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Category: Outdated LotRO InterfacesLotRO Character Journal Gadget for Adobe AIR
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Name: LotRO Character Journal Gadget for Adobe AIR   Popular!
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Date: 07-17-2011 01:30 AM
Size: 604.60 Kb
Version: 0.7 (beta)
Rate File: 5 out of 5 with 1 votes  
Pictures
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Dimensions: 214 x 294
Characters being Preloaded
 
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Dimensions: 420 x 550
Stat panel and Tooltip shown
 
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Adding characters to the widget
 
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Dimensions: 218 x 299
Basic view
 
Description
This is no longer being maintained. Please see this thread for more information

What is it?

Similar in spirit to my Windows Sidebar gadget, this serves as a way to add and keep track of your characters - right from your desktop. While there are many, many upsides to using Adobe AIR over Windows Gadgets, there is one downside that should be mentioned. You will need to install Adobe AIR before you can use this Widget.

System Requirements

Simply any operating system that can run Adobe AIR. This includes not only Windows 7/Vista but also Windows xp, OS X and Linux.

Installation

Once you download and install Adobe AIR, simply open lcj.air, and the installation dialogue will display. Follow through the process, and you'll be able to run it immediately.

Note: Because I did not have this widget professionally signed - it will display a scary looking message, stating that the Publisher is not known. Yes, it obviously accesses the internet - but the only files it accesses on your computer is the database file it creates to store your characters. Even still, it is better to be safe, than sorry - so if you have any concerns, I will not be offended if you don't use this

First Use

In order to track your characters, first you have to add them. This is accomplished by simply clicking the cursive "i" you see in one of the top corners of the widget when your mouse pointer is over it (which specific corner it shows up in, depends on your OS). Clicking this will "flip" the widget over, allowing you to enter your character's name, pick the server, and add it to the list. Once added your character will be validated (to make sure it exists) - appearing with a yellow background at first, followed by (hopefully) a green one. If you get a red background, it means your character couldn't be found - and you should check your input. Once you're done adding characters, hit OK, and the widget will "flip" back to start loading data.

Former EU characters should be able to be added, however until such a time that Turbine completes the process of providing data for those characters, LCJ may not find your character.

General Use

Most things are pretty easy to figure out without a 1500 page manual. Mousing over a slot will display its tooltip, the bottom buttons display basic stats, crafting and PvMP information - in that order, and your Character's name, level, class icon, and kin name are displayed on the main widget.

There are a couple of things though that do require a bit of explanation:

Navigation

While the swipe motion was an interesting idea in theory, it just wasn't working reliably enough in practice. So, instead, it was replaced by not one, but two methods of navigation

1) Buttons - in the place of the swipe panel, there are now two buttons where the kinship name is displayed. Click the right half to view the next character and the left half to view the previous one. Mousing over the areas will display the respective arrow as an overlay.

2)Mouse Wheel - In addition to basic clicking, you can now flip through your characters with the mouse wheel. Scrolling down will navigate to the next character, and up to view the previous one.

Server Status

The little bubble around your level will start out grey, but will quickly turn to another color (most likely green). This is the server status indicator - and while green = good, and almost everything else = bad, should be easy enough to figure out on your own, here's a breakdown of what the colors actually mean:
  • Red: Server is Offline
  • Orange: Server is Closed
  • Yellow: Server is Full
  • Green: Server is Up
  • Grey: Default color - usually seen when status is first being checked, or when there's no server to check (i.e. when the gadget isn't displaying a character)
  • Any other color: Zombies.

Features
  • Basic Character Information
  • Equipped Inventory
  • Tooltips created using direct visual and layout references from the game itself.
  • Monster Player Support
  • Crafting Information (Professions, and Mastery/Proficiency numbers)
  • Basic Stats (Armor,Morale,Power,Stats,Mitigations,Resistances, Avoidances)
  • PvMP stats, including rank, rating, and progress to the next rank.
  • Server Status

Change Log

v0.7 (7/17/11)
  • The swipe method for browsing characters has been replaced with right and left navigation buttons in the same location.
  • Browsing via Mouse wheel is now supported as well

v0.6 (7/13/11)
  • Players with characters on Laurelin and Gwaihir were being unfairly snubbed - this has been corrected.

v0.5 (6/20/11)
  • Fixed an issue where monster characters would cause the app to hang during loading
  • Fixed an issue where non-monster characters would cause the app to hang during loading, if they did not have any gear equipped.
  • Added support for European Servers You will not be able to add any EU characters until Turbine turns on the data feed for those servers/characters. However, once they do - this should work fine.
  • Fixed a typo with the Dwarrowdelf server in the settings, that would prevent characters from that server to be added

v0.4 (5/30/11)
  • Fixed an issue where the app would hang while loading - due to issues with preloading the icons
  • Slot/Tooltip icons are now resampled for better appearance.

v0.3 (5/29/11)
  • Character data comes directly from Turbine's API - for better (more reliable) or worse (more stuff to load).
  • Sensitivity was increased on the navigation slider
  • The widget will once again have a taskbar icon - as there really was no good way to hide it, without causing some obnoxious usability issues.


Known Issues
  • If you flip to the settings, select an existing character to edit, but flip back before making any changes - the next time you flip back to the settings, that character will still be in "edit mode" - leaving you unable to add/edit any other characters. Simply hitting "Save" or "Cancel" underneath the text box will return it to normal
Archive List (Old Versions)
File Name
Version
Size
Author
Date
0.6 (beta)
604.29 Kb
Digital_Utopia
07-13-2011 02:15 PM
0.5 (beta)
604.24 Kb
Digital_Utopia
06-20-2011 12:53 AM
0.4 (beta)
460.84 Kb
Digital_Utopia
05-30-2011 07:05 PM
0.3 (beta)
460.80 Kb
Digital_Utopia
05-30-2011 02:35 AM
File Statistics
User Rating:
5 out of 5 with 1 votes
Downloads: 16573
Views: 59831
Favorites: 9
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Last Modified: 04-10-2012 03:45 AM by Digital_Utopia    

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Unread 05-30-2011, 07:26 AM  
rogerwroten
The Wary

Forum posts: 0
File comments: 15
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A Problem . . .

I am having a problem with this. I DLed AIR and installed that. I installed LotROChar and ran it. I added two characters and both were green.

Now my problem. When I continued, the little blue bar at the bottom started moving with 1of 2 above it and the character name. It gets halfway and stops. And it never moves past that point. And I cannot do anything else except close the program. If I restart it the same thing happens.

Am I doing something wrong, and how can I correct it?

Edit: I tried to uninstall and reinstall, but the character info must be saved in another place because when I reinstalled the same character was there and the same problem occurs.

Last edited by rogerwroten : 05-30-2011 at 07:37 AM.
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Unread 05-30-2011, 09:02 AM  
celtictoad13
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@rogerwroten
You are not alone in this. I am having the same issue. What I can say is its a bug. Give D_U some time and I am sure he will get a fix pushed out. So please check back soon

edit: Please take into account as the version # suggests it is a beta. Betas will have bugs. And w/ programming things are never a spit and shine polish... LOL just ask Micro$oft...

edit2: @ D_U used the debugger function in Visual Studio 2010. and getting "Cannot find or open the PDB file" Hope this helps

Last edited by celtictoad13 : 05-30-2011 at 09:23 AM.
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Unread 05-30-2011, 01:47 PM  
Digital_Utopia
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Just wanted to say that I'm looking into this, and currently attempting to recreate the problem, so I can work on finding a solution.

So far - this has been what I've tried.
  • updated Adobe AIR to the latest version
  • removed all characters, flipped back, then readded them
  • changed the name of the local database file
  • removed all characters, exited the app, then opened it again to readd characters

So far no issues - I will attempt to install it on a different machine, and see if my results change, but for now: please let me know the character/server it hangs on. Not only will this let me get a bit closer to seeing things from your end, but it will also make it so that I can completely remove the possibility of character data being the culprit.

To be honest, the visual studio error doesn't make much sense - storage is done with SQLLite, and nothing at all comes up when searching for Adobe AIR with PDB.

Last edited by Digital_Utopia : 05-30-2011 at 02:04 PM.
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Unread 05-30-2011, 03:03 PM  
celtictoad13
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OK lets get the info ....

Adobe Air 2.6.0.19140 up to date

Udhir/Landroval

and its stopping half way to loading that char.

check your private mail on here sent you a log file of the debug

edit: @ D_U
could not upload that file so 3 private messages w/ debug info

Last edited by celtictoad13 : 05-30-2011 at 03:15 PM.
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Unread 05-30-2011, 05:05 PM  
Digital_Utopia
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Ok. I believe I've found the problem, and an update should be ready soon; but I do at least want to take a look at resampling options before releasing.

The problem is thus: in the iconURL attribute, Turbine provides the direct path to the icon image, that automatically redirects to a "?" if that image isn't found. However, since this is probably done via mod rewrite, as opposed to a server side script, it will generate a 404 error in the process.

Now, most web browsers are pretty lenient when it comes to that error - even if the server kicks back such an error, the browser will still dutifully puke out whatever content is generated. Fortunately for the purposes of logic and sense, and unfortunately for the system Turbine has set up, apps see a 404 error, and rightfully assume that it doesn't exist.

So long story short, what was happening is that an item existed with an iconURL, and that icon didn't exist - but rather than just go with the flow and use the generated "?" icon, it freaked.

Thankfully, there's a much more reliable and code-friendly alternative that still uses Turbine's servers alone - a server-side script (php) that generates an item's icon by id. While I was using this system if an item didn't exist, the next update will use this system entirely.
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Unread 05-30-2011, 07:08 PM  
Digital_Utopia
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v0.4 has been uploaded and is waiting approval - check the above changelog for changes.
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Unread 05-30-2011, 07:16 PM  
celtictoad13
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Woot... its working fine here. once installed all data came up as it should

Nice Job D_U
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Unread 05-30-2011, 07:40 PM  
rogerwroten
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Thanks for the quick work

Thank you it is working for me now. Great Job!
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Unread 05-30-2011, 08:06 PM  
Digital_Utopia
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Quote:
Woot... its working fine here. once installed all data came up as it should

Nice Job D_U
Quote:
Thank you it is working for me now. Great Job!
Thank you both, I'm glad it's working now
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Unread 05-31-2011, 03:36 PM  
shotblker23
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Awesome job! Both the AIR and Windows gadgets are working flawlessly on my computer. Looking forward to the Android app version!
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Unread 06-10-2011, 05:06 AM  
MP69
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This tool looks fantastic indeed. Would it be possible to include the recently migrated EU servers?
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Unread 06-10-2011, 01:03 PM  
Digital_Utopia
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Quote:
Awesome job! Both the AIR and Windows gadgets are working flawlessly on my computer. Looking forward to the Android app version!
Thank you, and I'm glad to hear that

I hate to do any self-promotion, but if you (or anybody else) is interested in following my progress on any LotRO themed project, including the (yet to be named) Android App, I have started using my blog at my.lotro.com again.

Any progress, thoughts, or mockups/screenshots will be posted there, and everybody is more than welcome to contribute by providing their opinions or thoughts in the comments. While I'm not going to act on every opinion/suggestion - for hopefully obvious reasons, I do always keep them in mind.

Quote:
This tool looks fantastic indeed. Would it be possible to include the recently migrated EU servers?
Right now, I have a new version of both Character Journals sitting on my computer, complete with the recently added EU servers. The only thing I'm waiting on is for Turbine to provide data.lotro.com support (should happen about the same time as my.lotro/sig support) for EU players. As soon as that happens, and I check to make sure everything is working, I will be more than happy to make it available

On a personal note, I'm very happy that EU players are finally going to be getting all the benefits of those of us who play on US servers. I've always hated needing to put that "US players only" disclaimer

Last edited by Digital_Utopia : 06-10-2011 at 01:17 PM.
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Unread 06-11-2011, 04:56 AM  
ado
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looks great and works exapt the eu servers aren't in it to choose could you add those now the migration is over?
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Unread 06-11-2011, 01:13 PM  
Digital_Utopia
The Undying
 
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Quote:
looks great and works exapt the eu servers aren't in it to choose could you add those now the migration is over?
Right now I'm waiting on them to give you guys character data support through the data.lotro.com service. As soon as they do that, I'll be more than happy to release a version that includes EU servers.

Chances are that this will happen about the same time as you get my.lotro.com support, which from a brief look on the forums, looks like it won't be until late June/early July.

However, I will keep my eyes open, and as soon as this happens I will release an update that includes EU servers.
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Unread 06-19-2011, 08:34 PM  
Indy_UKCM
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Have installed and got this running...... great little app, Kudos for creating it

I know the EU servers arent sorted properly yet but have noticed another little bug

When picking your Server, you have Darrowdelf listed.... it's actually DWARROWDELF ... and it refuses to load my toons. Other Servers get my toons fine, just not this one
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