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New Update Today: Roll20 API, Journal Tagging, Token Slots, and More!

There's a new update out this morning with lots of fun new stuff. The Roll20 API <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-JD8I8T_ic" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-JD8I8T_ic</a> Today we're unveiling the first iteration of the Roll20 API. The API allows you to control nearly every object in your Roll20 campaign, directly accessing and modifying the values of tokens, characters, handouts, macros, and more. You can also listen and respond to events when objects change, implement custom chat commands, and even do crazy stuff like have traps trigger automatically or create patrolling tokens. The API is a Mentor-only feature &nbsp;currently available on the Dev Server. You can read more about it on the new Roll20 Wiki , and we've also created a special sub-forum where you can discuss the API and share your scripts with the community. Journal Updates Another highlight of this push is the new updates we've made to the Journal, focused around making them easier to use for GMs. Including: There's now a&nbsp; search box &nbsp;at the top of the Journal tab. You can type the name or tag(s) and we'll find all Journal entries (Characters + Handouts) that match. Search box auto-completes based on your existing tags. You can also click the tags button to the right to see a list of all your tags sorted by popularity. And if you are currently filtering, that tag box will show the tags that are on the currently-found items, so you can use it to "drill down" further.&nbsp; There's also now a&nbsp; tags box &nbsp;in both the Character and Handouts edit screens where you can add tags.&nbsp; We've changed the layout of the Character dialogs. We've separated the Bio and Info screen and the Attributes and Abilities screen into two separate screens using tabs along the top. Gives you a lot more room to write the Bio and GM Notes and helps things feel less cluttered. Default Token Slot:&nbsp; There's a new box underneath the Avatar called "Default Token". Highlight a token on the tabletop while you have the Character editor open, then press the "Use Selected Token" button. That will store a COPY of the current state of that token as the default token for that Character. Then when you add the Character to the tabletop (see the next time), we'll create a new COPY of that token already set up. So you can set up a token linked to the Character, with bars already assigned to Attributes, etc., and quickly pop it onto a map. Quickly add Characters to the tabletop : Now you can drag and drop a Character right out of the Journal listing (where it lists all the Characters with their little avatars) onto the tabletop. If there's a Default Token setup for that Character it will be used, otherwise the Character's avatar is used. Quickly show Handouts to players : You can also drag and drop a Handout out of the Journal listing onto a Player (the listing along the bottom-left of the screen where it shows the player's names) and it will a) give permission to view that Handout to the player if they don't have it already, and b) show the handout to the player.&nbsp; Players can now edit Handouts: &nbsp;Just add the player to the "Can Be Edited By" field in the Edit Handout screen.&nbsp; You can now Drag and drop to re-order attributes and abilities &nbsp;in the Character edit dialog. Just hover over the attribute/ability and use the new move handle (looks like 3 lines stacked on top of another) to re-order them. Macros and Abilities Editor We've changed the way that the Macros editor and Abilities editor works in regards to adding Attributes. Before we were trying to do something "fancy" with a "tokenized" editor system (where it turned the attributes into colored boxes which you couldn't edit). However that has led to lots of issues, so we're going back simple.&nbsp; What that means is that when you add an attribute to a macro/ability, you'll see a piece of text get added like this: "@{Sir Bearington|Intelligence}" (or just "@{Intelligence}" if it's an Ability, since all Attributes in Abilities are assumed to be from the same Character the Ability is in). It should be pretty easy to tell what that code snippet does :-). It should also make it more obvious how to correctly add these to your macros/abilities without using the auto-complete, and it really makes copying+pasting beween attributes fields work much better. In addition this fixes the bug where sometimes you would create a macro/abilities and come back and a line-return would be missing.&nbsp; The one thing this does make a little worse, though, is that now if you change the NAME of your Character, any existing&nbsp; macros &nbsp;where you used attributes from that Character (since they're based on the name) will now be broken and need to be updated. So keep that in mind. All of your existing macros + abilities should be auto-updated to display this new method of editing without any necessary changes. Let me know if anything broke, though.&nbsp; EDIT :&nbsp;To clarify, as long as you're building Abilities on the Character Sheet and using Attributes from the same Character, you don't need to worry about the Character's name changing. You just put, for example @{Intellect} and it's smart enough to know that means the Intellect Attribute from the same Character that the Ability is in. The Character name only comes into play when you're doing Macros. Really, from this point forward, I would highly suggest using Character Abilities over Macros when you are using Character Attributes unless you have a really pressing reason I can't think of not to. It will just work a lot better over the long term, probably. We've also added auto-complete for abilities to the text chat input. Just type "%" and start typing. Misc There's a new&nbsp; "single spacing" mode &nbsp;for the text editor that you can activate using the new icon on the far left of the edit box toolbar. Just click on it and choose "Single". Basically this works by eliminating the margins between all the paragraphs. Note that this does not currently work on the forums, only in-game. Copying and pasting from outside sources like the Pathfinder SRD Wiki has been greatly improved. Links in the app (in the Chat, in Notes fields, etc.) will now always open in a new tab/window, even if you didn't check that box when creating the link. Again this is very useful when pasting content from outside sources as the links to ability descriptions and other things will work great now. Hide the right sidebar:&nbsp; There's a new button along the left-top of the right sidebar which you can click to toggle hiding/showing the right sidebar. Custom initiative items: &nbsp;If you click the blue "gear" button at the bottom of the turn order tracker, you can now add custom text entries to the turn order. In addition, players can now properly only edit the initiative of tokens which they can control on the tabletop. Introducing the Roll20 Wiki The Roll20 Help Site has become a bit stagnant lately. What we really need is a place where the community can contribute to that process. We have also wanted for a while now a good place to store System Specific Guides and Tips and Tricks from the community (for example, the best way to play Shadowrun on Roll20, or the best way to do an ambush on your party using Dynamic Lighting). Today we're publicly unveiling the new Roll20 Wiki, a community collaboration to help achieve those goals. <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net</a> You'll automatically be logged in if you're already logged in on the main Roll20 site. Feel free to dive in and start editing if you'd like, or just give us feedback on what you think. In addition we're running a contest based on who makes the best contribution to the wiki in the next few weeks, so hop on it! Bug Fixes: The "Chat Beep Enabled" checkbox setting will now save between sessions. You can now combine both GM Roll and normal rolls in the same macro without them all being flagged as GM Rolls. The width/height snapping feature will no longer snap objects to be 0x0 in size. ...plus more I'm sure I forgot.
1367336106
Evan Walsh
KS Backer
Sheet Author
Thank you so much for releasing this update today! My group plays on Tuesdays and I was sad that we'd have to wait a whole week to enjoy the new journal stuff. I've toyed with it on the dev server and I couldn't like it more. Thanks for all the hard work, Roll20 team!
1367336794
Fred Lang
Marketplace Creator
Holy wow. &nbsp;Look at all that new stuff!
Would be nice if there was a script library for us, no scriptors.
Tommy R. said: Would be nice if there was a script library for us, no scriptors. I don't know if you saw it, but that's the intent with the new API forum:&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/category/46806" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/category/46806</a> I'm sure in no time we're going to have a very large array of scripts that you can pull from and customize even if you aren't a very experienced programmer.
Roll20 noob here; these are some powerful enhancements! Solid encouragement to subscribe.
Whoa. That is all looking very tasty. I signed up as a supporter at the beginning of the month, but this is tempting me to go Full Monty. No, not that. The other thing. Full Mentor . Nobody wants the first thing. Also, it would be nice to have something fun to practice my limited Javascript skills on.
I was already reeling with awe at the things you've packed into this update, but the last two - hiding the sidebar and custom items in the turn order tracker - were icing on the cake. Just those last two would have made my day. As for the rest... wow.
time to start playing around :) (who cares If I can't actually use them) and good to see we should be getting more help on the wiki.
Whoo hoo! &nbsp;This is a super exciting update. :)
You guys are earning my money for sure. Thank you! :)
HUGE update. Keep up the good work.
Subscription page is messed up. Everything is bottom aligned but it would look better top aligned. :) personally I will probably never use the API, but I am happy to see it released. Grats on the update and thanks for a great product.
Wow! &nbsp;I am going to have to write a whole new blog about this. &nbsp;Am loving this system so much, thank you!
I would like to chime in as well. This is a huge update. I have been playing with the journal updates, and I must say that the default token option &nbsp;and journal tagging, are absolutely some of the greatest things in the system to date, imo. I know I can be vocal and sometimes critical, but man, I gotta say, this update... Is a winner. Once I (we) can move tokens and journal items (characters, specifically) between campaigns, I am going to be pretty full. On a side note: I really like, and appreciate, &nbsp;that you have updated the&nbsp;supporter&nbsp;page. It gives a very clear statement as to what you offer. Thanks for that.
@Riley: any update on this ?
Great update! I'm especially excited about the default tokens for characters. Thanks for all your hard work. :-)
Alexander R. said: @Riley: any update on this ? Oh goodness. I assume you mean IE support. Unfortunately that one has pretty much fallen off the radar at this point. While IE10 made some good strides, there are still things like pointer-events, WebRTC video, and WebGL that they aren't supporting. So the best thing to do is use Chrome Frame. I don't think we'll be able to support IE due to those restrictions. Here's to hoping IE11 has them.
Will API eventually be a General Subscriber feature, or will it only ever be a Mentor feature?
DarthGM said: Will API eventually be a General Subscriber feature, or will it only ever be a Mentor feature? The API will definitely be Mentor-only for the foreseeable future.
This is another impressive update . . . Congrats to the Roll20 Team and thanks for the new features and implemented suggestions! Between many other things, the implementation of optional tokens —without messing with the main portrait— in the character sheet is great. The Roll20 API is, I think, beyond of my capabilities, but I may try to learn a bit of it. In any case I think it will be very interesting to see shared community created scripts. — After a bit of testing, I also want to talk about how&nbsp; Handouts &nbsp;behave after this update: before, when one enlarged the Handout's window, the size of the picture inside was proportionally increased. I regarded this as a very useful thing.&nbsp; Right now, it's not possible to enlarge the size of an image placed inside a Roll20 Handout as content: yes, I know that by clicking the Magnifier icon, the image jumps, full-sized, to the foreground —cool as always. What I mean is that by modifying the Hangout's window size, now it's possible only to reduce the size of the contained image. I don't know if this has been a conscious design choice; just in case it's a small bug, I'm using Win7 Ultimate/Chrome last version.&nbsp; As feedback, I see my images deployed in Roll20 Handouts in a small size, which diminishes their visibility. Some of these images contain text in JPG and PNG files for the players, and are intented to be left opened in midst of the game session for mood, rules and setting references.&nbsp; This said, I wonder if enlarging Handout's images by means of stretching the borders of the window could be brought back.
1367619040
Gauss
Forum Champion
Axel, I will check if this is intended behavior. - Gauss
Thank you beforehand&nbsp;for your attention, Gauss!
Axel Castilla said: before, when one enlarged the Handout's window, the size of the picture inside was proportionally increased. I regarded this as a very useful thing.&nbsp; Right now, it's not possible to enlarge the size of an image placed inside a Roll20 Handout as content Gauss said: Axel, I will check if this is intended behavior. - Gauss It's great to see that Handouts are working as before: the size of contained images can be enlarged and reduced again!