How is the database created?

[dennj]

I know that the toolset does not allow importing resources. I know that the toolset does not allow you to open external resources in their associated editor. (No matter what format the resources is, it will be opened as hex or w/e in the ERF editor) I know that there is no way to mod (lol) files that are not already a part of the database. The database comes with files in it, you can make changes to those files, and create new files in it, but there is no way to access anything outside of the database, or add anything to the database from outside. I am aware of this.

 

However. I had assumed that the database was created when the toolset is installed, and is created out of the files in the game directory, thus allowing the toolset to be up-to-date with the game. This is not the case. I tried manually adding a modified dialogue file to all 4~5 .ERF files where the bed100cr_tamlen.dlg file appears (including the bed100cr_tamlen.dlb, where that appears).

 

I then installed the toolset. When I play the game, I get the modified file. When I open the editor, I get the original version. It should not exist. I don't know where the toolset is getting it from. The original version literally did not exist on my computer, anywhere, when I installed the editor.

 

This is a big problem for me. If I cannot get my files into the editor, I obviously cannot edit them. They are not finished. I NEED to get that .dlg file to open in the DLGEditor.[\b].

 

 

Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Or have a solution???

[TerraEx]

Resources can be exported / imported via Builder to Builder packages (*.dadbdata files) - http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Builder_to_builder. A B2B is essentially a zip file containing a set of xml files which allow the toolset to construct a resource based on the xml nodes within each xml. I believe (though I am not certain) the toolset probably stores all files as serialised xml data. The toolset doesn't look at ERF packages as these are used solely by the game. The initial game database is premade by bioware (it's actually available on one of their project pages I believe as a B2B package, search for "Single player and core resource source files" on the Bioware Social site if you want to see that). The toolset creates its initial database by importing this file.

 

Exported resources such as .dlgs are encapsulated within Bioware's GFF format (http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/GFF) and are not in any kind of user-friendly format for working with. If you want to get at the dialog contained within a .dlg file you'd need to reverse the GFF file format then write a program that could reconstruct a valid xml document for that dlg file to be loaded via B2B - this is not a trivial task by any measure.

 

Long story short, it'd be faster to simply edit the .dlg from scratch again and remember to backup via b2b packages.

[dennj]

Resources can be exported / imported via Builder to Builder packages (*.dadbdata files) - http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/Builder_to_builder. A B2B is essentially a zip file containing a set of xml files which allow the toolset to construct a resource based on the xml nodes within each xml. I believe (though I am not certain) the toolset probably stores all files as serialised xml data. The toolset doesn't look at ERF packages as these are used solely by the game. The initial game database is premade by bioware (it's actually available on one of their project pages I believe as a B2B package, search for "Single player and core resource source files" on the Bioware Social site if you want to see that). The toolset creates its initial database by importing this file.

 

Exported resources such as .dlgs are encapsulated within Bioware's GFF format (http://social.bioware.com/wiki/datoolset/index.php/GFF) and are not in any kind of user-friendly format for working with. If you want to get at the dialog contained within a .dlg file you'd need to reverse the GFF file format then write a program that could reconstruct a valid xml document for that dlg file to be loaded via B2B - this is not a trivial task by any measure.

 

Long story short, it'd be faster to simply edit the .dlg from scratch again and remember to backup via b2b packages.

 

You are the best person I have ever met. You have answered all of my questions. I had read about all the topics that you touched on, but I could not see how they connected to the total issue of how the toolset stores and handles data. I knew that it did not import files directly, and that it had this b2b stuff, but I didn't understand what the database actually contained or where those files came from. I also did not realize that files in the database were not in GFF format. I did think that there was an awful lot of XML data, but I didn't realize the standard file formats would be filtered into XML and stored that way. I assumed the editors simply parsed the GFF data on the fly.

 

And you're right about what I have to do. I obviously did not realize that I needed to back up my files as b2b. Of course I will have to recreate them now.

 

Thankyou for your wisdom. : )