# XML list of monsters



## kamosa (Mar 12, 2004)

Hello.

I'm looking to build a DB tool to help create encounters for my home game. Since I don't want to type it all in, I was hoping someone had already converted the monster manual to and XML file. Does anyone out there in Enworld land have such a file, or perhaps a csv file. Heck I't even take and excel file.

Thanks.


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## Davin (Mar 12, 2004)

Be careful that you ask for/get the [R]SRD monster list rather than the actual MM monsters.  The ones out of the book are WotC IP and shouldn't be shared in that manner.


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## Jeranon (Mar 12, 2004)

Try andargor.


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## Sir Whiskers (Mar 12, 2004)

Jeranon said:
			
		

> Try andargor.




Just a note, this is in pseudo-xml format. I never could get it to import into MS Access or Excel. YMMV.

If you're using MySQL, you should have no problems - that's what andargor uses.


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## omokage (Mar 12, 2004)

it's not "pseudo-xml" that I can tell (I don't think there is such a thing), it just has errors in it that keep it from parsing correctly.


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## Jeranon (Mar 12, 2004)

omokage said:
			
		

> it's not "pseudo-xml" that I can tell (I don't think there is such a thing), it just has errors in it that keep it from parsing correctly.




If I remember correctly, do a global search and replace on '&' for '&' (in the reference element).


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## omokage (Mar 12, 2004)

Jeranon said:
			
		

> If I remember correctly, do a global search and replace on '&' for '&' (in the reference element).



an undeclared entity '&' in this case would cause an error, but I got some other errors too, one involving a tag ending with ) instead of > for some reason.


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## Sir Whiskers (Mar 13, 2004)

omokage said:
			
		

> it's not "pseudo-xml" that I can tell (I don't think there is such a thing), it just has errors in it that keep it from parsing correctly.




I'll take your word for it concerning the terminology - I'm just repeating what was said on the thread where the link was first posted some months ago.   

Regardless, as you've indicated, attempting to import the file generates a lot of errors. I figure someone will eventually post a file I can use, so I didn't spend much time trying to find all of them.


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## andargor (Mar 13, 2004)

Sir Whiskers said:
			
		

> I'll take your word for it concerning the terminology - I'm just repeating what was said on the thread where the link was first posted some months ago.
> 
> Regardless, as you've indicated, attempting to import the file generates a lot of errors. I figure someone will eventually post a file I can use, so I didn't spend much time trying to find all of them.




I've (finally) updated the files on my site. It is proper XML now. Enjoy!

Andargor


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## Sir Whiskers (Mar 13, 2004)

andargor said:
			
		

> I've (finally) updated the files on my site. It is proper XML now. Enjoy!
> 
> Andargor




Many Thanks! I just downloaded it and the monster data imports fine. 

One quick tip: for some creatures, the "organization" field has more than 255 characters. If importing into Access, set this field to memo, or live with the fact that the program will truncate the data when importing.


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## kamosa (Mar 14, 2004)

Thank you all, especially andargor.  I'm downloading the file now.


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## gravyboat (Mar 16, 2004)

I was hoping someone could explain to me the benefits and possibilities of using XML when creating D&D software utilities.  I don't know much about XML except that its used as a sort of data storage format useful for databases.  Is accessing of data within XML files fast?  Is it common for programs to read and write XML files? What are the benefits of using XML within a program as opposed to writing a class in C# or Java to represent the data stored, such as for spells or monsters?  Is it possible to write a utility in C# that neatly displays the monster and spell data in the XML files in a user readable format?

I am really interested in hearing about the possibilities of what can be done with XML in terms of potential D&D utilities.

Thank you,
Gravyboat


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## Davin (Mar 16, 2004)

XML is a method of formatting data so it can be easily transferred from place to place (and understood when it gets there). It doesn't really have anything to do (directly) with D&D or databases or anything like that.  It's just for data exchange.

You might like to check out <www.w3schools.org> for an introduction.


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## omokage (Mar 16, 2004)

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a human-readable format for describing data that is highly flexible (extensible).
XML is platform independent. Java and C classes can be and have been written to translate the data in XML as described.

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is a human-readable language specifically designed for formatting XML data. XSL Transformations (XSLT) is used to transform XML data into another, more user friendly format, such as a web page or spreadsheet. XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO) is used to layout XML data like XSLT, but is geared toward formats like PDF.

Mostly XML is used to port information from one format to another. Either moving data from one database to another, or translating database data into a webpage or PDF.


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