Soulbanshee's Tradeskill Parser beta 2

I added some features and I wanted to clarify my instructions, so created a new thread to do so.

Thanks to ZAM and EQTC for recipe searches, and thanks to the community for submitting the recipe output files especially thanks to Infinite Elysium guildmates for helping me on a lot of my recent updates. Please consider donating to EQTC as I link to the recipes on that site.

Please do not rehost, redistribute, relink, modify and only for personal usage. Script, materials, inputs, or generates files may not be used in any method soliciting or generating any compensation.

What does my script do?

• Reads output file name and contents (no different than popular tools that read log files)
• Matches learned recipes versus a master list of known recipes that count for 300+
• Master list accounts for recipes that share a common name, and identify the unique material for each of those combines
• Saves an Excel or CSV file for each output file found with URLs to EQTC recipes
• Saves a text file with recipes I do not have accounted for yet for easy submission to add to my master lists in future updates
• Easy automation alleviates mistypes, accidentally skipping learned recipes, and forgetting to mark off recipes

What doesn't my script do?

• Does not access EverQuest account or character information
• Does not access anything in memory
• Does not send anything to an outside source or access anything from an outside source
• Does not retain anything about your system other than saving the selected directory paths in the settings file that allow the script to run without prompting each time

Requires PowerShell v5, Windows 7/8/8.1 will need to install an update.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50395
Note: It was pointed out to me that default settings is to not allow unsigned scripts to run. In order for my script to work, either system execution policy must be changed or the RUNME file included will bypass the restrictions.
Download and extract this zip file into a directory on your computer, overwriting existing files:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=12VbKr6AVkJY74ObIjbDpNroAh0680qDo

1. In EverQuest, type /outputfile recipes <tradeskillname> for each TS and character you want to parse. You will have to do this command each time you learn new recipes if you want to update the spreadsheets with the script.
2. Either leave the output in your EverQuest directory or move them to a new location if you would prefer. The files are named <Character>-<Tradeskill>-Recipes.txt and are located in the base EverQuest installation directory.
3. Double-click to execute the RUNME.cmd file. This will start PowerShell in a mode that will allow the script to run because it is not signed. (If you set system unrestricted, you can right click and select "Run with PowerShell" instead)
4. A folder chooser will pop up. On this first one, choose where the output files are located, so either the EQ directory or where you moved them.
5. The folder chooser will pop up a second time. On this second one, choose where you want the spreadsheets saved to.
6. Your selections will be saved to a settings.ini file and remembered when you run the script again. If you want to change the options at a later time, delete the whole line with the directory from the file.
7. By default on first run, Excel files will be created if Excel is detected, else CSV files are created. If you want to change to CSV files afterwards, edit settings.ini and change SaveFormat=Csv. CSV files will only contain not learned recipes, Excel file will contain all but filter out learned recipes.
8. By default on first run, existing spreadsheets will be moved to a "Backup" folder in your Save Directory when the script is run again. If you would rather have the existing files overwritten, edit settings.ini and change Overwrite=True.
9. The script will run for a few minutes. Once the window closes, you will have <Character>-<Tradeskill> files in your Save Directory.
10. If you have any learned recipes that are not in my master list files, a RecipeSubmit.txt file will be created. Please email the whole file as an attachment to me at SoulbansheeEQ@gmail.com so that I may include it in a future update.

Notes:

• "Needs Verification" under learned means the recipe either needs to be confirmed as invalid, or I do no as of yet have the EverQuest Recipe ID. You should manually search for the recipe in the container for now to make sure you know it or not. The master files will get updated as I get more information.
• For Excel files, learned recipes are filtered out by default, you can use the filtering at the top to add them back in if you wish.
• Suggestions and feedback are welcome.

FAQ
Q. Nothing ran, no PowerShell window popped up.
A. You need to have PowerShell v5 (see top link).
Q. The script ran but there are no Excel files.
A. The script will exit if there was an issue locating Excel library or creating Excel workbooks.
Q. I have Excel installed, or set format to CSV and there are still no files.
A. A few things could be wrong:
You did not /outputfile recipes yet.
The master files and the parse script are not in the same directory.
The master files or output files are not named correctly.
Your output files are not in the selected Output File Directory from setup.

Great work Soulbanshee. /wave

Hi Bob, thanks. A little pet project for myself, looking to keep adding features over time.

I just want to say, I was very skeptical about this concept for reasons I can't really explain, but I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try.

Bravo, my friend! This is absolutely brilliant, and may actually be the key to finding my drive to max this damn Prize aug.

Nice work.

I have updated the zip file in the same link as above. Unzip and replace existing files to refresh.

I now enforce that Excel 2010 or later is installed for the Excel functionality. If it does not pass this check, it falls back to creating CSV files.

I have also moved the feedback from writing to the window into a popup message. This will allow you to read the message before the window closes.

The following master files have had additional recipe IDs added since the 11th.

• Baking
• Blacksmithing
• Fletching
• Jewelry Making (maybe)
• Pottery
• Tailoring
• Tinkering

The following trade skills are believe to be 100% except for needing the recipe ID on the raid kits. These may be deficient in the case where I mistakenly excluded a recipe that is actually valid. I am still working on double-validating these lists.

• Baking
• Blacksmithing
• Brewing
• Fishing
• Fletching
• Tinkering

Thanks for the support.

Currently, it exits with:

The variable '$ListObject' cannot be retrieved because it has not been set.
At C:\Users\ehunt\Downloads\TradeskillParser\Tradeskill-Parse.ps1:317 char:13
+ if ($ListObject)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (ListObject:String) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : VariableIsUndefined

This is PowerShell giving a warning when it starts exiting the script earlier than I was expecting. I can improve my early exit detection so these warnings will not be displayed.

What version of Excel do you have installed? I believe this in particular happens in earlier versions with the way I am creating the sheets. In the update I posted yesterday, I corrected it where Excel spreadsheets will only be made with Office 2010 or later. Anything earlier than that will only be able to create CSV files.

Office 2016. The only file it's creating is RecipeSubmit.txt (for Blacksmithing by the looks of it)

That's interesting because I have Office 365 ProPlus which should be fairly equivalent to Office 2016. The RecipeSubmit file is created before I start doing the Excel work so that makes sense. It seems like on your machine when the first spreadsheet is trying to be created, Excel doesn't want to do something with the table creation and goes right into the error catcher. Since I know how it runs on my local machine, this is going to be hard to track down as I don't think I can reproduce this. I will poke around the code some to attempt to figure out if there is an alternate solution or a way to avoid an error situation.

I'll move the files to my NAS tomorrow and run it on my work machine and see if it works there. I'll let you know.

If you could do a quick check for me, in Excel 2016 go to Insert - Table. First see if there is a section in the Design ribbon named Table Styles or Quick Styles. If there is, open it up and hover your mouse over the 4th "medium" from the left and tell me what the tooltip says. Trying to set a table style not defined in that version can make Excel throw an error and it's looking like ProPlus defines different styles than retail version. This would happen right where I'm expecting you are encountering the error.

Beta 2 Update 3

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12VbKr6AVkJY74ObIjbDpNroAh0680qDo

Modified how the script works with Excel in memory and closing it out at the end. This should correct warnings during early exits and possibly phantom process being left open in the background under certain scenarios.
Speculative fix to correct a possible discrepancy in handling table creation between Office retail edition and ProPlus.

Tailoring is now believed to be 100%.
Excluded OOW augs from Alchemy and Make Poison Lists.
Added a few recipes to Jewelry Making and Pottery.

I'm using Office 365 Busines. From Insert - Table, the design ribbon has Table Styles. Fourth from the left is Orange, Table Style Medium 3.

The new version has a different error:

If anyone encounters this message, you will need to run a quick repair on your Office installation.

Windows 10:
Settings - Apps - Apps & Features - highlight Office and select Modify
Windows 7 or later:
Control Panel - Programs and Features - highlight Office and select Change

With the two repair options, run Quick Repair.

I have noticed a lot of these programs utilize excel to work properly. I just have the basics on my computer without excel or the upgraded word and such. Is there a place to download a viewer that will work with these programs and if not what would you recommend I purchase to make these things work if you have any recommendations. I will be going back to school soon for my BSN so eventually I will have to upgrade anyways in terms of an actual word program outside of the note pad.

It outputs a CSV file if it can't find excel. Just plug that into a google docs spreadsheet. File > Import if I recall correctly.

I will have to play around with it. I am a newb when it comes to this stuff but appreciate the response. I was only able to download the tradeskill spreadsheets and print them off from work since they have excel but I imagine placing my own file on my work computer might throw up some red flags assuming it would even let me add it.

This is correct, Beta 2 moved away from the hard dependency on Office and falls back to CSV (comma separated value) files. There are a number of options to view them. As stated above, you can use Google Sheets, or you can also install OpenOffice or LibreOffice if you were inclined. OpenOffice and LibreOffice are open source programs that provide functionality similar to Microsoft Office. I am not affiliated with either and you can make the decision to try it out at your discretion. These two program will not replace Excel functionality though and the script will still be limited to CSV files. There are also likely other open source programs that are able to view CSV files in a spreadsheet like format.

The downside to the CSV files is that they will not save any formatting applied to them, the columns will always default to the same size and only be plain text when re-opened. If you change the format by either importing into Sheets or doing Save As to a worksheet format in one of the office programs, then you will be able to format and save the changes the next time it is opened.