New program to help set up VASL scenarios

[von Marwitz]

Since folks are really enjoying your program to create these beautifully crafted scenario set ups, maybe bundling the graphics with the vsav file would be a stop gap to preserve them. It’s messy as you say but maybe someday the coding will be expanded and everything will already be in one place.

I really need to give your program a go...just too much other VASL stuff on my plate. Someday I will and maybe even someday, I’ll actually play again

If this is a VASSAL-thing, we might also point @uckelman to this direction (i.e. incorporating picture files into vasl files). He has been very busy working on VASSAL for quite some time and has been open to listen to proposals.

von Marwitz

 

[Rocket-Man]

Is there a way to include images from both your local drive and the internet in one file? There is only one field for User files in settings.

 

[Pacman Ghost]

Is there a way to include images from both your local drive and the internet in one file? There is only one field for User files in settings.

You only need to do this for files on your local PC. If you want to get images from the internet, just specify the URL to the image in the <img> tag.

 

[Rocket-Man]

I tried that and it didn't work, but I just had the syntax wrong. Got it to work this time. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[Pacman Ghost]

The first beta of the the v1.5 release cycle has been released. This is a maintenance release, so no big headline features, just minor improvements and bug fixes. Of particular note:

• Cells in the "Grid" extras template can now be labelled.
• Line graphs are now shown (by default) in the log file analysis report.
• On Windows, if Java has not been configured, the one that comes with VASSAL will be used.
• Fixed how single-year date-specific vehicle/ordnance capabilities are calculated.

This is an open beta, so if you're on Windows, you can get it here. If you're running from source, or in Docker, get tag "v1.5.beta1" from the Github repo.

IMPORTANT: If you're running from source, you will need to rebuild your virtual environment. The officially-targeted version of Python is 3.8.7, but unofficially, 3.9.1 (the current version on Fedora) also appears to work. If you're running in Docker, the image will be rebuilt automatically.

Other changes:

• Updated to Python 3.8.7, and all dependencies.
  
  
• Increased the default moving average window size in the log file analysis report.
• Show the current git info in the Program Info dialog when running in a container.
• Changed how the Docker container figures out its container ID.
• Added support for the "in" operator in Jinja templates.
• Added a clarification to the OB notes for the Finnish 37 PstK/37(g).
• The SameSite attribute is now set when saving cookies.
• Added an endpoint to return the favicon.
  
  
• Fixed an encoding problem when uploading scenarios to the ASL Scenario Archive.
• Fixed some incorrect URL's when getting vehicle/ordnance counter images from online.
• Fixed a problem with how some counter images are served.
• Allow the User Files directory to be configured in the desktop app as a URL.
• Fixed a crash in the desktop app when running from source and the application had not been installed in editable mode.
• Worked around a possible problem when setting the title of the Program Info dialog.
• Added a missing file (for Allied Minor Ordnance Note D) to the Chapter H placeholders ZIP file.
• Fixed a broken test when running against a remote server.
• Added anchors to the help.

 

[Neal]

I've been away for awhile, but this is all I get now. And nothing works. VASSAL 3.4.6, VASL 6.6.1, all paths configured.

Edit: I fixed the VASSAL version error. Still getting online counter images error.

 

[Pacman Ghost]

Still getting online counter images error.

You're running this beta that's just been released? There should be a file called online-counter-images.json in the data/ directory. Have you done something unusual installing the release?

 

[Neal]

You're running this beta that's just been released? There should be a file called online-counter-images.json in the data/ directory. Have you done something unusual installing the release?

Got it! Looks like it's working now. Thanks!

 

[fzmann]

I've tried to generate stats using v1.4.
I'm getting the message: Can't Analyze the Log File (caption on window of dialog box); message text: Unexpected return code from the VASSAL shim:1. See attached.
I generated the log files(s) on a Mac, using VASSAL 3.4.6, VASL 6.6.1. No problems opening up the log files in VASL.
When opening VASL templates v1.4, I also get the same message as #446 on this thread, but just for the VASSAL version; otherwise the program works OK. I'll check out the setup again tomorrow.
Thanks.

 

[Pacman Ghost]

When opening VASL templates v1.4, I also get the same message as #446 on this thread, but just for the VASSAL version

If you're getting a "Can't get the VASSAL version" error on startup, the most likely explanation is that the version of Java you have configured is not one that can run the configured version of VASSAL.

I'm guessing you started using vasl-templates in the old days of VASSAL 3.2.17, when it used Java 8, and that version of Java is still configured. Change it to the java.exe that now comes with VASSAL.

One of changes in the new v1.5.beta1 release is that (on Windows) you can just leave the Java setting blank, and vasl-templates will automatically use the Java that comes with VASSAL.

 

[fzmann]

Great. I'll try what you've described.
Thanks.

 

[fzmann]

Great. I'll try what you've described.
Thanks.

Ok, I no longer have the error message after pointing to the Java file in the VASSAL folder.
However, I seem to be timing out when trying to analyze a log file. I think I was getting the message after about 5 minutes, or so.

 

[Rocket-Man]

Any idea why the bold html tags <b></b> don't work in VASL?

 

[Pacman Ghost]

However, I seem to be timing out when trying to analyze a log file.

The log file needs to be pretty massive to be getting timeout errors. Try it with a small one first, just to make sure everything's working properly.

If you want to increase the timeout, create a file called debug.cfg in the config/ directory, that looks like this:

[Debug]
VASSAL_SHIM_TIMEOUT = 600

The setting is the number of seconds.

 

[Pacman Ghost]

Any idea why the bold html tags <b></b> don't work in VASL?

They do. My guess would be you've got a misteak in the HTML somewhere. The best thing to do is to copy the generated snippet into a temp file, then open that file in a browser. It's a bit easier to track down problems this way.

 

[zgrose]

misteak... if that was intentional, you're a genius.

 

[Pacman Ghost]

if that was intentional, you're a genius.

I'll take genius for twenty...

 

[holdit]

Small bug report - in the German capabilities snippet, Massacre ability and Squad Assault Fire should really be intended beneath an "SS" heading, otherwise they look as if they're generic German abilities. The "Disrupt...vs Russians" bit should really be on a separate line and indented too.

 

[Rocket-Man]

They do. My guess would be you've got a misteak in the HTML somewhere. The best thing to do is to copy the generated snippet into a temp file, then open that file in a browser. It's a bit easier to track down problems this way.

I did copy the generated snippet into a temp file, then opened that file in a browser. It just doesn't work.

The picture below, which is a screenshot from VASL, shows an HTML snippet with and without the <b></b> tags. The one on the left includes the <b></b> tags and the one on the right doesn't. They look identical (Edit: They are identical. I compared them in an image program).


The code for the one on the left is:

<html> <!-- vasl-templates:id scenario_note.8 -->

<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<style> body {


}

p { margin-top: 5px ; margin-bottom: 0 ; }

ul { margin: 0 ; padding: 0 0 0 10px ; }


td { margin: 0 ; padding: 0 ; }
td.c { text-align: center ; }
td.l { text-align: left ; }
td.r { text-align: right ; }

sup { font-size: 75% ; }
sub { vertical-align: sub ; font-size: 80% ; line-height: 0.5em ; }

.exc { font-style: italic ; color: #404040 ; }
</style>
</head>

<table>

<tr>
<td style="
width: 200px ;
">
<b>This is a test</b>

</table>

</html>

And for code for the one on the right:

<html> <!-- vasl-templates:id scenario_note.8 -->

<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<style> body {


}

p { margin-top: 5px ; margin-bottom: 0 ; }

ul { margin: 0 ; padding: 0 0 0 10px ; }


td { margin: 0 ; padding: 0 ; }
td.c { text-align: center ; }
td.l { text-align: left ; }
td.r { text-align: right ; }

sup { font-size: 75% ; }
sub { vertical-align: sub ; font-size: 80% ; line-height: 0.5em ; }

.exc { font-style: italic ; color: #404040 ; }
</style>
</head>

<table>

<tr>
<td style="
width: 200px ;
">
This is a test

</table>

</html>

Note that underlined text using <u></u> works just fine as shown below:


This was generated by changing the "b" to "u" in the html snippet as shown in the code below.

<html> <!-- vasl-templates:id scenario_note.8 -->

<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<style> body {


}

p { margin-top: 5px ; margin-bottom: 0 ; }

ul { margin: 0 ; padding: 0 0 0 10px ; }


td { margin: 0 ; padding: 0 ; }
td.c { text-align: center ; }
td.l { text-align: left ; }
td.r { text-align: right ; }

sup { font-size: 75% ; }
sub { vertical-align: sub ; font-size: 80% ; line-height: 0.5em ; }

.exc { font-style: italic ; color: #404040 ; }
</style>
</head>

<table>

<tr>
<td style="
width: 200px ;
">
<u>This is a test</u>

</table>

</html>

Note: Text color was added to make the relevant portion of code easier to find.

 

[Pacman Ghost]

The picture below, which is a screenshot from VASL, shows an HTML snippet with and without the <b></b> tags. The one on the left includes the <b></b> tags and the one on the right doesn't. They look identical

The snippets you posted work correctly for me. Did you create these labels manually? I'm thinking you maybe chose the bold labels from the palette (marked in red), which I think always bolds everything. I always use the non-bold version (marked in green).