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Using the Authoring Tool

Max Kreminski edited this page Dec 4, 2019 · 2 revisions

This page contains some pointers and useful info to know when using the Ensemble Authoring Tool.

The authoring tool is a desktop application that allows you to view and edit social domains, and interact with them through a console equipped with ensemble.js library functions.

The latest build can be found on the releases page.

Have a text editor open too

The tool currently supports volition rule, trigger rule, and schema editing and running, but does not yet support action, history, or character editing. You need to edit the raw JSON files for that.

That's why, when using the tool, we recommend also having your favorite text editor open to your data files.

The tool autosaves every change to file

If you don't want to destructively change your domain while using the tool, consider making manual copies beforehand, using a version control system, or referring to the ample backup files generated by the tool in the _bak_volitionRules and _bak_triggerRules directories also created by the tool in your data folder.

Check the dev console

If you're experiencing unexpected behavior (for example, an action not appearing when running actions(..) despite all conditions being met), open the dev console by clicking the gear (⚙︎) on the top of the tool and looking for any errors (in red) that might point out an issue. If it doesn't, consider searching the Issues page for your problem, or opening a new issue (perhaps using the Question or Bug tags).

Refresh before re-loading

Hit one of the refresh buttons (⟳) at the top of the tool before you reload a set of data files. Otherwise, the tool will try to import objects from the new data into the currently loaded one. (There is an issue open to fix this behavior—#77).