Proposed development of YR 1.002 Community Patch

[DCoder]

What ever happened to saber's XML mod creator/launcher? Its that kind of program that needs this sort of functionality.

Last I talked to him, he seemed more interested in modding Renegade.

the net connectivity is beyond me, although I will explore the possibility.

I believe getting connectivity even in VB is fairly simple. It will be more difficult to come up with a way for it to know when a new version of a certain project is released, the most reasonable way would be to maintain a versionlist on one central location, and let the program act as a webbrowser and contact that location, and receive a specially formatted data file detailing the latest versions and their locations, and then notify the user if some of the projects on his pc are out of date. This would require a unified version identification system (version.dat ?) and a way for the MIM to download the project installers without having to go through fancy anti-leecher scripts and whatnot, but still trigger the hitcounter...

[Marshall]

Bear in mind that the installers created by MIM are NSIS installers - I will need to get NSIS to connect and download the required resources (although I could extract and run separate programs to do this).
If I can find a way to do that, what we then need is a server that can host all these downloads, specifically for download by the NSIS installers.

What I planned for the CRP was just a preprepared installer comprising of all the major 3rd party components. What I would prefer is some way of saying 'if user chooses to install component, download it and embed it in the CRP for future use'. Similarly, if a user downloads a component through a MIM installer (if I were successful in making that possible), also embed it in the CRP.
Although I think that is just a fantasy.

[DCoder]

A program to retrieve a component/version list and update selected components shouldn't be hard to create... I'll see what I can do, though no promises.

[Marshall]

The following is all theoretical you understand:

Community Resource Pack:
Download the entire collection of up-to-date third party components in one hit.
The downloaded CRP_A executable extracts an uncompressed CRP_B executable. The downloaded CRP_A executable can then be deleted.
The CRP_B executable checks for updates to the entire collection and, if requested, downloads a patch and updates itself to the latest version.
It will not be possible to update the CRP's individual components, only all of them at once.

Mod Install-Maker-made Installers:
If the user does not have a required component/version, informs them that it will be downloaded (ok/cancel). A stand-alone installer for that component is downloaded and executed.


I'm not 100% certain I can do this but I am optimistic.
Thoughts?

[Bobingabout]

you provide me with a file format for a file that lists the required accessories, like RockPatch 1.08, and i can will use it.

[Marshall]

Sorry, Bobingabout, I do not understand your post. Can you clarify?

[Bobingabout]

Mod Install-Maker-made Installers:
If the user does not have a required component/version, informs them that it will be downloaded (ok/cancel). A stand-alone installer for that component is downloaded and executed.

how does the CMP know what version of the resorces is required? some kind of text ini config file that comes with the mod telling the CMP what it needs?

[Marshall]

I do not believe I will be able to integrate MIM installers with the CRP. MIM installers will check for prerequisites and initiate an individual download if neccessary, giving the user the opportunity to cancel first (in the event that the user already has the installer somewhere on the computer).

It may not be possible for the MIM installers to do that at all, but I am hopeful.