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Wizard Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 1547

That syntax hasn't ever worked for me properly. Generally I reduce down to the inner-most db var and then use a series of #ADDKEYs in order to get back to the top. For example:

Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 149

I've found that embedded items or keys need to be initialized before they can be modified by #ADDITEM or #ADDKEY. I'm not sure if it's meant to work that way, but it's another way to work around the issue.

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

That is correct, #ADDITEM and #ADDKEY will not work unless the variable already exists. That includes a new level within a complex json variable.

Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 149

That's not the case, Rahab.

#ADDITEM and #ADDKEY can generate new variables and they can generate new json levels within newly created variable, but only so long as they only need to generate a single new level to reach the key or list to be modified. It's only when you try to use #ADDKEY or #ADDITEM to create a json object that is embedded by two or more levels and all of those levels don't yet exist that it has problems and treats the 'key.key' syntax as a literal instead of parsing it as different levels within the json variable. I'm not sure if levels is the right terminology but hopefully the example clarifies.

#ADDKEY KeyVariable.LevelOne NewKey NewValue <-- works
#ADDKEY OtherKeyVariable.LevelOne.LevelTwo NewKey NewValue <-- does not work
#ADDITEM ListVariable.4 NewItem <-- works
#ADDITEM OtherListVariable.4.2 NewItem <-- does not work

If the red bit contains the 'key.key' or 'list.list' syntax and all of those levels don't already exist, it fails.

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:55 am

There was my problem then, I was trying when the root variable didn't even exist yet, much less any of the branches.
I assumed the parser would understand me.

Wizard Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 2320

Hm. I think I've had trouble in the past with #ADDITEM when the variable didn't exist. I'll check that again. Perhaps I'm misremembering and it was a case of missing intermediate levels, as you describe. Thanks for the correction.

Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 149

I've done the same thing a lot, Rahab, and so has Chamenas, going by the solution he described... There are different issues in zMUD or Cmud we all run in to and, in order to work around the issue, you get in to the habit of doing things a particular way. Somewhere along the line, with a new version of Cmud or zMUD, the behavior may have changed, but we all still keep our old habits, oblivious to the fact the anomalous script behavior those habits were developed to avoid no longer exists.

That's also part of why I'm really not sure if this counts as a bug or not. It probably is, and a later version of Cmud may resolve the issue, such that shalimar's original code will work. For the moment though, in 3.33, it's possible to isolate exactly what's going on and work around it.

Whatever issues the client may have, it's still the best thing that ever happened to mudding.

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:08 pm

Sounds like a bug to me, so I've added it to the list. The syntax:

#ADDITEM List.1.2.3.4 item

was supposed to work, but I confirmed that it doesn't. I think this worked in one of the beta versions and then somehow was broken by some other bug fix and then never reported. I'll try to get this into the next update.