Some DB queries...

[DazzleHP]

...did you see what i did there?

So, um, i've spent the afternoon getting my hands dirty with all this database creaminess and i think i'm doing ok so far! Check it:



Considering i'm pretty much a complete novice at this (i've had minimal spreadsheet encounters, but understand a bit about strings from messing with VB years ago) i'm feeling rather pleased with myself! I am however struggling to determine the purpose of a few of the column's data and so would appreciate any sort of light you can shed for me.

NotClone - in all the DB's i've examined it is always set to False. Under what circumstances does it become True?

CustomDesc - Again my newbie brain has no idea what it is for.

Data - It's a text base entry for something - no idea what.

By all means just yell "them bits are none of your concern, just carry on as you were" and i'll accept that, but if i'm going to get into this i want to be as thorough as i possibly can! I don't believe in half-assing anything If you do something you do it to your best ability am i right?

Thanks in advance guys!

[Adultery]

NoClone evaluates to 'true' for MAME only, and even then only if it's a parent ROM.

Data may be an extra column reserved for future use.

Not sure what CustomDesc is for... I would have to ask GreatFlash.

Are you working with the mdb or the db3? It looks pretty fine, and I can always appreciate someone who rolls up their sleeves and gets it done. I'm more worried about a GameEx update overwriting your hard work.

[nullPointer]

CustomDesc doesn't really mean much for the end user but can potentially be used for online content. Many of the game descriptions seen in the database(s) are scraped from online sources (MobyGames often being the preferred source). Descriptions scraped from online sources are not considered to be "custom descriptions". Alternately in cases where the database editor (and here I mean the "official" database editor of the DB released with GameEx) has written their own description for a given game, the Custom Description flag indicates that fact. This means that the description can be used for online content and that the custom description can be used without violating any content copyright.

For those that are customizing their own databases I would recommend just leaving that field alone.

[DazzleHP]

Cheers for the input! I am using a mame set, it's just not available in the main version yet So i will set the NotClone to True for the parents to future proof it - thanks! I'm using db3 as i understand it is/will become the preferred for GameEx. I didn't create the DB itself - that is waaaay beyond my skills i just copied an existing with a few entries and edited all the info that i felt relevant.

Regarding GameEx overwriting my DB - it doesn't "clean" it's directories during an update does it? I'm working on a backed-up version my DB anyway, that i then copy to the DATA folder. But i'm curious, GameEx wouldn't actually remove a DB that i put there would it? It's not a DB that exists yet (at least not that i'm aware of and certainly not in a default installation).

EDIT - ahh i see now null! actually makes perfect sense Thanks for the info!

[Adultery]

It doesn't "clean" things, but there is the possibility of overwriting the files with whatever is in the update package... Assuming that there are db3 files in there.

[DazzleHP]

It doesn't "clean" things, but there is the possibility of overwriting the files with whatever is in the update package... Assuming that there are db3 files in there.

Ahh i see - i get ya, i'm a cautious customer anyways these days (comes from losing precious stuff in the past) so the DB in the GE install will always be a copy Thanks for the words of precaution either way

[uberpubert69]

I was worried about that too. I've made hundreds of edits to various db3 files and it seems GameEx only replaces those I havent made edits to. All my PS1 data is there for example but doesnt have the new fields/sections when I edit it. Whereas my Sega Master System db3 has the new fields in it (because I haven't made any edits to it yet). But in any case I make regular backups.