Program prevents updating notes by disabling them

[MysticEast]

Hi Richard,
Sorry for long absence here and unfulfilled promises... But I do seem to be slowly winning against the cancer...

One of my promises was to do a new version of the Ling Qui Jing, eliminating the sexism and including other improvements too.
One of the other improvements was to expand the Category "Human" into "Self" and "Others". However this one change increased the number of cards from the already ample 125 up to a really mega 625!!

I didn't fancy writing or inputting that number of Card Notes with the inbuilt editor so I included into an Excell File the schema for each of the elements which are then automatically "written" to each Card's notes. This I then "surrounded" on either side with the necessary xml code lines at the start and end of each Card Note.

This I then pasted within the Header and Footer elements of an Orphalese generated but blank CardData.xml file.

The GOOD NEWS was that the first time I did this it worked fine - perfect! posting.php?mode=post&f=43#

However as with any Deck in Development I came to edit those notes. Adding a few phrases here and there and improving the look by including a few extra blank lines. However now the Program says that there is a problem with the CarData.xml file and it suppresses the notes. It suppresses the Notes Pop Up and the Inbuilt editor is now showing a blank, despite the notes being there in the file...

Now precisely because the process is more or less automatic, I can ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE that I made no chage to the xml code part - just to the text elements...

I re-did all this several times:
1) Checking what changes I had made in the Excell File - No, there were NO changes to the xml elements...
2) making sure that Orphalese was closed when updating.
3) Stripping out all the xml files and re-creating the Deck.
Nothing has worked...

So can I ask - What other things is Orphalese checking when it says that there is a problem with the CardData.xml file??
Or is it even possible somehow to overide this check?

Hoping that you can help - because I really don't want to manually enter 625 sets of notes. Well I can't and it won't happen, so this is a Deck-Breaker! posting.php?mode=post&f=43#

Regards
MysticEast
P.S. Hey, sorry that this is "Way Beyond Normal Usage" - but that's kind of normal for me what with being a "Transcendental Being"....

[WebWeaver]

Hi MysticEast, happy to read you are winning :)

As to the xml file, most likely there is some stray character that is causing the issue. You can look through it using a code editor I use a free program called Notepad++

If you have something not closing, or it's closing out is sequence this could be the issue. If something got deleted or added to one the the tags it could cause an issue. If you use a program like Notepad++ it will highlight the opening and closing tags.

[MysticEast]

Hi Web Weaver,
thanks for the idea. I use TextPad, which also has syntax files for various programming languages.
I've never bothered to install the xml syntax file, since I don't use it a lot (and it doesn't come pre-installed). But I will do that and see what it shows...

However I do seriously doubt that this will help, since as I said above - all the text, including the xml parts of the file are automatically generated by the excel file.
It all worked brilliant the first time!!
I made NO CHANGES to any of the cells containing the various xml elements, ONLY to the actual text.
So I simply don't see that it can be a missing anything from the xml...

Regrettably I was so enthused with the success of getting it working fine first time (with such a huge reduction in work) that I pasted the new version directly over the old. Yes - so I don't have a copy I can just put back "as it was".
I must get into the habit of zipping a copy of the entire Deck, whenever I'm making changes to Decks.............

Regards
MysticEast

P.S.
So Richard - this question Isn't answered yet:-
"So can I ask - What other things is Orphalese checking when it says that there is a problem with the CardData.xml file??"

[MysticEast]

Hi again Web Weaver (and Richard)
I did that check with xml syntax highlighted in TexPad. It doesn't show any errors, but then I didn't expect it to...

BUT some very good news (and then a little bad bit...)
I decided to do things differently from before (where I always closed Orphalese when making changes)
1) I first closed Orphalese
2) Then deleted the two notes xml files (but left the PackInfo)
3) I then Opened Orphalese, thus allowing it to create fresh blank xml files for both notes sections.
4) WITHOUT closing Orphalese (this time) I pasted into the Freshly created CardData.xml the output of the Excel File, over the highlighted Blank First Card Entry.
5) Saved the file
6) Tried the Cards - no notes
7) Went to another Deck and back and tried the Cards - no notes again - BUT
8) THIS TIME the program put up no warning about errors in the xml file and moreover it allowed me to manually select Card Notes - which it had been deniying me before...
9) PERFECT edited notes - - - Oh - Oh - Oh - Heaven!

- - -

OK so I've solved my own problem..... BUT:-
The whole process proves beyond doubt that Orphalese was WRONG in saying that there was a problem with my xml file!!
And very heavy handed in blocking those notes...
Perhaps not many other people out there will be creating Card Notes with Excel Formulas and Pasting the result straight into the xml CardData File, but nevertheless the program shouldn't do dat (make mistakes!) so perhaps if you have time Richard, you might want to investigate...

Regards to both of you
MysticEast
and sorry Richard - as always - for making you work harder...
And thanks for all your work, both past, present and future...

As for me, now that I've got the Fundamental Structure of the Deck and Card Notes in place and working fine, with Basic Details and a relevant Outline for each element in the Card, I've now got to manually do a Summary and Tying together for each of those 625 Cards! That will HAVE to be done manually - The Human Brain can't always be replaced... Even with very complicated formulas in their Cells, an Excel Spreadsheet isn't as good as the real Brain Cells
Now I won't be getting that done even in one week!!! Probably Two or Three...

[WebWeaver]

Glad you were able to get to where you are! Yes, code and computers and programs do not always do as expected or they should

Good luck and I hope you make sure to enjoy your process!
Shari

[MysticEast]

Hey Shari,
Totally unrelated to the thread but ...

I noticed your post Winking at me, but I had tried to put two Smilies in the first post of this thread but they don't show (just some code). I don't seem to have this skill!!

I first tried just clicking on the relevant Smilie but nothing happened, so I tried dragging and dropping them into place. That put the code there, but I could see nothing. No worries I thought - Probably something in my security Extensions in Firefox is blocking the Smilie?? Perhaps other people can still see them - I assumed...

Since I can see your smilie, but not mine, I must have got it wrong! Can you tell me how to do it please...
( I note that "Smilies are ON" is the setting in my browser)

Regards MysticEast

[WebWeaver]

When you are typing and click on a smilie it should put the code into the window for that one it is < : o ) without any spaces. To see the smilie you can click on preview.

Make sure you don't have a tick by "Disable smiles" in the option area below the text box.

[MysticEast]

Ok, thanks Shari. Now I've got to try that out!

That seemed to work...

So thanks for helping me to sort that out.

Actually I discovered it WAS one of my ssecurity extensions in Firefox preventing me from putting them in.
Within "No Script" I had to allow scripts from hostinguk.org
I'll make that permanent so I wont forget...

Thanks Shari
MysticEast

[WebWeaver]

Glad you figured it out. Smilies are too fun not to use sometimes