Hi guys,

New to the site, so please bear with me if this has been asked. I used to catalog my card collection with Magic Assistant (off of Source Forge) but it hasn't been updating lately -- nothing from Spark or M20, or a few others -- and all attempts to reinstall have failed. So, I'm looking to re-inventory here on Deckbox. Thing is, I'd rather not enter 10k cards one at a time, so I'm wondering if anyone has experience importing from Magic Assistant.

Thanks for the help!

If you're able to attach an exported Inventory file, I bet I could help you convert it to a Deckbox-compatible import.

As someone with a huge inventory myself, I understand the burden of having to re-enter it into a new system!

Cool! That would be amazing. What type of file would it be in the Magic Assistant folder? You know, like .ini, or .exe or whatever? I'm not entirely sure what the backed up database of cards is called, but there are a limited number of files so I could probably find the right one by file type.

Hey! Sorry it took a couple days. But potentially some good news!

So I hadn't used my MA database in a while, and as I was poking around to try to answer your question, I realized it needed a software update. Sadly, the update failed. So I just went ahead and downloaded a whole new ZIP of the latest version (1.5) and pointed it to the workspace folder for my old MA install. Everything worked like a charm. More importantly, I noticed a couple things:

First, it was asking to update its card database, and it included all of the recent editions, including WAR and M20. So you might be in luck!

Second, if you're still interested in using Deckbox, this new version of MA has an Export option (I don't know in which version it was added, but my old version didn't have that option), and you can set the "Export type" to "DeckBox Inventory CSV". That'll get you most of the way there! But when you attempt to import it into DB, you'll probably receive a long list of errors due to mismatching edition names and special characters in card names (like the Æ in Aether). You can either go through the errors and fix them yourself, or if you'd like, I wouldn't mind taking a look at the MagicAssistant-exported CSV and see if I can get it 100% compatible with Deckbox for you.

If for some reason you're still not able to get a new version running, so that neither of the above are an option for you, then go to your Workspace directory (if you've forgotten it, you can view it in Preferences > Magic Prefs > File Locations). In your Workspace directory, open magiccards > Collections, and attach your collection file(s). They're in XML format. I can't promise how easily I can convert those, though, so trying again to get a new version of the program will be your best bet.

Actually nevermind, using your XML file should be perfectly easy. I could just add it into my updated MagicAssistant, and export it into Deckbox format from there. And then like I said, I'll just have to make some tweaks to get edition / card names matched.

AWESOME. I actually tried to update MA to 1.5 before (and I think I even put it in workspace, coincidentally) but it didn't take for whatever reason. First it didn't come with a JRE so I had to copy/paste it from my old MA install, and then the new one did load up said something about a fatal handshake alert, and it wouldn't load any card art or update to the new sets past 2017 (last time I put any time into it).

Attached is (I hope) the xml file you're looking for. Thanks again for all your help!

ChiefBeef wrote:Attached is (I hope) the xml file you're looking for.

Sadly, it didn't attach to your post. Make sure after you click "Choose file" and select it from the file browser, that you then click the "Add file" button in Deckbox, or else it's not actually attached.

If you did that, then it's possible Deckbox doesn't allow XML files, in which case I would suggest using some sort of cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) to generate a shareable link that I can download from

But I bet it's the first issue.... cuz I've made that mistake more than once myself, even though I know better! ;)

OK, I tried again (and remembered to hit the "Add file" button this time) and it said:

"Warning! The following errors must be corrected before your message can be posted:
The server was unable to save the uploaded file. Please contact the forum administrator at admin@deckbox.org."

Assuming that means it doesn't take XMLs, I made a dropbox link. Here ya go:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/te08gwqiofuov9j/main.xml?dl=0

Now THAT should work. But I shouldn't jinx it.

I was able to download the file at least! I'm not at my computer, so I can't check it in MA yet, but I'll take a look later this evening.

Alright, so I got it working for you! Here are Dropbox links to both the initial exported CSV from MA, as well as the final fixed CSV that imports correctly into DB:

Initial export -- dropbox.com/s/dxh021hsj5wz1zd/Inventory%20-%20initial%20export.csv
Fixed for import -- dropbox.com/s/11erla8xphy3qwz/Inventory%20-%20fixed%20for%20import.csv

If you attempt to import the initial CSV, you'll find that there are four main sources of the errors:

1. Incompatible edition names (82 errors):
   • Magic: The Gathering-Conspiracy => Conspiracy (55 errors)
   • Commander 2013 Edition => Commander 2013 (15 errors)
   • Magic: The Gathering-Commander => Commander (4 errors)
   • Planechase 2012 Edition => Planechase 2012 (8 errors)
2. Mismatched card names, which itself was due to 3 sources (28 errors):
   • Transform cards from Innistrad, DKA, and SOI had the backside of the cards listed (15 errors)
   • Split cards, like Turn // Burn, sometimes had only one half named, or had a name like Turn // Burn (Turn) (11 errors)
   • Flip cards from Kamigawa had the flipped half's name, or had that name in parentheses (like with split cards) (2 errors)
3. Online-only editions (10 errors):
   • Masters Edition (1 error)
   • Masters Edition II (7 errors)
   • Masters Edition III (1 error)
   • Vintage Masters (1 error)
4. Æ character in card names (7 errors)

I fixed the edition names and changed Æther to Aether.

As far as the online-only sets, Deckbox does not (and far as I'm aware doesn't plan to) support MTGO or Arena (since a primary feature of Deckbox is trading paper cards). I went ahead and kept those cards at the end of the fixed file, just for your reference. I had to move the counts of each card to an unused column (so Deckbox will ignore them during import).

Finally, I recommend double-checking your physical inventory against the database when it comes to the split, flip, and transform cards. It feels like your Deckbox inventory may now have duplicates, because I believe that MA was counting each half / side of those cards as individual cards. I did keep the alleged duplicates in the fixed file, as separate rows, but I noticed that they always had the exact same count. For instance, you'll see two rows for 4x Delver of Secrets. This will show a total of 8 on Deckbox, but my bet is you own only 4?

Yeah, it was duplicating the split/flip/transform cards.

Online-only: Curious. I didn't ever list online-only cards in MA, since I don't actually play online (actually I just started Arena two days ago to play with a friend, but before that, never). But I think those one might be "Modern Masters" cards, judging by the label on the physical card and in Deckbox. But I can just manually reenter those ten cards.

Thank you so much for all your work on this! I was despairing over having spent so much time entering the collection over the years, only to have it collapse on me. You're a life(and time)saver!

Addendum: yeah, MA mislabeled some set or other as "Masters Edition III", which is the online-only one. Now I just have to figure out which set they're actually from, and I'm gold.

My pleasure! I've gotten pretty good at working with the CSVs for Deckbox and at converting them between different collection tools, so these little challenges are kinda fun for me. :)

Have a good one!