Abandoned Picard, the most handy toolEVER for an Inarauser

Moranaa

M
There seem a problem with it trying to update inara for commodities that actually aren't on inara, so it's spitting out an error.
Currently for me, Fujin Tea, but have also run into other commodities.

And, with it detecting unknown commodities, can't actually make an update to inara with the actually known materials.
Maybe give a force update option? And it just ignore the unknown materials/commodities?
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
CMDR Torsol said:
My friend CMDR VirtualPaper has launched Picard! He's posted to the Tools discussion, but it hasn't been approved yet. I'll update this with a link soon.

Both of us have been using Inara for a long time, and really hated the time it takes to update the cargo after a session. Seriously, updating 100+ numbers when you can only see 6 of them at a time is the kind of thing that makes you want to rip your hair out.

So he (with a little, tiny bit of help from me) created this tool. It will login to Inara for you, download what's currently up there, and then make changes based on the CMDR log. It will show you the changes that it's going to make, and then ask if you think it looks good. Then it will actually post the new numbers onto Inara, totally eliminating the most maddening part of using Inara for your Engineering tally sheet.

We've been building it and testing it for many weeks, and it seems to work really well. I hope you all try it out!

Download link: https://jefftickle.com/picard/

Yes, it will complain that it isn't a digitally signed program, because we don't have a certificate, but it's safe. You can view the source code at:

https://github.com/jtickle/Picard

Check it out, and I hope it helps you as much as it's helped me!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tool. Will download.
 

CMDR VirtualPaper

C
Hey folks,

New release today!

https://github.com/jtickle/Picard/releases/download/v1.0.3-beta/PicardSetup-1.0.3.msi

Here's the bad news about multiple commanders: I will implement support for this, but it's non-trivial. Several areas of the program assume you have only one, and there would need to be more UI work and a proper configuration page. For now, Picard will let you have one Elite Dangerous commander and one Inara account. The next time you run it, if you have only one local commander, you won't notice anything. But if you have multiple commanders, it will ask you which one you want to use, and that's the only one you will get to use for now.

Also, it handles unknown commodities a little more gracefully. It will warn you, and then save them to %APPDATA%\Local\TickleSoft\ignore. You can add more things to this file, one per line, but Picard will do it automatically as well.

Thanks to everyone who has tried it out and been patient! And glad to hear that there are some successes as well! And thanks jgm for the link EDDP/EDDI.... wish I had known about THAT a couple months ago...
 

CMDR VirtualPaper

C
I just posted an update, and I made a big long post about it here, but I think because I linked straight to an MSI, they're holding it for moderation.

Check the github releases page in the very first post on this thread :) Get version 1.0.3, the latest. It does not have multiple commander support yet BUT it will let you choose one commander to use and properly filter out the rest until I can get a bigger patch ready (probably 1.1.x). It also has better support for unknown commodities, letting you ignore them and submit to Inara.

Also with regards to the general status of Inara, I also hope they plan to continue working on it, or this is a lot of work for naught. I have nothing to do with Inara officially, unfortunately, so I can't really say. Picard was supposed to be a "quick hack" that ended up getting much more complicated.

Thanks everyone who has tried it out! And I'm glad to hear it has worked for some!
 
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CMDR Torsol

C
Hey All!

Picard just got updated. It now keeps a local list of ignored commodities so that you won't have to wait on a new release to update Inara! It also handles multiple CMDRs by asking which one you want to use when it begins. It can not handle more than one at this time though, because that's going to be a big job.

Download new releases from the GitHub: https://github.com/jtickle/Picard/releases

:)
 
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Codger

Codger
It's working as you stated, correctly filtering for the commander I specified. Very nice!

If I want to change commanders in the future, how would I switch Picard?
 

CMDR Torsol

C
artigan99 said:
It's working as you stated, correctly filtering for the commander I specified. Very nice!

If I want to change commanders in the future, how would I switch Picard?
Click to expand...

If you look in %AppData%\Local\Ticklesoft there will be a file called picard.state. That's got all of the settings and history for Picard. So, in theory, you could rename that file and the next time Picard runs, it will ask which CMDR you want to use, and prompt you for the Inara credentials for that CMDR. It will only look for that CMDR's history, and work like it should. You could then change the state files back and forth and it should work as a manual way to update multiple CMDRs.

I think the future version that VirtualPaper is working on will update multiple CMDRs in one run, but this would work for a temporary fix.
 

Codger

Codger
Ok, thanks for the info. Yes, it looks like I can deal with the picard.state file for now. I don't switch that often, but it will be handy on occasion. I tend to focus on one account at a time, usually :)

Thanks again!
 

GraXXoR

GraXXoR
CMDR Torsol said:
If you look in %AppData%\Local\Ticklesoft there will be a file called picard.state. That's got all of the settings and history for Picard. So, in theory, you could rename that file and the next time Picard runs, it will ask which CMDR you want to use, and prompt you for the Inara credentials for that CMDR. It will only look for that CMDR's history, and work like it should. You could then change the state files back and forth and it should work as a manual way to update multiple CMDRs.

I think the future version that VirtualPaper is working on will update multiple CMDRs in one run, but this would work for a temporary fix.
Click to expand...

Surely it would be not too untrivial for you to implement a UI to handle mutliple state files, one for each commander/inara combi, no?
 

CMDR VirtualPaper

C
GraXXoR said:
Surely it would be not too untrivial for you to implement a UI to handle mutliple state files, one for each commander/inara combi, no?
Click to expand...

Oh, you want the quick and easy but slightly clunky solution? :) I was thinking about how to get all the commanders loaded up and updated at the same time, and it never occurred to me to just ask which commander you want at startup. Should be quite trivial.
 

Codger

Codger
Here's a few items in the "unfortunate" list. Not sure why they show up, but...

landmines
kamitracigars
fujintea
witchhaulkobebeef
taurichimes

I think rares in general are not recognized.

Thanks again for the great tool

And yes, the quick and easy, slightly clunky solution would be just fine!
 

Monk

Monk
I was just getting into using INARA recently and this was driving me mad. This tool is awesome...just...awesome.
 
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Nepukatnezzar

N
unfortunately it doesnt work for me!
when i discard materials or sell commodities nothing happens. what am i doing wrong?


EDIT:
i am playing over steam. maybe the log files can't be read for that reason? any ideas?
 
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CMDR Torsol

C
Nepukatnezzar said:
unfortunately it doesnt work for me!
when i discard materials or sell commodities nothing happens. what am i doing wrong?


EDIT:
i am playing over steam. maybe the log files can't be read for that reason? any ideas?
Click to expand...

I play on Steam too, so I don't think that's the issue.

It could be related to a possibly big issue that was recently discovered. Say the following happens:

1. Open Picard.
2. Launch ED.
3. Run around and do things.
4. Sync Picard without hitting Refresh.
5. Then relaunch Picard and nothing shows.

The reason this can happen is because Picard uses the log file name as the most recent sync point (if I'm getting the bug right). ED only makes a new log file when you exit the game and log back in. So, if the refresh button isn't used, Picard can overlook a large chunk of stuff.

I know that VP is working on a fix that will take into account the time stamps of the log entries to ensure you're not hitting this bug. But best practice is to:

1. Launch Picard. Make sure nothing is left over from the last time you played.
2. Close Picard.
3. Play ED.
4. Exit ED.
5. Launch Picard and sync.

That's pretty much how we tested it. We did use the Refresh button some, but not nearly as heavily as we should have. That's my fault, I was supposed to try and break it.

Cheers, and fly safe CMDRs!
 

CMDR VirtualPaper

C
Quick update - 1.0.4 is available from the GitHub Releases page. I am hesitant to post links due to posts getting moderated, but check the first post for a link.

This ensures that the bug that CMDR Torsol mentioned is fixed. It reloads your log files every time you show the Picard window, but that only takes a brief instant and it makes sure you can't post without being up to date.

Basically: you can leave Picard running while you play the game if you want, and it will be updated with your current inventory whenever you switch to it, without clicking the Refresh button.

I've had three reports of not updating properly. That lead to finding the above edge case, but I am pretty sure something else is wrong here. Nepukatnezzar, thanks for the Github report.

If, after restarting Picard, it doesn't see your changes, please have a look in your user home directory, C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous. There should be a bunch of dated log files there. If that folder does not exist or there are no files there, please let me know. For the record I have the Steam version of ED, but I would like to support any other possibilities that are out there.

I will add a way to configure the journal directory, but I still want it to be able to autodetect common configurations.

Going to put some dirty drive tuning on the multi-engineer support this weekend. Should be fun! Thanks for the great feedback everyone.
 
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GraXXoR

GraXXoR
Now, I know this is probably a little out of spec, but would it be possible to update the following to Inara:

Current Credit Balance
Current System

and maybe even:

Rank and progress
Engineer reputations
 
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