Izzy Hodnett › Personal › D&D 4e Parser

D&D 4e Parser

Opens character files saved by software that no longer runs, and turns them back into something readable.

Web Personal project
Who uses it
Players with old character files they cannot otherwise open. It is public with nothing to sign into, so no count is kept. It is used alongside the Heroic 4e character builder, discussed with that builder’s creator, and shared in a community forum for the edition — so it reached people well beyond anyone I know.
How long it took
One day.
Still maintained
Stable. The file format it reads stopped changing years ago, so there is nothing to keep up with.
Where it runs
dnd4eparse.org

The problem it solves

People who played a particular edition of Dungeons & Dragons saved their characters using an official tool that is no longer supported. The files still exist on their computers, but the program that opened them does not. The information is there and unreachable.

How it works

  1. Someone opens their saved file in the page. The page reads it and pulls out the useful information.
  2. That information is laid out as a character sheet you can actually read and use.
  3. The original file is never altered — it is read and left alone.

What this is built with

Each part, and what it does, in plain terms.

Hosting
Where the site actually runs. These run on Cloudflare, the same service that carries traffic for a large share of the web, so pages load from whichever of its locations is nearest the reader.
A web page people use
The site itself, the screens people click through. It opens in an ordinary browser, so there is nothing for anyone to install.
A file reader
Code that opens a file produced by other software and pulls the useful information out of it. The reader never changes the original file.
D&D 4e Parser
D&D 4e Parser
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