Orphalese Tarot Zone Community Forum

Hi Everyone,

OK, here it is!!

As previously announced, the version 7.2 beta includes a client side browser tool for managing the user's Deck Exchange experience. You will find it contains an Outlook type interface which looks like an empty in box when you first open it. Press the Refresh button to download data about all the decks on the Deck Exchange. You are only downloading data about the decks, not the decks themselves, so you will find this is very quick (it takes about twenty seconds with ADSL). You then have a list of 680 odd decks. You can create nested folders for them using the left hand part of the form, and drag and drop them. You can sort them by clicking on any of the column headers. I have tried to make the whole thing like Outlook because it is a familiar kind of interface. In the future checking to see if there are new decks in the exchange will be just like checking your email.

In the final 7.2 release you will be able to upload and download decks using the same form, but at the moment you will have to do this in the usual way using the web interface.

You can click on a preview button to have a quick preview of any of the decks. This is the really clever part. When you click on the preview button the program sends out an HTML request to the server where the zipped up deck resides. It then reads the structure of the zip file and extracts JUST THE PARTICULAR IMAGE that you are interested in. A thumbnail sized copy is also saved on your machine so you only have to do this once for any card. I have tested this using a 20 meg zip file that would take several minutes to download. The program is able to get a preview out in a matter of seconds. I would really like to be able to take credit for writing this code but I have to confess that I have stood on the shoulders of giants with this one. It is amazing what great code you can find on the internet for .NET.

I hope a few adventurous souls will download and try the new beta. This version is going to have a much longer roll-out period than 7.1 did, the client-side model that I am using for the deck exchange is also going to be applied to the spreads page, the CardData page and the Forum itself. I am thinking that it might go live around the start of June. As always, bear in mind that the beta is still under development, not everything works and you are likely to see error messages displayed etc. If you find the procedure of installing software slightly vexatious it is probably better to skip the beta.

All this began because there was a clamour in the deck exchange for a better way of organising the decks - as it stands it is hard to find anything. The problem is that everyone has their own ideas about how to organise tarot decks. I hope you will agree that this is quite a neat solution.

Cheers

Richard

Hey, this 7.2 sounds real good. I've not d/loaded it yet, but might do later

Question about the outlook style thingy. Will it be possible to be able to add a check mark on each deck I wish to download and it will download all the checked ones automatically instead of manually going through them one by one?

Alan

Hi Alan,

That sounds like a good idea. The item list supports selecting multiple items, the same way it does in Outlook. In the current release you can select multiple items to preview (you will see what I mean if you do try it) so it makes sense to do a similar thing with decks.

Cheers

Richard

It looks very nice and your program moved another border...congrat:)

After a speedy look I am very pleased, and after I have seen your answear to Alan, I wonder if it is possible to have a marker for decks you already have downloaded,..... hmmmm just got an idea...can use your sort option for that.....let me play a bit more:):)

Hi Rhutobello,

Thanks for the feedback!

I think it would be good to do something similar, but not exactly that. What I would like to show are the decks in your collection. So if you delete a deck from your collection it is no longer flagged in the list of exchange decks, even though you downloaded it once. On the other hand if you have it because you scanned it is flagged in some way, even though you never downloaded it.

The way this would work is that when you download a deck you save it to a certain location and that path is saved with your exchange data. Also there is a tool to retrospectively map a deck in your collection to a deck in the exchange. The exchange decks with valid paths could be shown in a different colour or whatever.

I am not quite clear how I would keep the exchange data up to date when users move decks around, as they almost certainly would after using a bulk download. I could code it so that this happens when people move decks using the program's built in deck manager, but what if they use Explorer? I think what I will do is build a Map Decks wizard that goes through both collection and database offering possible matches (so The Fractal Universe would be offered as a match for Fractal Universe etc).

I had already thought about doing this (mapping the decks) because it would allow me to offer extra tools - if you have selected a deck which the program knows exists in your collection it can offer to launch the deck etc, as well as getting the thumbnail information from the deck itself rather than the website.

Cheers

Richard

Sound Nice, I think that will be the way to go.:)
I have made a folder for some of my downloaded decks, and that work nice. But if someone want to sort the deck in other ways….. maybe as..animal deck, oracle deck, xx card deck and so on, this way would be bad choice.

Another idea cross my mind and hopefully yours too…Are there a way to link Card notes with Deck exchange, maybe an option for the uploader to give a mark or a hyperlink, or put them up as common for such and such sort of deck.

It works today too….but such an option would be great.

Haven’t found any errors yet, and I look forward to implementing of those services you have listed on the top (download…..and so on) Those previews of decks work nice and fast.

Good work as usal:)

I think I may have found a small insect. I created a new spread in 7.1. Then I selected the Spread and used Free Selection to select the cards and place them for the spread. At that point I created a Reading using the Reading Wizard. Here's what's odd -- the Spread Notes don't appear in the card windows. The Card Notes are there, and there's a space for Personal Notes, but no Spread Notes below the Personal Notes. On the other hand, when I let the computer generate the cards for me (standard spread), then open the Reading Wizard, the Spread Notes ARE there. Until I tested the latter I thought it might have been some kind of corruption of the Spread file, but that appears not to be the case. Have you encountered this? Any workaround or solution? The spread notes for a reading are very critical, as they address the details of the spread.

In fact, here's a suggestion unrelated to the above -- would you consider putting the spread notes first, then card and personal notes in the reading windows? I, for one, prefer to check the card notes only after I've created the reading notes, if at all. Thanks, Richard.

Oops, sorry...think I picked the wrong topic. This is about 7.1, not the 7.2 beta.

Hi Whipsilk,

It sounds like you might not have spread notes selected in your template for readings. You can edit the template for readings using the Reading Wizard (third button down when you first launch the form). Make sure Spread Notes are selected along with Personal and LWB notes according to your preference. You can use the arrows on the right to determine which section appears first.

If this doesn't fix it please let me know.

Cheers

Richard :)

Nope..I think Whipsilk has found that ant.

If you do it the way he says...free selection....then edit notes...then spread notes have vanish even if the mark is ok.

if you do the spread from deck as normal....the option for spread notes is back too:)

I think he has a point to put spread notes first.