.
3. Select the row in the table that contains the current DKP.
4. Look at the results to the right. Do they look like you want them? Or is a name missing or is there unwanted data in the results? Modify the first row's number contained in step 4 until the results are correctly displayed.

One is then asked if one wants to save the changes upon closing the window.

An interesting part of the EQDKP reader window is the Results group to the right of the window. It displays the current parameters used for reading EQDKP. A couple of useful buttons here are the Guess and Reset buttons. The Guess button will have DKPLU use it's normal guessing algorithm to find probable parameters. The Reset button will reset the parameters to the last saved state.

UI commands

The basic UIW template pack that comes with the program contains eleven templates, which means that one can choose between eleven UI windows to replace. Ten in EverQuest and one in EverQuest 2.

EverQuest

UIW file	Actual UI window	Command
EQUI_ActionsWindow	Action Window	Alt+M
EQUI_BugResportWnd	Bug Report window	/bug
EQUI_FeedbackWnd	Feedback window	/f, /feedback
EQUI_FriendsWnd	Friends window	Alt+F
EQUI_HelpWnd	Help window	Accessed through the window selector
EQUI_MusicPlayerWnd	MP3 window	Alt+K, /mp3
EQUI_PlayerNotesWindow	Notes window	/not, /note
EQUI_SelectorWnd	Window Selector window	Alt+W
EQUI_StoryWnd	Story window	Alt+N
EQUI_TributeBenefitWnd	Tribute window	Alt+U

EverQuest II

UIW file	Actual UI window	Command
eq2ui_community	Community Window	Y

UIW templates

The purpose of UI window (UIW) templates is to make it possible to have DKP List Updater replace multiple UI windows and to allow users to modify how the window looks.

The templates are mostly native EQ or EQ2 UI XML code but there are some special tags that tell DKP List Updater where to insert its data. All tags connected to a game have to be included for the template to validate as a valid template.

The tags

Here is a list of the tags that have special meaning in the templates. The best way to figure out how to use the tags is probably to look inside the basic pack provided with the program.

EverQuest

The first line isn't really a tag but it specifies a prefix for all UI pieces created by DKPLU. The prefix's purpose is to make it possible to have multiple DKP lists (i.e. one for current DKP and one for total earned DKP) without crashing EQ (as two pieces can't have the same name). Example: "Fr".

[DKPLU labels]

DKPLU replaces this tag with the DKPLU labels when creating a DKP list. This tag should obviously not be placed inside another piece or anything like that.

[DKPLU tabs]

DKPLU replaces this tag with the code for the tab windows, to create the tabs in the DKP list.

[DKPLU date]

DKPLU replaces this tag with <text>$update_date<text> where $update_date is the date during which the list was last updated. This should be placed in the screen tag (and no other <text> tags should exists in the same screen tag).

[DKPLU pieces]

DKPLU replaces this tag with the references to the earlier created pieces. It should be placed last in the screen tag.

EverQuest 2

[DKPLU page]

DKPLU replaces this tag with an page containing a table with DKP information that can then be used with the DKPLU tab tag below.

[DKPLU tab]

DKPLU replaces this tag with a tab labelled DKP pointing to the page created with the DKPLU page tab above.

Handling errors

If you find a problem or something that the program does wrong then please activate the generate debug info option and run the program again to make it repeat the error. This should have create a textfile called "debug.txt" in DKPLU's folder. Contact Lokorin with the contents of the textfile along with a description of your error.

External links

• DKP List Updater - The home of the DKP List Updater project.