I made a character, did add equipment, then once it was "finished" went back and added equipment. I exported a PDF prior to adding the equipment, then again after adding the equipment and the PDF is the EXACT same as the first one. WHY? I've made changes to the character, why is the PDF not different? Is there some special thing I have to do to make the URL update to show that there were changes made to the character? This makes ZERO sense.
For me on Chrome 84.0.4147.125 (Official Build) (64-bit), I had to close the browser, open the browser, and go to the PDF URL again. The symptoms would point toward a caching issue.
...but is it the DnDBeyond current, active session not updating or is it the PDF reading module in Chrome holding onto the cache during a continuous Chrome session?🤔
If it's the latter and I'm leaning toward this, the only thing DnDBeyond can do is add a unique, changing tag to the end of the filename to force the reading module to load a fresh copy. Since there are likely several different back-end functions involved in creating the PDF, it might not be as simple a fix as it could seem on the surface - if that is indeed a viable fix at all.
I couldn't say. More testing needs to be done than my simple experiment.
EDIT: I mean, the old URL would have to be invalidated when creating a new one. Right now, they base it off the character information with nothing added and the old sheet is replaced with the new sheet but the PDF module in the browser doesn't know it - again, if that's the actually problem.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
It must be a caching issue. I opened the PDF on another computer and it has everything that I’ve added. Thanks for the feedback. Minorly annoying, but not as bad as a flat out “Oh well, nothing can be done,” type of thing.
Still happening. When I make a change to the character sheet, it should force a cache refresh for the Export to PDF function. I agree with the "unacceptable for a service I pay for" comment.
Still happening. When I make a change to the character sheet, it should force a cache refresh for the Export to PDF function. I agree with the "unacceptable for a service I pay for" comment.
This has been an issue for years, they refuse to fix it, or even acknowledge the existence.
There is a work around, but they won't even tell you what that is either.
Still happening. When I make a change to the character sheet, it should force a cache refresh for the Export to PDF function. I agree with the "unacceptable for a service I pay for" comment.
This has been an issue for years, they refuse to fix it, or even acknowledge the existence.
There is a work around, but they won't even tell you what that is either.
I would like to point out some inaccuracies:
This hasn't been an issue for years; it is a result of the character service update last year which moved character sheet services from a single system, to multiple systems. This was to make the character sheet faster, more stable and easier to update. It does however mean that caching between services (such as the PDF export service or the homebrew system) means changes take longer to propagate.
The team has repeatedly acknowledged this.
There is no "workaround" other than "Wait for the cache on the PDF export to update, which can take several minutes"
It should be noted the team is constantly working on improving the character sheet service as part of a dedication to making D&D Beyond the best it can be, and caching is one such known area for improvement. While it speeds up 9/10 aspects of the character sheet, those 1/10 areas that it doesn't are something that could benefit from improvement.
Still happening. When I make a change to the character sheet, it should force a cache refresh for the Export to PDF function. I agree with the "unacceptable for a service I pay for" comment.
This has been an issue for years, they refuse to fix it, or even acknowledge the existence.
There is a work around, but they won't even tell you what that is either.
I would like to point out some inaccuracies:
This hasn't been an issue for years; it is a result of the character service update last year which moved character sheet services from a single system, to multiple systems. This was to make the character sheet faster, more stable and easier to update. It does however mean that caching between services (such as the PDF export service or the homebrew system) means changes take longer to propagate.
The team has repeatedly acknowledged this.
There is no "workaround" other than "Wait for the cache on the PDF export to update, which can take several minutes"
It should be noted the team is constantly working on improving the character sheet service as part of a dedication to making D&D Beyond the best it can be, and caching is one such known area for improvement. While it speeds up 9/10 aspects of the character sheet, those 1/10 areas that it doesn't are something that could benefit from improvement.
The number 1, top feature and only reason DDB exists is the character builder. But "oh well sorry if you make a change, we can't figure out how to update the print out" is incredibly obtuse and useless response that any developer with one years experience could fix.
There IS a workaround, if absolutely any of you read any posts on the topic, including this one which has the workaround above, you make a copy of the character and print the PDF from the copy.
You don’t need a workaround, just patience. After you update your character sheet, just wait 20 minutes before exporting the PDF to give the system time to update the multiple server caches.
DDB’s “number 1, top feature” is the digital character sheet. Printable PDFs are a sort of “ribbon feature.” (It looks pretty but is fairly unnecessary.) That service is now less useful than ever due to the DDB app giving users access to their character sheets and the ability to manage them, even when offline.
You don’t need a workaround, just patience. After you update your character sheet, just wait 20 minutes before exporting the PDF to give the system time to update the multiple server caches.
DDB’s “number 1, top feature” is the digital character sheet. Printable PDFs are a sort of “ribbon feature.” (It looks pretty but is fairly unnecessary.) That service is now less useful than ever due to the DDB app giving users access to their character sheets and the ability to manage them, even when offline.
You might play online, but many people play with humans in the same room, and we don't sit on our phones during the game, we print out the character sheets.
The fact that you are defending in 2021 that if I make a tiny change, have wait 20 minutes like it is 1989 to print out a ******* sheet, means you just don't understand how poor the programming is, [REDACTED]
You don’t need a workaround, just patience. After you update your character sheet, just wait 20 minutes before exporting the PDF to give the system time to update the multiple server caches.
DDB’s “number 1, top feature” is the digital character sheet. Printable PDFs are a sort of “ribbon feature.” (It looks pretty but is fairly unnecessary.) That service is now less useful than ever due to the DDB app giving users access to their character sheets and the ability to manage them, even when offline.
You might play online, but many people play with humans in the same room, and we don't sit on our phones during the game, we print out the character sheets.
The fact that you are defending in 2021 that if I make a tiny change, have wait 20 minutes like it is 1989 to print out a ******* sheet, means you just don't understand how poor the programming is, [REDACTED]
I prefer to play in person myself, I just use my tablet instead of paper, it has the built in dice roller and everything. And I don’t have to murder trees to print my sheet out.
The fact that you are still using dead-tree “hardcopy” in 2021 like it’s 1989….
Hold on TwiddleDee. Plenty of people use a digital device while playing D&D now, whether phone or tablet (and I've seen one person use a desktop). Please understand that it is (rather rightly) assumed that people who wish to handle everything by paper would have the patience to wait a bit.
I cannot speak for DDB, but a good reason for the cache would be to reduce the amount of PDF creation being done while users tweak a character sheet every few minutes with the intent to create another PDF. Rather than rapid-fire character sheet PDFs, it would be better to make sure the character is as desired prior to exporting.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
It's longer than a 20 minute wait. I also pay for this service, I am trying to fix sheets for tomorrow's game and print them on my lunch break. 1. I do not have a printer at home, so this is my only way to print the sheets. 2. I do not have time to wait around however long, even 20 minutes, because it has to be done within my 30minute lunch break.
If there isn't already a way, we should be able to manually reset the cache for the character. @Davyd, how do we manually reset the cache when we are in a time crunch?
This is how I've fixed this issue when making new characters.
- Make a character at level 20, and copy it. - Change the name of the copy (eg: level 1, or just random letters) - Reduce to current level, export PDF - Open PDF in adobe or any PDF viewer/editor. Change the character's name there.
It works when ascending levels as well. Just change the character name before exporting the PDF.
This method forms a new PDF link without needing to wait for the cache to update.
I can see the frustration in this thread. Hope this helps!
It's like the one thing I use Microsoft Edge for. Click to copy in Chrome (or other browser), then open Edge and "Paste and Go". Print away! Definitely a browser cache issue.
I made a character, did add equipment, then once it was "finished" went back and added equipment. I exported a PDF prior to adding the equipment, then again after adding the equipment and the PDF is the EXACT same as the first one. WHY? I've made changes to the character, why is the PDF not different? Is there some special thing I have to do to make the URL update to show that there were changes made to the character? This makes ZERO sense.
This might be a caching issue, you may have to give the site time to generate a new pdf after you've made changes.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
For me on Chrome 84.0.4147.125 (Official Build) (64-bit), I had to close the browser, open the browser, and go to the PDF URL again. The symptoms would point toward a caching issue.
...but is it the DnDBeyond current, active session not updating or is it the PDF reading module in Chrome holding onto the cache during a continuous Chrome session?🤔
If it's the latter and I'm leaning toward this, the only thing DnDBeyond can do is add a unique, changing tag to the end of the filename to force the reading module to load a fresh copy. Since there are likely several different back-end functions involved in creating the PDF, it might not be as simple a fix as it could seem on the surface - if that is indeed a viable fix at all.
I couldn't say. More testing needs to be done than my simple experiment.
EDIT: I mean, the old URL would have to be invalidated when creating a new one. Right now, they base it off the character information with nothing added and the old sheet is replaced with the new sheet but the PDF module in the browser doesn't know it - again, if that's the actually problem.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
It must be a caching issue. I opened the PDF on another computer and it has everything that I’ve added. Thanks for the feedback. Minorly annoying, but not as bad as a flat out “Oh well, nothing can be done,” type of thing.
I typically have to make a copy of the sheet and generate a PDF for the copy. nstead of the original...
Seems to be faster to clone and make Beyond generate a new PDF than wait for Beyond to update a PDF it already made.
All me Hombews:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WUnYn1tRvbkKOPpAkWOVlpe2S3JVLpV_LDOVzKG2DgQ/edit?usp=drivesdk
I have this issue as well. Unacceptable for a service I pay for.
Still happening. When I make a change to the character sheet, it should force a cache refresh for the Export to PDF function. I agree with the "unacceptable for a service I pay for" comment.
This has been an issue for years, they refuse to fix it, or even acknowledge the existence.
There is a work around, but they won't even tell you what that is either.
I would like to point out some inaccuracies:
It should be noted the team is constantly working on improving the character sheet service as part of a dedication to making D&D Beyond the best it can be, and caching is one such known area for improvement. While it speeds up 9/10 aspects of the character sheet, those 1/10 areas that it doesn't are something that could benefit from improvement.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
The number 1, top feature and only reason DDB exists is the character builder. But "oh well sorry if you make a change, we can't figure out how to update the print out" is incredibly obtuse and useless response that any developer with one years experience could fix.
There IS a workaround, if absolutely any of you read any posts on the topic, including this one which has the workaround above, you make a copy of the character and print the PDF from the copy.
You don’t need a workaround, just patience. After you update your character sheet, just wait 20 minutes before exporting the PDF to give the system time to update the multiple server caches.
DDB’s “number 1, top feature” is the digital character sheet. Printable PDFs are a sort of “ribbon feature.” (It looks pretty but is fairly unnecessary.) That service is now less useful than ever due to the DDB app giving users access to their character sheets and the ability to manage them, even when offline.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
You might play online, but many people play with humans in the same room, and we don't sit on our phones during the game, we print out the character sheets.
The fact that you are defending in 2021 that if I make a tiny change, have wait 20 minutes like it is 1989 to print out a ******* sheet, means you just don't understand how poor the programming is, [REDACTED]
I prefer to play in person myself, I just use my tablet instead of paper, it has the built in dice roller and everything. And I don’t have to murder trees to print my sheet out.
The fact that you are still using dead-tree “hardcopy” in 2021 like it’s 1989….
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Hold on TwiddleDee. Plenty of people use a digital device while playing D&D now, whether phone or tablet (and I've seen one person use a desktop). Please understand that it is (rather rightly) assumed that people who wish to handle everything by paper would have the patience to wait a bit.
I cannot speak for DDB, but a good reason for the cache would be to reduce the amount of PDF creation being done while users tweak a character sheet every few minutes with the intent to create another PDF. Rather than rapid-fire character sheet PDFs, it would be better to make sure the character is as desired prior to exporting.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
It's longer than a 20 minute wait. I also pay for this service, I am trying to fix sheets for tomorrow's game and print them on my lunch break. 1. I do not have a printer at home, so this is my only way to print the sheets. 2. I do not have time to wait around however long, even 20 minutes, because it has to be done within my 30minute lunch break.
If there isn't already a way, we should be able to manually reset the cache for the character. @Davyd, how do we manually reset the cache when we are in a time crunch?
This is how I've fixed this issue when making new characters.
- Make a character at level 20, and copy it.
- Change the name of the copy (eg: level 1, or just random letters)
- Reduce to current level, export PDF
- Open PDF in adobe or any PDF viewer/editor. Change the character's name there.
It works when ascending levels as well. Just change the character name before exporting the PDF.
This method forms a new PDF link without needing to wait for the cache to update.
I can see the frustration in this thread. Hope this helps!
To be fair, the two most difficult things in software development are naming things, cache invalidation, and off-by-one errors.
It's like the one thing I use Microsoft Edge for. Click to copy in Chrome (or other browser), then open Edge and "Paste and Go". Print away! Definitely a browser cache issue.
2024 Oct, still an issue...
December 2024, still an issue...