Community

The latest version of the DnD 4e Compendium for webOS has been released.

New features

• Filtered searches now allow Cost and XP limits to be provided for Items, Rituals and Monsters.
• A few under-the-hood improvements.

Bug fixes

• The app no longer hangs while loading filters on devices running webOS 1.4.

Known issues

• Searches can cause hangs if there are a large number of results. Be as specific as possible when searching to avoid this - search titles only, or use the filters to narrow down the results. Don't try to get a list of every power, item or monster.

Upcoming features

At the moment, the focus is on improving the core functionality of the app so that I can get it to a point where I'm happy submitting it to the full App Catalog, so there won't be any major new features. That said, feel free to leave a comment or send an email if there's something you'd like to see improved or added.

The latest version of the DnD 4e Compendium for webOS has been released!

New features

• Types without search results are no longer displayed in the basic search results.
• Filtered searches. When the app starts, it will spend a couple of seconds loading the filters, then move to the main search scene. If you select a Type, the filters for that type will then appear below. Filtered searches do not require any query text.
• Results which have a level value (including monsters, traps and items) now display their level instead of the sourcebook they're in. Everything else still displays the sourcebook.

I've also updated the icon to use a new colour scheme.

Known issues

• Some filters don't currently have all options - cost and XP values are missing (see below).
• The filter options don't always load properly. If your filter selectors only contain an "All" option, close the app and open it again, and they should load.
• The filter loading sometimes causes lag on the search entry scene. It shouldn't impact the searches themselves, but the interface might be unresponsive for a couple of seconds after it loads.
• Searches can cause hangs if there are a large number of results. Be as specific as possible when searching to avoid this - search titles only, or use the filters to narrow down the results. Don't try to get a list of every power, item or monster.

Upcoming features
The priority for the next release will be the XP and Cost filters for the types that require them. Most of the code is there to support it, but I've got to do some work to figure out the best way to get them into the UI.

If there are any other features you'd like to see, let me know and I'll do what I can to include them.

I'm putting together the last few touches for the next release of the DnD 4e Compendium for webOS; I'm hoping to test it during a game tomorrow night, make any tweaks/fixes necessary on Tursday and Friday, and have it available for download over the weekend.

The big change is the addition of filters for searches; most of the options available on the Compendium website will be in the app, with a couple of exceptions - XP rewards for monsters, and cost for weapons/rituals being the main ones. This isn't a technical challenge so much as a UI one; it'll take some work to get the fields in properly.

I've also made some minor changes to the way results are displayed: if no type is specified then that results list won't include any types with no results, and some types (items, monsters and powers) will have the level next to the name.

I've also played around with using text colours to denote Insider-only information, but I've not found anything I'm happy with yet.

Anyway, I'd like some feedback, if anybody's used the app so far. What would you like to see, either in terms of new features or fixes?

After a few hiccups and design decisions, I'm on the way to getting the next version of the Compendium to a releasable state. However, it's presented me with an opportunity to rework some of the previous iteration's functionality, so there's still a while to go yet.

Depending on how much time I get in the next few days, I'm hoping to have the next version stable enough for field testing during our D&D game on Wednesday night, and available for download by this time next week.