CensusPlus update with Live realm data

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:16 pm

Well the good news is that late last night I finally got the update to 6.0.2 installed and running.

The bad news is that the new version of CensusPlus requires the use of two new (to CensusPlus) libraries, one to handle window dynamics the other to handle Realm identities and locations.

I think the first works.. I've not paid any attention since
the second doesn't... I'm not sure why..
It is the interface to a new modified Blizzard API call which also like the /who command requires server response.

The two issues I'm running into is that I'm not getting a valid response from the library AND when I manually run the server request it is returning a response that isn't according to expectations.

Blizzard may have modified the call and didn't document the changes...
we will have to see.

At least I can work on it today.. unlike yesterday.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:04 pm

Having problems with server locator library... I'm probably being an idiot.

On the other hand.. I've found that Blizzard has played games with RealmID numbers (an internal numbering system that wasn't well documented before.. or yet)
I found some of the oldest US realms have been renumbered which makes the library out of date..

I've sent the library creator a note.. and expect quick resolution. (maybe later today or tomorrow.)

I have verified that CensusPlus can not be allowed to upload data to WarcraftRealms.com as things currently stand..
Using the required Battlenet app to launch on to the Italian realm Pozzo dell'Eternità I ended up creating a US realm of that name in my local datafile... not a good thing!

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:32 pm

And I've sent Blizzard two bug reports.

The one that impacts CensusPlus is that they screwed up.
they changed the API call UnitGUID("Player") to respond with
Player-ServerID-UniqueUnitID

this would be perfect for us.. assuming one tiny little thing... each ServerID (a number) is also Unique.
And that is the way it looked like it should be if you datamine the Character Transfer webpage which has the ServerID's embedded in the Java.

But I discovered today that at least two US realms have the same ID and some of the oldest realms.. have had their ID's changed.. (well maybe at least they don't respond with the expected replys)

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:33 am

Possible good news.. may have solution for data verification issues.

Need to do some testing and protection programming as it requires monitoring multiple game events that have no guarantee of order of firing.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:02 pm

Sigh the new API call GetCurrentRegion() is bogus also

Problem is Battlenet is world wide...
World of Warcraft is world wide by regions.
Since it is now trivial to log in to World of Warcraft from any where to any region it is easy to lose track (or never have a clue) which region you are playing in.
For the Human behind the keyboard.. it is trivial.. for addon software it is impossible without help(from Blizzard)

The librealm library developed by a very active well know addon developer used data that was data mined from Blizzards Character Transfer webpage.
And that almost works....
But Blizzard ServerID data in game vs. website isn't consistent many realms match and provide unique data... but in game other realms don't match.. and at least in one case two different US realms have the same ID... sigh.

Since we can't trust what Blizzard is providing... we are going to have to mine all the realms for the data and figure out how to work around bad data.

CensusPlus beta testers... and others who are interested in helping (send me a PM)

I will be sending out a simple addon for you to run on every Realm you can get your hands on.

it will run silent.. just log in on character then leave.
it will build a table of UnitGUIDs for each realm, from that I'll be able to fix things.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Sat Oct 18, 2014 3:34 pm

The new modified librealm library is done and has passed US realm testing.
Need to test in EU realms for the odd ball Blizzard names... shouldn't break but...

then I'll merge in the new Localization info from curseforge and do a few other minor things..

Then a RC release candidate will be sent out to our testers for normal use beating of the addon.

Assuming nothing goes bad.. we may have a release Monday maybe even sooner.. but don't hold your breath.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:19 pm

Release Candidate is in the hands of our beta testers and I'm currently working on the website interface to accept the new version data.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Sun Oct 19, 2014 11:37 pm

It appears that US datacenters have been verified..we are pushing data into Warcraftrealms this evening.. as tests...

Had an issue in testing EU realm.. hope to have resolved tomorrow

Taiwan users of those realms.. the client will work for your local use.. but we had no translations via curseforge.. so all text will be in English.

Chinese.. as usual we have no way to test and update

Korea .. we have some translations.. but couldn't verify unique server id's so the addon will fail on your clients. Until someone helps from there helps.

edit: I am sad to say that very little help was made available for translations so that most languages have lost translations due to new English text.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:54 pm

Almost ready..
Doing one final pass on language translations in hope to recover usage of older translations, and waiting on final EU test results (which I'm sure will be available before I've finished the translation work.)

we should be able to push the addon to curse.com later today

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 6:10 pm

I am about to push the next release up to curseforge.

The wholib issue that popped up seems to be fixed.
the following translations are entered and reviewed or at least mostly entered that while incomplete are mostly usable.
ptBR, frFR, deDE, and ruRU.. note this last is new.. and I have removed the translation to upload to this site.. since we can't handle Cyrillic in the database.

esES and itIT have little to no translations.. so they will see English except for some retained or Blizzard provided translations .. Race and Class names mostly.

I almost forgot Noun Gender again that is used by many languages..
I recovered all of the Blizzard Provided Race and Class Feminine forms for
ptBR, frFR, deDE, esES, itIT .. but I haven't a clue for ruRU..since I can't get to the Russian character creation screen.
if you can provide the appropriate Alternate forms used in the World of Warcraft Russian client for Races & Classes that would be most helpful for Russian players who want to run CensusPlus for local use.

Post by **bringoutyourdead** » Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:35 pm

I swear this has been the most difficult release cycle to get finalized and put to bed.

I have the files all ready to go and was even on the Curseforge site.. when I realized .. oh oh.. Blizzard is pushing a new install tomorrow 6.0.3.

On reading the patch notes.. I go back a retest CensusPlus on 6.0.2 ..yup they had screwed up again on going to live and lost the .mp3 sound play..

So I bring up beta to do a quick check to see if I can say CensusPlus is ready for 6.0.3.. and oops Blizzard has again lost control of their servers.. no one can log in. again.
This has been a common occurrence for the beta testers and myself.. (it isn't true) but it seemed like every time we tried to test.. something at Blizzard was broken... it was like they spent more time loading the next build then they had the servers up testing the build that was the current at that time.