Gorgon Explorer

[Tannin]

So, on the old forums I mentioned that I probably wouldn't be creating an account here, but it seems I've changed my mind. I thought it would be nice to have a forum thread for this again.

If you don't know what Gorgon Explorer is, it's a little website I created sometime last summer (or maybe it was late spring? but I digress) meant to make navigating all the publicly-available JSON data a bit easier, providing tools to do things like browse through mods or recipes, or plan builds. You can check it out at www.gorgonexplorer.com.

I'll be keeping this thread updated with news about upcoming features, and generally use it as a hub to take suggestions or bug reports if you prefer this platform over the contact page on the website.

The new version of the website is up! A detailed changelog can be found in this (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/showthread.php?155-Gorgon-Explorer&p=1400&viewfull=1#post1400) post

[Greyfyn]

This is great news Tannin. Your tool helps a lot! Thanks for keeping it going.

[ShieldBreaker]

Someone should get Silvonis to make this thread a sticky thread. Great site by the way, can't wait to see the new and improved version. :)

[kell.shepherd]

Yep I like the site too.. have it stuck to my faves bar.

[alleryn]

This has been an invaluable tool to me! I use it almost constantly. Thank you so much!

I submitted one minor suggestion a week ago through your site. If i think of anything else i'll send it in, but it already has excellent style and functionality; it's difficult to come up with suggestions. Keep up the great work!

[Hood]

Tannin, I still use this every single day....so thank you so much. It really brings me alot of fun and joy. And I know I would definitely be OVERjoyed with a mobile friendly version.

Seriously thank you for using your personal free time on us like this. You've always been awesome

[Tannin]

Thanks for all the support and encouragement, guys :D I do get a fair bit of enjoyment out of development (glutton for punishment, I guess) and hearing that people are still using this thing makes it worthwhile.

The basics of converting this thing to the next version of the framework I'll be using are done, but it's going to take a fair amount of rewriting to put everything back in order now. So, if anybody has any suggestions regarding improvements to current features - that is, if you think anything should be laid out differently or should work differently than it does now WITHOUT adding new functionality - now would be a good time to ask. If you've already submitted suggestions through the contact page I've still got them handy and will get around to them as soon as possible. Otherwise I have a few things in mind to improve, and I'll post here when I roll out the next version.

[Tannin]

Okay guys, I'm very excited to announce that the latest and hopefully greatest version of Gorgon Explorer has just been deployed. A lot of stuff looks the same because things use mostly the same style with a few tweaks here and there, but this was a massive overhaul. I would say 80-90% of the underlying code or more has been completely rewritten. That means there might be bugs I haven't caught. If anything seems weird, please do let me know and I'll make sure to fix it!

While a lot of things do work mostly the same as before, I've kept a bit of a changelog so you can know what has been revamped, which you can read below.

Changelog


Complete overhaul of front end from Angular 1.4 to Angular 2.3. This should bring about performance improvements, making the website faster (both to load and to use) and more functional on more browsers. For example, as far as I know, things will be far more functional on Internet Explorer/Edge and older versions of Firefox now. It's also the driving force behind the rest of the changes and will make future changes easier.


Navbar tabs are now highlighted in a less obnoxious way.


In an attempt to move toward a less-cluttered and more user-friendly UI, relevant information about a page has been moved, when possible, to context-senstive places that make sense. For example, instead of throwing a block of information at you about what each column of a table means and then making you scroll through all of it or minimize it, each column now contains a small icon with a tooltip explaining that column a little more in depth.


Switched from using an Angular port of Jquery Datatables to the PrimeNG library for tables, which means quite a bit has changed about tables


Columns in tables can now be resized by clicking and dragging the edges. Columns can no longer be sorted ascending/descending because I do not see the value of it for most use cases, especially given the filtering options available. If I'm wrong here please let me know and I will reintroduce sorting.


When viewing a lot of data at once in a table, the container in which the table resides will scroll instead of the entire page. This keeps the pagination/filters/options in the same place even if you choose to view more or less data.


Searching is now handled per-column instead of with the previous global search bar set up, hopefully this will allow for more intuitive and granular searches. The old way of filtering is still available, feel free to mix and match - you'll find that the various ways of filtering are now bound to each other, so changing a filter in one place also changes it in others.


Showing/Hiding columns is no longer super slow and no longer clears filters. These were annoying side-effects of how things worked in the previous version.



The recipes table no longer has tooltips for each item. I'll probably put them back at some point, especially if people found them useful, but I would rather focus on features people find most useful like the build planner. Plus, I wanted to roll out the update ASAP.


Due to the rewrite the build planner is saving data in a different format now. That means all planner saves made with the previous version of the website will not carry over, and will not load properly. I realize some of you have created builds as recently as yesterday and I'm extremely sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Old build ids begin with "1b", new build ids begin with "iyr". If your build was precious to you, I still have the raw data and I could make some attempt to convert it to the new format if you give me your build id. That being said, it will probably take less time (and also help me test out the new internals of the build planner) if you just create a new one.



The Future

This update took many hours, and I realize that it really didn't bring all that much in terms of "new stuff" for you guys as users. However, please know that I intend to begin implementing new features again after I take a little break. Features that are planned for the future:


The ability to see the cumulative effects of a build - that is, how your mods affect your DPS and other things once it's all put together. This is by far the most requested feature, and I don't know how complicated it will be just yet, but I'm open to suggestions.


Listing level requirements in addition to or instead of mod tiers on the mods table


The ability to export your build to something offline, maybe excel or similar



I think that's about all I got for now. We're coming up on 7am here and I haven't slept yet, so I'm going to bed. If everything is on fire when I wake up I apologize and I will put it out. Assuming that doesn't happen...please let me know how the new stuff is working :D

[cr00cy]

Wow, i really liek new look of GE. Greta job, as always.

[Wemedge]

Just wanted to chime in with my thanks as well. Every time I rebuild a set I use it. I like the new look, too. Your efforts are much appreciated.

[Hood]

I love it. thank you Tannin

[Julcat]

Hello Tannin,

I have been using your Gorgon Explorer and have loved the way your program helps. Unfortunately I cannot get any information from the new site, does it still work with windows 7? Nothing is showing up when I try to enter anything, and I am unable to interact with the build planner at all.

I enjoy using Explorer and hope to be able to continue to do so.

[Tannin]

Hey Julcat, sorry you're experiencing trouble - could you please let me know what browser you're using?

EDIT: After a quick conversation in game it appears stuff's broken on IE11, working on a workaround now.

[Julcat]

yeah I downloaded chrome and it is working good, just blanks on IE 11

[Tannin]

Okay Internet Explorer users (there are DOZENS of you! :p), I've just pushed a fix to that bug so you should be able to use Gorgon Explorer in IE should you so choose now.

Big thanks to Julcat for alerting me to the bug so I can fix it!

[Tannin]

To whoever submitted the bug report yesterday regarding the mod effects search not working properly, thanks! It's fixed now.

[Yaksnot]

Tannin your site is amazing, Thank you. And thank you on behalf of many other people I know use your site and havent discovered this thread yet!!

[alleryn]

I love Gorgon Explorer.

There are a couple of features i miss in the new version. Are they still there somewhere or have they been removed?

- The ability to mouse over an item and see it's in-game description. Most importantly its value in councils.
- The option to sort by column. Particularly by level.

Again, gorgon explorer is great. These features aren't crucial to me, but they are things i used in the old version that i find myself wishing were still there.

Thanks for all your hard work, Tannin.

[Tannin]

Alleryn, you're correct in realizing those features are not there anymore. The sorting I can put back quite easily, within the hour. The item mouseovers will take a bit more time but as long as at least one person finds value in them I'll work on putting those back as well.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it lot :)

[Spiritfingers]

Okay Internet Explorer users (there are DOZENS of you! :p), I've just pushed a fix to that bug so you should be able to use Gorgon Explorer in IE should you so choose now.

Big thanks to Julcat for alerting me to the bug so I can fix it!

Even with the business that I run, I've noticed that a lot of websites aren't compatible with IE. Is that ever going to change? Was it an easy fix for you to get IE users to see Gorgon Explorer?

[Tannin]

Even with the business that I run, I've noticed that a lot of websites aren't compatible with IE. Is that ever going to change? Was it an easy fix for you to get IE users to see Gorgon Explorer?

The thing about websites is that while they are mostly all written using JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, each browser has its own implementation of those things. Each browser implementation of a particular feature differs not only from other browsers (e.g. Chrome is different from Internet Explorer) but also differ within different versions of themselves (e.g. the build planner does not show up correctly on IE10 but does show up correctly on IE11)

As an example, the css for the gradient background Gorgon Explorer uses actually contains 3 separate properties:

background: -webkit-radial-gradient(#4f4f4f, #1c1c1c (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1c1c1c) ); <- for webkit browsers such as Safari and Opera, and previously Chrome which now uses its own variation
background: radial-gradient(#4f4f4f, #1c1c1c (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1c1c1c) ); <- for non-webkit browsers that support gradients such as Firefox
background: #2a2a2a (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2a2a2a) ; <- a fallback to a solid color just in case someone is using a weird browser that does not support gradients at all

In the case of CSS, things will just look weird. The bug Julcat was experiencing was Javascript related, and an oversight on my part - I was using Object.values(), a function which converts a Javascript object containing a bunch of other Javascript objects (the format that Project Gorgon's data is in) to an array of objects instead, which is the format it needs to be in in order to display it in the table. When I realized that the built-in Object.values function was not supported by IE11, I just wrote one myself (it's not all that hard to iterate over an object and add all the objects within to an array then return that array)

So the short answer, as with anything is: yes, it was easy, but only because it's a problem I've tackled before and could easily track down the solution to. A bug caused by lack of browser support can ultimately range in difficulty from "easy" to "impossible" depending on what exactly the cause is, and how much time one is willing to spend filling in those gaps.

[Spiritfingers]

The thing about websites is that while they are mostly all written using JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, each browser has its own implementation of those things. Each browser implementation of a particular feature differs not only from other browsers (e.g. Chrome is different from Internet Explorer) but also differ within different versions of themselves (e.g. the build planner does not show up correctly on IE10 but does show up correctly on IE11)

As an example, the css for the gradient background Gorgon Explorer uses actually contains 3 separate properties:

background: -webkit-radial-gradient(#4f4f4f, #1c1c1c (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1c1c1c) ); <- for webkit browsers such as Safari and Opera, and previously Chrome which now uses its own variation
background: radial-gradient(#4f4f4f, #1c1c1c (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1c1c1c) ); <- for non-webkit browsers that support gradients such as Firefox
background: #2a2a2a (http://forum.projectgorgon.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=2a2a2a) ; <- a fallback to a solid color just in case someone is using a weird browser that does not support gradients at all

In the case of CSS, things will just look weird. The bug Julcat was experiencing was Javascript related, and an oversight on my part - I was using Object.values(), a function which converts a Javascript object containing a bunch of other Javascript objects (the format that Project Gorgon's data is in) to an array of objects instead, which is the format it needs to be in in order to display it in the table. When I realized that the built-in Object.values function was not supported by IE11, I just wrote one myself (it's not all that hard to iterate over an object and add all the objects within to an array then return that array)

So the short answer, as with anything is: yes, it was easy, but only because it's a problem I've tackled before and could easily track down the solution to. A bug caused by lack of browser support can ultimately range in difficulty from "easy" to "impossible" depending on what exactly the cause is, and how much time one is willing to spend filling in those gaps.

Thank you for this. This helps me in my own business. Though I have no working knowledge of how to code anything, I can get why the company we use to run my database hasn't found a solution for IE compatibility with my website. It is probably something that isn't worth the effort or something that is impossible to fix. Most people typically have a secondary web browser besides IE anyways..so it's almost moot.

[Tannin]

No problem! The previous version of Gorgon Explorer actually didn't guarantee support for Internet Explorer at all, because the previous version of the framework was simply too unpredictable to guarantee that it would work. I know several users did manage to use the old version of the website on IE, but that was more luck and good fortune than effort on my part :p The new version of the framework is much better about filling in the gaps where IE lacks, so I am more able to fill in whatever other gaps remain myself - but switching to the new framework required a rewrite of almost all the code, which simply won't do for a large-scale project in most cases. As of 2017, less than 10% (and by many accounts, less than 5%!) of users use IE, so in many cases even if a fix is possible it is not considered worthwhile to implement because the market share is so small.

Anyway, I apologize for my long-windedness and if I got too technical, I can ramble all day about this stuff if somebody doesn't stop me. I hope I haven't put anyone to sleep.

alleryn (and anyone else who's missing sorting) -
Sorting is now available again for recipes. If you're missing it on the mods table as well let me know, I'll put it back there too. I'll get those tooltips with the items put back as well, but not sure how long that one will take.

[alleryn]

alleryn (and anyone else who's missing sorting) -
Sorting is now available again for recipes. If you're missing it on the mods table as well let me know, I'll put it back there too. I'll get those tooltips with the items put back as well, but not sure how long that one will take.
Thank you so much!

P.S. Personally, i wouldn't use sorting on the mods table.

[Elenoe]

a lot of websites aren't compatible with IE. Is that ever going to change?
It should.

Main problem is there are so many versions of IE. MS, unlike others, kept loooong support for older Windows. And because some people are still using WinXP (IE8 at best) or Windows 7 (IE9-11) their IE is sort off incompatible with the world of FF/Chrome/Safari where you always have latest version and you don't even think about it (and thanks to mobile devices and google web apps there are major changes there in last 5 years).

MS is trying to change that and going the Google/Apples way with Win10. In W10 you have up-to-date Edge, just like others have (neither you, neither your customers. should care about version anymore), and it is very compatible with webkit (Safari, Chrome).

So now we just need to wait like 7 years or so until MS support for W7 ends (I mean, Android 2.3 is just 5 years old and the only answer you get from not working apps is "get better system"; IE11 is 3 years old and people are still using that - if you are lucky and you have "modern" customers, not some guy with "cool" WXP with 8 years old browser)

[Tannin]

Recipe tooltips are back and the game data has been updated to reflect the patch that just came out.

[alleryn]

Recipe tooltips are back and the game data has been updated to reflect the patch that just came out.
Yesss! Tannin you're amazing :)

[Tannin]

Hey guys,

It's come to my attention that Amazon's cloud storage service (S3) has gone down. This has impacted several websites and as Gorgon Explorer relies on S3 it happens to be one of them. While I am aware of the problem, unfortunately there's nothing I can do about it. Hopefully Amazon gets this resolved quickly. Sorry for the inconvenience!

EDIT: Everything is working again :)

[Tannin]

Reviving this thread to apologize for Gorgon Explorer going down, I've been busy with school and stuff lately. Working on a fix now

[Crissa]

Awesome! Transmutation is really sucky without it ^-^

[Tannin]

All fixed, sorry for the disruption guys. I'm still messing with some things so you may experience a few more short outages but everything is in working order again for the most part. Thanks for your patience and for those of you who went out of your way to tell me about it :)

[ANT3RA]

Absolute bloody legend mate...

[Julcat]

Thank you very much for you continuing to support the program. I know that you do not play so much anymore, and want you to realize how much we do appreciate it, I have found it to be incredibly helpful in deciding how and what I want to play with :).

[Tannin]

Thanks guys, I'm glad people are getting use out of this. I've updated to v279 to reflect the most recent game update, let me know if anything doesn't work. The Brewing recipes are in there but some of the images are missing, which I'll fix eventually.

[Tannin]

I noticed the XP/Bonus XP sections of the Recipes table are no longer working due to the way the game data has changed, but according to a post by srand in the update thread those values will be coming back, and when they do I'll fix the table. Sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime!

School's over and I've recently become unemployed, so I have some time to dedicate to this now - feel free to post or send in a bug report if anything else isn't working

[Tannin]

Data's been updated to reflect today's patch, and as promised the XP values are showing up again

[Tannin]

Hey guys, Niph made a nifty new tool called PG Json Parser that you should check out if you get the chance! Niph made it so that the data updates automatically and people seemed to appreciate this, and that's something I've been meaning to implement in Gorgon Explorer for a very long time, so I finally went ahead and did it.

The server that is serving the Gorgon Explorer app will now check for a new version every night at midnight EST, and update the data accordingly if necessary! This means you won't have to wait for the version number to be manually updated by me.

The "Last Updated" date is now gone from the navbar as it seems redundant now that updates will be happening automatically, but the game version is still displayed where it used to be.

[Crissa]

That sounds great! Well, until they change the file formats, but less work on you, right?

[Tannin]

Unfortunately the trade-off here is indeed that if the file format changes, the website will break the following day. If the file format changes significantly, the website will break significantly :P This is one of the reasons I have hesitated to do it this way, but I'm trying to keep an eye on things so that doesn't happen!

[Niph]

The way I solved the problem is to allow people to use an old version in cache, until code can be fixed to handle the change in file formats.