Click the icon above to download HopenRXRTools!

Link to the GitHub page here.

For older versions click here.

CHAPTERS

HOW TO SETUP

After you have downloaded the program, it should appear in your downloads folder.	To unzip the folder, right click and then click "Extract All..."	The unzipped folder should appear once extracted!
Next, download the extremely highly recommended version of Python (3.11.7) here. For the official website, you can also click here. If you decide the use the website, be sure to download Python 3.11.7 and not the most recent version. HopenRXRTools may experience weird stuff if you install the wrong version of Python. It is highly recommended that when installing, click "add to system path".	Once Python has been fully downloaded, run the "INSTALLPILLOW" script in the HopenRXRTools folder (Double left click to run it). This is a Python module which gives the program the ability to edit photos.	Once the "Pillow" module and Python have been installed, the program should work as intended! If any steps are skipped, or if any major issues occur during the setup process, the program will likely crash when attempting to use it. If you have any issues or questions, you can contact Hopen111 here.

HOW TO USE

MAKING PAGE HEADERS

First, you'll need to download the Roadgeek Series 6B and 6W fonts in order for this to work. For the website these came from, click here.	To install the fonts, double left click each of them, and click "install".	Once installed, go to this Google Drive folder and choose the correct header color for the state the crossing is located in (Ex: California = Blue).
Make sure to only download the "Header.psd" file. All the other files are either outdated, or unnecessarily complicated.	Once you have the correct header template, head over to Photopea.com to edit the template. Click "Open From Computer" and then open the "Header.psd" file.	Once you open the header, you should see something similar to this. If the crossing you are documenting is on a County Road, State Highway, US Highway, etc, then insert that corresponding highway shield to the left of the text. It should look like this if done correctly.
Once your header is finished, download it under "File" > "Export As" > "PNG". Once it has downloaded, put the "Header.png" file in the HopenRXRTools folder, and place it in the "Header" folder, where it will be inserted on the finished page.

MOVING PHOTOS INTO FOLDERS

First, download your crossing photos to your PC, and place them in the HopenRXRTools folder. HEIC files will NOT work! Also be sure to have your header done as seen in the above instructions. Note: in this tutorial, I will have my view settings set to medium sized icons, and grouping by none.	Next, place the photos in the corresponding folders. For example, place photos of the eastern signal in the "Eastern_Signal" folder.	Don't forget to put photos into the correct subfolders under "Track_Views", "Overviews", "Median_Signals", and "Pedestrian_Signals".

RUNNING HOPENRXRTOOLS

To run HopenRXRTools, double left click the HopenRXRTools Python script. If Python 3.11.7 is downloaded correctly, it should have a Python logo on the file similar to this one.	If all works correctly, you'll see the command line terminal open up with this displaying.	You'll be able to type out info here that HopenRXRTools is unable to get on its own. For example, stuff like the street name and DOT number will be required later. Press enter when finished with each question. It should be noted that there is currently no way to undo answers.

INPUTTING CROSSING LOCATION

For the street name in this example, we will type "380th St.".	For State Highways or US Highways, don't have a period at the end.	For the city/town name, it's as easy as typing "CITY, STATE".

INPUTTING PAGE CREATION DATE

For states that don't use the day in the date (like Illinois or Iowa), type "MONTH YEAR".	For states that use the day in the date, type "MM/DD/YYYY".
Remember, the date created is NOT when YOU created the page, but when it is planned to be PUBLISHED to the site.

INPUTTING DOT/ID NUMBER

Get the DOT number of the crossing you are documenting and paste it here. If your crossing has multiple DOT/ID numbers, then type "NUMBER1, NUMBER2".	If you don't have the DOT number for your crossing, you can use this map to find the correct number for any crossing in the US. If the crossing is in Canada, then use this map instead, and use the "TC" number.	If your crossing doesn't use DOT numbers at all, type "ID" (or "TC" if you are in Canada,) and then press enter. Then type out the ID/TC number. If you aren't able to find the DOT/ID/TC number of your crossing, then type "Unknown" or "N/A".

INPUTTING MILEPOST NUMBER

Get the milepost number of the crossing you are documenting and paste it here. If your crossing has multiple milepost numbers, then type "NUMBER1, NUMBER2".	If you don't have the milepost number for your crossing, you can use this map to find the correct milepost number for any crossing in the US. If the crossing is in Canada, then use this map instead.	To use a KMP number instead, type "KMP" and press enter. Then, type the KMP number.

INPUTTING ACCIDENT COUNT

In order to get the accident count, get the accident report from the FRA here. Then, put the DOT number in the "Crossing#:" input, and press "Generate Report". If the crossing is in Canada, then use this map instead.	If it displays "Crossing number is valid but not in the accident file.", then it means that the crossing has 0 accidents. If a PDF file is downloaded, then open it. The amount of pages on the PDF file is how many accidents the crossing has. In this example, it's 1 in total.	If you are unable to find the accident count, type "Unknown" or "N/A".

INPUTTING RAILROADS

Type the railroads you need to include by their reporting mark, and with ".png" at the end. You may use the FRA crossing inventory report PDF file to find who uses your crossing. In this example, the crossing is only used by UP, so we'll type "UP.png". Be sure to also include railroads with trackage rights.	For multiple railroads, you can type them like "RAILROAD1.png RAILROAD2.png". For a lisr of all railroad logos added to the site, you can click here. If the railroad has no logo, type "Nologo.png".

INPUTTING QUIET ZONE & DEFUNCT XING

If the crossing is in a quiet zone, type "y". Else, type "n" or input nothing.	If the crossing is fully defunct (0 trains per year, exempt is NOT always defunct), type "y". Else, type "n" or input nothing.

INPUTTING DAILY TRAIN COUNT

In order to get the daily train count, get the inventory report from the FRA here. Then, put the DOT number in the "Crossing#:" input, and press "Generate Report". If the crossing is in Canada, then use this map instead.	When the inventory report PDF has downloaded, open it and scroll to the bottom of page 1. Just under the beginning of Part II is where the daily/weekly train count is listed. Add all the numbers together, and type it into HopenRXRTools. The "As Of" year of the train count is also just under Part II. In this example, it's 2019.	If the crossing gets less than one train per day, type "Weekly", "Monthly", or "Yearly" and press enter. It will switch to add weekly, monthly, etc trains for the final result. For former trains per day (used only for defunct crossings), type "Former" (and type it after typing weekly, monthly, etc if those are included). For ranges, type "LOWERNUM-HIGHERNUM", such as "2-4", or "6-8".

PROCESSING PHOTOS & WARNINGS

Once you have completed the questions above, you'll end up at this screen. This is where any major warnings will be displayed before HopenRXRTools begins work on processing photos and working on the final html page. If it warns of a missing header, make sure to have your Header.png file in the correct location. If it warns of photos in subfolders, check if you placed the photos in the correct places that it warns of. Note that HopenRXRTools will crash if it attempts to create an exact duplicate crossing, it will warn of this beforehand in here. Renaming the duplicate in the output folder will fix this.

Once the photos have been processed, there is no way to undo what HopenRXRTools processes, so do NOT close the command terminal, or your photos will be without a crossing page. This is why you must confirm to begin processing by pressing enter twice. Once processing has begun, you'll move on to the rest of the questions before the page can be completely finished! If any errors major enough causes HopenRXRTools to crash at this point, you'll be able to view your previous answers to easily type back into the command terminal again when you rerun the program. You may contact Hopen111 for any crashes you encounter here. If all goes well, you'll see what is pictured above.

INPUTTING TRACK VIEWS

This part may seem hard, but it's quite easy when you carefully read the instructions here. First, use an accurate map like OSM or Google Maps to find the next crossing down the line. Once you have found it, type the road name out like this. Don't forget to add a period at the end here!	If the next crossing is in another town, add "in TOWNNAME." after the street name.

When typing track views, type "../" and then a "stripped" version of the street name. In order to "strip" the street name, remove extra words like "Street" and "Rd." from the link. For example, "380th St." will be "../380", "East Rd." will be "../East", and "River Valley Dr" will be "../River_Valley".	If there are two crossings on the same road, and you need to list if it's either #1 or #2, or more, add "1" or "2" at the end. For example, "../River_Valley" would become "../River_Valley1", and "../380" would become "../380_1".	If the next crosing is in another town, add an extra "../" and include the town name. An example of this would be "../../Jewell/380". If the town is in another letter category (in this case, A-K), then type "../../../A-K/Jewell/380".
It should be noted that links will not work until the page is published on the site.

INPUTTING PHOTO DATES & CREDIT

Just type the date most (if not all) the photos were taken. Don't add a period at the end of this since this will be added on to the next question.	Next, type the username of the person who took the photos (it's probably you). Don't add a period here too.	Finally, type the name of yourself (because you created the page!)

INPUTTING CROSSING SUBDIVISION

Type the subdivision/district/line the crossing is on. Don't add a period at the end.

INPUTTING YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Copy and paste a youtube video link into here. When you press enter, it will allow you to add a second video. If you have no videos left to add, or no videos at all, pressing enter with nothing being input will stop the cycle and any links pasted will be saved on the final result! Only add videos if they are made by you, or if you have complete permission from the creator of the video. There will be a warning message if HopenRXRTools is unable to correctly read the youtube link, if this happens, try another version of the link.

CREATING INFO TABLE

Welcome to the final step of running HopenRXRTools! This section will vary in length depending on the amount of signals at the crossing. If there are only crossbucks, then hold enter to skip this section, since crossbuck crossings do not need info tables! If your crossing has signals or bells, then begin filling out the info. Be sure to make the info table as similar as possible to existing pages on the site for parity! For replicating a SHIFT+ENTER to make a new line, type "<br>" and it then simulates an ENTER press in the final result! An example in light brackets would be "2 - Progress Rail<br>1 - WCH".

If there are no gates, cantilevers, lights, etc, on the whole crossing, then input nothing and press enter when it asks you about those, this will remove them from the final result as it should be. If you are unsure of what crossing parts are at the crossing, use the 102 page on the site, or find an existing page that lists the crossing parts at your crossing. When you are done, it should look similar to this above. Once you reach "Program has not crashed! :D", press enter and HopenRXRTools will close.

HOPENRXRTOOLS OUTPUT

Once you have fully ran HopenRXRTools, the (mostly) finished crossing page will appear in the output folder!	Inside the output folder is all the photos you submitted and the index.html file that the actual page is stored on. You can view the page by opening the index.html file in a browser.	The final page will look like this, but if you want to add a more detailed description, check out the KompoZer tutorial below.

RUNNING HOPENRXRTOOLS PAGE UPDATER

To run HopenRXRTools Page Updater, double left click the HopenRXRTools Page Updater Python script. If Python 3.11.7 is downloaded correctly, it should have a Python logo on the file similar to this one. It's very similar to the main HopenRXRTools version, but much less questions to answer.	You'll need to obtain an "index.html" file from the site to put in the Input folder. You can get one by asking a site admin, or by using the an htnl file from a page you created and have downloaded to your PC. In this example, we will be using the page we created before.	If all works correctly, you'll see the command line terminal open up with this displaying. Make sure the html file is specifically named "index.html" or HopenRXRTools will not read it correctly.	You'll be able to type out info here that HopenRXRTools Page Updater is unable to get on its own. For example, stuff like the existing photo count and Youtube videos will be required later. Press enter when finished with each question. It should be noted that there is currently no way to undo answers.
Remember, the output folder MUST be completely empty before beginning to run HopenRXRTools Page Updater. This is to prevent photo thumbnails from breaking.

INPUTTING PAGE UPDATE DATE

For states that don't use the day in the date (like Illinois or Iowa), type "MONTH YEAR".	For states that use the day in the date, type "MM/DD/YYYY".
Remember, the update date is NOT when YOU updated the page, but when the update is planned to be PUBLISHED to the site. If the page update date breaks the page when it's outputted (like removing the header entirely), you may leave this field blank so it won't break anything on the final page result again.

INPUTTING EXISTING PHOTO COUNT

In order to get the existing photo count, get the number of photos that already exist on the page (duh!) In this example page, there are already 24 photos on this page.	Since 24 photos are on the page already, we will type "24" here.

INPUTTING RETURN VISIT NOTES

Note any changes that have occurred since the last update here. This is not required if you omly have new videos to add and no photos.

PROCESSING PHOTOS & WARNINGS

Once you have completed the questions above, you'll end up at this screen. This is where any major warnings will be displayed before HopenRXRTools Page Updater begins work on processing photos and working on updating the html page. If it warns of photos in subfolders, check if you placed the photos in the correct places that it warns of. Note that HopenRXRTools Page Updater will fail to create thumbnails correctly if any files are in the output folder when processing.

Once the photos have been processed, there is no way to undo what HopenRXRTools processes, so do NOT close the command terminal, or your photos will be without an updated crossing page. This is why you must confirm to begin processing by pressing enter twice. Once processing has begun, you'll move on to the rest of the questions before the page can be completely finished! If any errors major enough causes HopenRXRTools to crash at this point, you'll be able to view your previous answers to easily type back into the command terminal again when you rerun the program. You may contact Hopen111 for any crashes you encounter here. If all goes well, you'll see what is pictured above.

INPUTTING YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Copy and paste a youtube video link into here. When you press enter, it will allow you to add a second video. If you have no videos left to add, or no videos at all, pressing enter with nothing being input will stop the cycle and any links pasted will be saved on the final result! Only add videos if they are made by you, or if you have complete permission from the creator of the video. There will be a warning message if HopenRXRTools Page Updater is unable to correctly read the youtube link, if this happens, try another version of the link. Once you reach "Program has not crashed! :D", press enter and HopenRXRTools will close.

INPUTTING TRACK VIEWS

This part may seem hard, but it's quite easy when you carefully read the instructions here. First, use an accurate map like OSM or Google Maps to find the next crossing down the line. Once you have found it, type the road name out like this. Don't forget to add a period at the end here!	If the next crossing is in another town, add "in TOWNNAME." after the street name.

When typing track views, type "../" and then a "stripped" version of the street name. In order to "strip" the street name, remove extra words like "Street" and "Rd." from the link. For example, "380th St." will be "../380", "East Rd." will be "../East", and "River Valley Dr" will be "../River_Valley".	If there are two crossings on the same road, and you need to list if it's either #1 or #2, or more, add "1" or "2" at the end. For example, "../River_Valley" would become "../River_Valley1", and "../380" would become "../380_1".	If the next crosing is in another town, add an extra "../" and include the town name. An example of this would be "../../Jewell/380". If the town is in another letter category (in this case, A-K), then type "../../../A-K/Jewell/380".
It should be noted that links will not work until the page is published on the site.

HOPENRXRTOOLS PAGE UPDATER OUTPUT

Once you have fully ran HopenRXRTools Page Updater, the (mostly) finished crossing page will appear in the output folder!	Inside the output folder is all the new update photos you submitted and the updated index.html file that the actual page is stored on. You can view the page by opening the index.html file in a browser. In the event that the output html file is broken, the original html file is still in the input folder in case if you need to run HopenRXRTools Page Updater again.	The final page will look like this. The header and old photos will not load here due to those source files being in the original folder, so don't worry about that. Check if the page has updated correctly, and insert the index.html file and the update photos into the original folder to update the page completely. If you want to add a more detailed description, check out the KompoZer tutorial below.

EDITING WITH KOMPOZER

To download KompoZer, head to this website and click the green download button.	Once it has been fully downloaded and launched, you'll be at this page. You can open html pages by clicking the "Open" icon. Any edits you make must be saved manually, so be sure to click the save icon a lot, or use CTRL+S here and there. My example above has been customized, and there's a 100% chance that the icons above will be in a slightly different location on your end.	Once you have the page opened, you'll be able to do basically anything you want to it, like editing text, fixing typos, etc. Editing text is as easy as clicking the text you want to edit and typing as if you were on Google Docs.

To merge cells/text boxes, right click one and you'll need to click "Join with Cell to the Right".	It will look like this once the cells have been merged. You can edit the text to fix the duplicate labels afterward. You might have also noticed that the image cells no longer are the correct width.	You can easily fix this issue by right clicking the cell and selecting "Table Cell Properties". This is easier to do when you use CTRL to select the cell, which will make the properties option always appear when right clicking.	Once you are at this menu, change the width of the image cells to the correct % of table. In this case, it's 33%. Once you have fixed the width of the images, you are done!

END

Congratulations! You now (probably) know how to use HopenRXRTools and edit pages on KompoZer! For instructions on how to submit your pages, go to the How To Submit page here, and go to Step 3.