Addon documentation tool

[stoppelhopser 0]

hi everyone,

i´ve written a tool to create documentation of addons as a html website.

the background (and reason to post this in this category) is that often when you make missions with unofficial addons you need to know classnames of weapons, magazines and units (e.g. for filling ammo boxes a.s.o)

the tool i wrote analizes the config.cpp and creates a html-file

with tables for units and weapons found including all necessary information.

it is targeted at both, addon makers and users, to make usage of addons more handy.

if an addon maker would distribute such a file with his addon(s) i think this would be of great use for people who use the addon(s).

release version is designated v.1.0, but i found a couple of bugs which are mainly based on the fact that even though the configs are c++-like, the syntax rules are not that strict, so parsing is a bit complicated. i tested it on several configs, but i always find new ways of how people write their configs.

if someone finds this tool useful i would be greatful for tests and bug reports.

a documentation on how to use the prog and a sample output-file are included in the zip distribution, which you can get here:

Liberation 1941-45 tool downloads

i am still adding more features, but for now it already does (mostly   ) what it is supposed to...

greetz

stoppel

[Maximus-Sniper 0]

Hei man!

I download that from yourr site for some hours ago, nice program, i like it.

God work  

[stoppelhopser 0]

yo thanks

and it seems you´re the only one

[hardrock 1]

Oh it seems that I forgot to reply here! I really appreciate your work!

Why don't you get together with experienced guys and try to make a writer for config-cpps? I thought about making one in a similar way like you did your program, but my c++ skills are too low, unfortunately.

But if you decide to do so, I'd like to support you with information!

[stoppelhopser 0]

@hardrock

experienced guys? in what? call me arrogant but don´t think me rude... i consider myself quite experienced

and maybe that´s the reason why i haven´t thought about writing a config editor... well, i actually did, but skipped the idea...

the thing is: there´s addon makers out there working on all kinds of addons. now such a tool would only be complete if it offers config creation for all those types of addons... weapons, ammo, vehicles, ui, animations... just to name a few...

now a config mainly consists of attribute-value pairs defining your addon. what would you imagine the user-interface of a config creator to look like? provide an input field for each possible value of each possible addon class? the "All" class in cfgVehicles alone has ~150 properties and you never know which ones are needed for a particular addon and which are not... now if you consider that each line in the config would demand at least 3 lines of code in the program to write, you can imagine why i think it´s not a good idea

[hardrock 1]

Don't take it offensive, but how can I know how far your knowledge in specific OFP cpp entries goes

You may be right, there are many commands, but I think with databases it's still doable. I thought that this tool could look something like that: You can choose any of the original OFP classes that will be used as base class for your addon. Then you automatically see the values that this class actually has, depending on the classes that it's inherited from. You may change these values (which would mean that they'd be rewritten in the cpp) or leave them like they are. You could create subclasses like for turrets, optics and all the other stuff, the programm could be in a similar style like this readme writer, with these inherited trees.

There also had to be descriptions for all the values (huh ) and that was originally the thing I ment with which you could probably need the help of others. It certainly was good if there were also template classes for common addons, like ships, planes and all the other stuff.

I can imagine that it'd be a lot of work, I'm programming other things myself. But hey, many addons are a lot of work, so why not?

Still, decide it for yourself

[stoppelhopser 0]

not takin anything offensive ;)

well, i wouldn´t know what type of database you mean...

still you´d have to fill somehow..

well, you´re right about the description... i wouldn´t know what the all mean in detail (e.g. i am still tryin to find out about that ffCount thingy ). but that would be about the only advantage i´d see...

the other prob i see in using an original class is that you should always use the topmost class, since many addon makers (including me) add properties to base classes that are not in the base class but more on top, just to redefine them. so this would either blow up the config due to properties written to the file that use the standard values, or you would have to make each property selectable. this wouldn´t be the problem, as the tree view supports this, but i think it would not help the user if from 100 properties he would have to select 50 and then he would still have to enter the values...

a simple datasheet explaining all properties appropriately going with a text editor would be much more effective i guess...

and, as you said, addons are alot of work, too, and foremost i´m making addons for the liberation mod ;)

[stoppelhopser 0]

seems i forgot the words "it" and "properties" somewhere above

[GabKa73 0]

Ah, I thought your OFPRefMaker was a tool to create config.cpp's. Now I understand!

Flashpoint.ru said it would be a programm to edit the config.cpp:

"The command of Liberation 1941-1945 calls for your attention to the working version of the new program OFPRefMaker created specially for addonmakers, working on models for Operation Flashpoint.

Its basic purpose - fast and convenient editing of files config.cpp.

The author of this work is Stoppelhopser."