Integrating InitTool with MapTool
Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 12:44 pm
I would love to be able to use InitTool instead of MapTool's rudimentary initiative tracker (mostly for the reminders & such), but here are the challenges I have encountered trying to figure it out in a short time:
- I can't figure out how to import a token from MT to IT, but this would be a great start. The latest versions don't run under Web Start (for me either on Mac OS X), and the stable release that does run does not seem to have a feature for importing a .rptok file.
[EDIT: I got the .zip version to work correctly: I keep forgetting to change the default Java version for apps in the Java preferences]
- I understand I need a properties map to convert properties from a MT token to IT properties: is there some way to have a default map of the same property names, and then I would just have to set up IT to use the same property names as MT? I suppose if all I really wanted in IT was the initiative modifier, I would just need a properties map for that property, wouldn't I?
- Can token states be mapped to IT states?
- I would LOVE it if InitTool events could be triggered from within MapTool (hello, macros!), or at the very least if a combatant in initTool could be 'linked' to a token in MT: so that the relevant token could easily be located.
Minimally, being able to add a token to InitTool from MapTool (i.e. quickly passing data from MapTool to InitTool) would make things much easier. Getting the two apps to talk to each other is a different story, and I imagine could be technically challenging: my amateurish suggestion would be to allow InitTool to 'connect' to MapTool through the server feature (or vice versa). But, I don't know if that's actually any easier to implement than other possible solutions. At least it would provide a conduit to pass data (and maybe events) automatically between the two apps?
I was considering designing an initiative/time manager for MapTool, and then realized: InitTool does everything I need, I just want it to talk to MapTool! How can this be improved / facilitated?
- I can't figure out how to import a token from MT to IT, but this would be a great start. The latest versions don't run under Web Start (for me either on Mac OS X), and the stable release that does run does not seem to have a feature for importing a .rptok file.
[EDIT: I got the .zip version to work correctly: I keep forgetting to change the default Java version for apps in the Java preferences]
- I understand I need a properties map to convert properties from a MT token to IT properties: is there some way to have a default map of the same property names, and then I would just have to set up IT to use the same property names as MT? I suppose if all I really wanted in IT was the initiative modifier, I would just need a properties map for that property, wouldn't I?
- Can token states be mapped to IT states?
- I would LOVE it if InitTool events could be triggered from within MapTool (hello, macros!), or at the very least if a combatant in initTool could be 'linked' to a token in MT: so that the relevant token could easily be located.
Minimally, being able to add a token to InitTool from MapTool (i.e. quickly passing data from MapTool to InitTool) would make things much easier. Getting the two apps to talk to each other is a different story, and I imagine could be technically challenging: my amateurish suggestion would be to allow InitTool to 'connect' to MapTool through the server feature (or vice versa). But, I don't know if that's actually any easier to implement than other possible solutions. At least it would provide a conduit to pass data (and maybe events) automatically between the two apps?
I was considering designing an initiative/time manager for MapTool, and then realized: InitTool does everything I need, I just want it to talk to MapTool! How can this be improved / facilitated?