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Inventory Log

Posted by Panaku on Wed 12 Feb 2014 03:42 AM — 11 posts, 40,186 views.

Panaku #0
I'm attempting to create a log of character inventories and output this to a single file (ideally), though even separate files would work. I've run into two problems

I'm using WorldLog ("item") to log it to a file. I don't want it logging everything so I only have it log certain information, and every time the log opens it erases all previous data in the log, is there anyways to make it just append the log? What I'm really trying to achieve is something set up like:

Character1:
item
item
item

Character2:
item
item
item


If I have to do a separate log for each character thats not a horrible issue, but it would be much easier with just one txt file.



The second issue is erasing information from a file in lua, is there anyway to read whats in the file and remove something? That way if a character drops an item it will be erased from the log?

I know I can achieve this in C++, but that doesn't do much good and I'm hoping I can do it in Lua
Fiendish USA Global Moderator #1
I don't know what WorldLog is. Maybe you meant WriteLog?

http://www.gammon.com.au/scripts/doc.php?function=OpenLog
says you need to pass an append flag when opening your log file if you want to append instead of erase.

Quote:
The second issue is erasing information from a file in lua, is there anyway to read whats in the file and remove something?

Yes, but then you might just want to do all of the file handling stuff from Lua.

http://www.gammon.com.au/scripts/doc.php?general=lua_io
Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator #2
The word "log" isn't quite right here. A log records things that happened. You want more like a "database" of your inventory.

You could use Lua tables.

http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/?id=4903

Or to get fancier, an SQLite3 database.

http://www.gammon.com.au/db

http://www.gammon.com.au/sql

Then you simply add to the table/database when you get new items, and remove them when you drop items.
Panaku #3
So I took a look at Tables and Databases, tables I somewhat understood. Databases I didn't at all. Then I found the Lua I/O Library read over that and found pretty much everything I wanted.

I have my script around 75% or more finished. It notices when I log into a specific character and open/create the appropriate .txt file. Then everytime that character 'gets' an item ("You get a sword.") it writes "a sword" followed by a newline to "character.txt" and a flush. When the character logs out it closes the file.

The final task, which I can't seem to find anything useful on, is to remove an item that is dropped. So the line "You drop a sword." would fire a trigger that checks the file for "a sword" and when found erases it from the file.

Any suggestions?
Fiendish USA Global Moderator #4
When the character logs in, load the file and read inventory into a Lua table. When items are gained and dropped, modify the table but don't write anything to the file. When the character logs out, write the contents to the file. There's no great reason to use a text file on your hard drive for random access temporary storage.
Panaku #5
I apparently understand even less about tables than I thought, I'm currently reading over http://lua-users.org/wiki/TablesTutorial and I don't see how I'm supposed to achieve my goal.

We'll say that my file contains:

two small brass lanterns
a moon pendant
a red cultist's robe
two skull masks
a ruelbone hairpin
a copper halberd
a small brass lantern
a copper medallion
lacquered greaves
a targe
a falcata
a heavy carven staff
eldimleaf
a razor-barbed spiked chain
a black silk bandana
dark robes


I can't figure out how to make each one of those items it's own table, let alone how to reverse it and take my tables and make them lines in a text file.

The trigger I tried first just to create a table when I get an item..
<triggers>
  <trigger
   enabled="y"
   match="You get a *."
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>inv.%1= {
name = '%1'
}</send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>


Which didn't produce and error, but it didn't seem to do anything else. Needless to say I'm pretty lost when it comes to tables.
Panaku #6
After a lot of thinking and reworking I came up with this here.

<aliases>
  <alias
   match="inventory"
   enabled="y"
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send> for line in io.lines("Francis.txt") do
   table.insert (inventory, line)
 end
   table.foreachi (inventory, print)
</send>
  </alias>
</aliases>


This works as intended as gives the following as output as a note
1 two small brass lanterns
2 a moon pendant
3 a red cultist's robe
4 two skull masks
5 a ruelbone hairpin
6 a copper halberd
7 a small brass lantern
8 a copper medallion
9 lacquered greaves
10 a targe
11 a falcata
12 a heavy carven staff
13 eldimleaf
14 a razor-barbed spiked chain
15 a black silk bandana
16 dark robes
17 a black silk bandana


This tells me that it's properly reading the file and inserting everything into a table, I can change it from doing so via an alias into the log in trigger rather easily this was just better for testing. I still don't know how to remove one of the lines when I drop an item, I know how to remove a line manually (or at least in theory I do). I don't know how to make it automatically remove line #6 when I drop the halberd though.

Then there's the final step of opening the character file and rewriting it. I'm inching closer to the goal at least!
Panaku #7
This is how I'm attempting to delete a specific line, but it's achieving nothing that I can see.

<triggers>
  <trigger
   enabled="y"
   group="Inventory Log"
   match="You drop *."
   name="Dropper"
   omit_from_log="y"
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>inventory["%1"] = nil</send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>


If I change "%1" to 1 then it deletes the first entry which isn't quite what I'm needing. If I change "%1" to %1 (no quotes) then it returns the following error.
Compile error
World: Blood Dusk 1
Immediate execution
[string "Trigger: Dropper"]:1: ']' expected near 'red'


This was when I was dropping "a red cultist's robe"
Panaku #8
Just another update looking for some insight. I think what I need to utilize is string.match to match the wildcard from drop and remove it from the table or file, but I don't know how to get it to work off a wildcard, heh.
Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator #9
Try some debugging prints. Eg. print what %1 is.
Panaku #10
When I do a "print %1" when dropping it prints exactly what it should "a red cultist's robe" for example.

Run-time error
World: Blood Dusk 1
Immediate execution
[string "Trigger: Dropper"]:2: table index is nil
stack traceback:
        [string "Trigger: Dropper"]:2: in main chunk

This is what happens if I test the trigger I posted earlier using a single worded item "You drop knife." Even though actual output would never look like that.

You drop a red cultist's robe.
Compile error
World: Blood Dusk 1
Immediate execution
[string "Trigger: Dropper"]:2: ']' expected near 'red'

This is what happens if I drop an item with multiple words.