Module / Addon development workflow

[xendance 3]

I've been developing few modules of my own during the weekend, and I've been wondering how to speed up the process.

When I'm just doing new scripts, I just edit the .sqf files in the mission folder and then restart the mission in the mission editor. This reloads all the files and everything works nice and dandy. Only downtime I have is that the editor reloads the map which doesn't take that long.

But with my module, I don't know what to do exactly. I usually edit the script files in the module, pack the files with the ArmA 3 Addon builder and place them under a mod folder in my ArmA 3 dir.

A huge problem with that approach is that I have to restart the game every time I do the smallest change to the addon code, which takes lots of time.

So my question is: Is there a way to "hot deploy" a newly packaged module into the game without restarting it? It doesn't have to be packaged, I just want the module to show up in the editor.

[das attorney 858]

You could set the sqfs in your mod so that they call a function.

You can define the function in the init.sqf or similar and adjust it in between mission restarts. Example:

class cfgFunctions
{
class Xendance
{
	class classy
	{
		class Test1 		{description="Testing file"; file="test.sqf"};
	};
};
};

Then in test.sqf you have the following:

[] call xen_fnc_yourFunctionName;

Then in init.sqf you define the function:

xen_fnc_yourFunctionName = 
{
   // your code here
};

It's a bit roundabout the houses but should work for testing out your mod. Once you're happy then just transfer the contents to the test.sqf (which is probably how you have it at the moment from the sounds of it).