RL tutorial Advanced Searching - Revision history

Jeffleyda at 14:51, 11 February 2011

2011-02-11T14:51:49Z

Jeffleyda at 15:03, 12 December 2008

2008-12-12T15:03:35Z

Jeffleyda at 15:15, 29 August 2008

2008-08-29T15:15:03Z

Jeffleyda at 21:58, 12 August 2008

2008-08-12T21:58:35Z

Jeffleyda at 21:53, 12 August 2008

2008-08-12T21:53:53Z

Jeffleyda at 03:45, 12 August 2008

2008-08-12T03:45:54Z

Jeffleyda at 03:40, 12 August 2008

2008-08-12T03:40:57Z

Jeffleyda at 03:29, 12 August 2008

2008-08-12T03:29:02Z

Jeffleyda at 03:21, 12 August 2008

2008-08-12T03:21:41Z

Jeffleyda at 23:24, 11 August 2008

2008-08-11T23:24:16Z

@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
 	<category>Maze</category>
 	<controls info>numPlayers="2" alternating="1" mirrored="1" usesService="0" tilt="0" cocktail="1"</controls info>
 	<player number="1" numButtons="0">
 		<controls>

@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 </pre>
 to the end of your query.  If you notice in the example XML below, the year of release is surrounded by the '''<year> </year>''' tags.<br>
-This query brings up any game created in 1980-1989.
+This query brings up any game created in 1980-1989. <br>
 <BR>

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Remember back in math class with order of operations? (sorry to bring up that subject!) You do stuff in the parenthesis first, then take the results of that "group" and continue working through the problem.  Same deal here.<br>
-In this example, ROMLister will check each game and see if it is a 3,2,1 or 0 button game.  If it is, then it checks to see if the game uses an 8-way joystick.  If the results from the button group AND the joystick type are both yes, then the game is added to the output list.  If either the game is more than 3 buttons, or the game is not 8-way, then it doesn't get added.  This search criteria is checked against every game, and only the ones that match are outputted to your working list.
+In this example, ROMLister will check each game and see if it is a 3,2,1 or 0 button game.  If it is, then it checks to see if the game uses an 8-way joystick.  If the results from the button group check '''AND''' the joystick type are both yes, then the game is added to your list.  If either the game is more than 3 buttons, or the game is not 8-way, then it doesn't get added.  This search criteria is checked against every game, and only the games that match are outputted to your working list.
 <br>
 <br>
@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 <br>
 <br>
-*Note: Once you start changing the -find text by hand, if you click on any of the checkboxes on the main interface, it will overwrite (trash) anything you've typed in, so be careful!
+Keep the following key in mind:  <br>
 <br>
 <br>
-Keep the following key in mind:  & means AND.  | means OR. ! means NOT
+*Note: Once you start changing the -find text by hand, if you click on any of the checkboxes on the main interface, it will overwrite (trash) anything you've typed in, so be careful!
 <br>
 <br>
@@ Line 60: / Line 66: @@
   & <year>198
 </pre>
-to the end of your query.  If you notice in the example XML above, the year of release is surrounded by the '''<year> </year>''' tags.<br>
+to the end of your query.  If you notice in the example XML below, the year of release is surrounded by the '''<year> </year>''' tags.<br>
 This query brings up any game created in 1980-1989.
 <BR>
@@ Line 67: / Line 73: @@
 <br>
-The stuff that you can search on is specified by the input XML file.  double clicking any ROM name in your working list will display that game's XML data.  Here's the data for puckman:
+The stuff that you can search on is specified by the input XML file.  Double clicking any ROM name in your working list will display that game's XML data.  All the games that MAME supports has similar data for searching.  Here's the data for puckman:
 <pre>

@@ Line 141: / Line 141: @@
 <br>
 <br>
 == Macros ==

@@ Line 159: / Line 159: @@
 @JAPAN
-Those are macros.  Included in the ROMLister distribution package is a file called rlmacros.txt.  It needs to be in the same folder as ROMLister itself to work properly.  All ROMLister does is expand out the '''@USA''' with the corresponding data from rlmacros.txt.  The region macros are pretty crazy and long, so they are hidden behind a macro to make things a little easier to read in that -find text.
+Those are macros.  Included in the ROMLister distribution package is a file called rlmacros.txt.  It needs to be in the same folder as ROMLister itself to work properly.  All ROMLister does is expand out the '''@USA''' with the corresponding data from rlmacros.txt.  The region macros are pretty long, so they are hidden behind a macro to make things a little easier to read in that -find text.
-Here's the macros for @USA:
+Here's the macro details for @USA:
 <pre>
 @USA = ( ' USA ' | '(USA ' | '(USA, ' | 'USA (Japan)' | 'USA (Japan, ' | '(JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)' | '(USA)' | '(International/Japan)' | '(US)' | '(US?)' | '(US,' | '(US ' | '(Europe / USA / Japan / Asia) ' | ', US' | '(World)' )</pre>

@@ Line 144: / Line 144: @@
 == How about adding individual games? ==
@@ Line 161: / Line 161: @@
 Those are macros.  Included in the ROMLister distribution package is a file called rlmacros.txt.  It needs to be in the same folder as ROMLister itself to work properly.  All ROMLister does is expand out the '''@USA''' with the corresponding data from rlmacros.txt.  The region macros are pretty crazy and long, so they are hidden behind a macro to make things a little easier to read in that -find text.
-Here's the macros for @JAPAN:
+Here's the macros for @USA:
 <pre>
-@JAPAN = ( '(JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)' | '(Japan ' | '(Japan)' | '(Japan, ' | ', Japan)' | '(Japan?)' | '(Europe / USA / Japan / Asia)' | '(International/Japan)' | '(Japan, Japanese)' | '(Japan, English)' | ' Japan ' | ' Japan,' | ', Japan,' | ' Japanese ' | ', Japanese' | '(World)' )
+@USA = ( ' USA ' | '(USA ' | '(USA, ' | 'USA (Japan)' | 'USA (Japan, ' | '(JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)' | '(USA)' | '(International/Japan)' | '(US)' | '(US?)' | '(US,' | '(US ' | '(Europe / USA / Japan / Asia) ' | ', US' | '(World)' )</pre>
-Crazy eh?
+Crazy eh?  It doesn't even fit on the screen!
 You can most certainly add your own macros or edit the ones that are supplied for regions.  The formatting is really quite simple; it's just:
@@ Line 172: / Line 171: @@
 @macro name = search text
+Notice how there are search parameters with only a single parenthesis in them.  Any search item like that has to be inside single quote marks, so RL treats that string as a single element.  Without the quote marks, RL would think those parenthesis are part of a grouping.  Notice also that the entire macro itself is grouped inside a pair of parenthesis, so that it is treated as a single yes/no as each game is processed through it.
 [[RL_tutorials | Return to ROMLister tutorials]]

@@ Line 146: / Line 146: @@
-Perhaps there's a game you're thinking of that didn't show up in your query.  You could adapt your -find query to include it, or a simpler method is to click on the "list all ROMs" from the main romlister window and it will generate a complete list of all the known games.  From that list, just right-click on a game(s) you want in your list and select "add to your list" and it will throw that ROM over to your working list.
+Perhaps there's a game you're thinking of that didn't show up in your query.  You could adapt your -find query to include it, or a simpler method is to click on the "list all ROMs" from the main romlister window and it will generate a complete list of all the known games.  From that list, just right-click on any game(s) you want in your list and select "add to your list" and it will throw that ROM over to your working list.
 [[Image:Rl_AllROMs.JPG |thumb|Adding a ROM from the All ROMs window to your list.  Just right click]]
 [[RL_tutorials | Return to ROMLister tutorials]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:29, 12 August 2008
Line 147:		Line 147:

	Perhaps there's a game you're thinking of that didn't show up in your query. You could adapt your -find query to include it, or a simpler method is to click on the "list all ROMs" from the main romlister window and it will generate a complete list of all the known games. From that list, just right-click on a game(s) you want in your list and select "add to your list" and it will throw that ROM over to your working list.		Perhaps there's a game you're thinking of that didn't show up in your query. You could adapt your -find query to include it, or a simpler method is to click on the "list all ROMs" from the main romlister window and it will generate a complete list of all the known games. From that list, just right-click on a game(s) you want in your list and select "add to your list" and it will throw that ROM over to your working list.
		+
		+	[[Image:Rl_AllROMs.JPG \|thumb\|Adding a ROM from the All ROMs window to your list. Just right click]]


	[[RL_tutorials \| Return to ROMLister tutorials]]		[[RL_tutorials \| Return to ROMLister tutorials]]

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 That text in the -find window is what gets sent into the search engine.  Any ROM that meets all of the criteria supplied, gets put into the output list.
 <br>
-Let's examine a simple search query of "Any game that is 3 buttons or less, and uses an 8-way joystick"
+Let's examine a simple search query of
-<br>The following text is what gets built by the quick-find wizard: (yeah, there's a little more text, but this is the core of it)
+<pre>Any game that is 3 buttons or less, and uses an 8-way joystick</pre>
 <pre>
 (buttons=3 | buttons=2 | buttons=1 | buttons=0) & joy8way
@@ Line 13: / Line 15: @@
 ( buttons=3 OR buttons=2 OR buttons=1 OR buttons=0 ) AND joy8way
 </pre>
-Or, even simpler:
 Remember back in math class with order of operations? (sorry to bring up that subject!) You do stuff in the parenthesis first, then take the results of that "group" and continue working through the problem.  Same deal here.<br>