First off, I try to get everyone to a KNOWN state of information to prevent misunderstandings and confusions. Thus, what follows is rather verbose, but it's so you know what I know. If anything I say below is erroneous, please supply the correct information which may clear up what I thought was a problem.
Part 1 is to ensure that I correctly understand how EQIC should behave and display items.
Part 2 pertains to the actual problem I am encountering.
Part 3 is requesting additional information from any EQIC programmers or knowledgeable Allakhazam user.
Okay, it has been quite awhile since I've done inventory diving of merchants (similar to dumpster diving for uber junk) throughout the lands to see what they have to offer. I then examine this merchant's Allakhazam page for the active list of goods they were last known to sell to see what has been added, updated, and/or removed. For any changes, I'll reupload his entire inventory from my logfile noting what the differences were. I believe it was easier for Allakhazam administrators to update a merchant's inventory en masse via a script/program they have/use rather than entering one or two changes by hand.
Part 1: Defining Optimal EQ Item Collector Behavior
EQ Item Collector: When you load EQIC, it checks for any new program updates and waits for the next character to enter the game or an active character to change zones and then starts cataloging what that character has in their inventory and banks. You see this as the items and their attached item numbers are shown in EQIC's View window. EQIC then checks for any new or updated items found in this list and submits them. It is also bound to that character's data stream so that even with multiple instances of EverQuest characters changing zones on that PC, it ignores them.
Merchants: If I recall correctly, when you right-clicked a merchant and their Purchase/Sell window opened up, EQIC would start cataloguing their inventory while displaying the results in the View window of EQIC, similar to what it does when you change zones. Any new or updated items are submitted. As stated earlier, I'd then check Allakhazam's entry on this merchant and update it as needed.
Traders: When you right-click a trader and their Purchase/Sell window window opens up, EQIC does the same actions as it does for Merchants, cataloging and displaying what it sees.
In essence, any time you look at a merchant's Purchase/Sell window or a trader's Purchase/Sell window, their items for sale will be catalogued by EQIC and can been seen in EQIC's View window? Or is my recollection wrong or has the way EQIC works been changed since then?
If it's suppose to show that merchant's and/or trader's inventory in the EQIC View window, then I am encountering an error with EQIC. Every time I try to look at a merchant's inventory, EQIC finds 2 invalid items. The numbers are usually consistent with that merchant when you reopen their Purchase/Sell window multple times. They usually change when you look at another merchant.
EQ Item Collector wrote:
invalid item (1936290384) detected, ignoring.
invalid item (1818652233) detected, ignoring.
invalid item (1818652233) detected, ignoring.
So, to see if one of the merchants items is causing this error, I start going through their inventory list, right-clicking every item for sale, top to bottom. A window containing information about that item pops up but EQIC doesn't do anything even though it just said it saw 2 invalid items. While still perusing the merchant's inventory, I can click an item link somebody may have given in /gu and EQIC immediately displays it on it's View window, so EQIC is still alert and active.
Should EQIC catalog and display an item that I right-click in a merchant's Purchase/Sell window? I ask because that item's information window pops up just like when you click on an item link in a chat channel.
Because of this, I have to send myself a /tell with a link of those items by clicking their icons:
Once my tell shows up, I can then click on the new links and EQIC will see those items, catalog and display them: