PBOManager - Addon File Manager

[[aps]gnat 28]

<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'>PBOManager</span></span>

Current release - v0.7

14th Jan 2005

PBOManager is a windows program that allows any OFP freak to manage/organise his or her collection of OFP addon files.

Features include;

- File scan of standard OFP:R addon directories

- File scan of any nominated Mod directories

- Detection of recently added addons

- Detection and reporting of duplicate addons

- Ability to remove files from service (via .pbx rename)

- File CRC feedback

- Ability to associate a thumbnail picture with the addon

- Ability to assign user comments to the addon

- Ability to assign a "Readme" file link with addon

- Ability to group and select multiple addons via "Favorites"

- Quick-link to PboX Utility (optional)

.

Download from HERE

Future versions;

- Include auto scanning for EXE and Addon directories

- Possible online link to authors or central web database

- Full CRC file comparisons (if I can reduce lag)

- Possible use of standard README templates

- Identify Island files and their intro directories

- ..... and more as time allows

While this program won't be totally bug free, I'm confident it will work very well for most people. There is little to no risk of loosing addon files, the worst that can happen is its renamed to .pbx and absolute worst (and unlikely) is its moved to another subdirectory.

And final note before you post bugs etc .... READ THE README !

btw, I won't be checking this thread every hour, Im travelling over the next 10 days. That also means I cant do a re-write if needed (cross-fingers ) til I get back.

Hope someone finds it useful .... cheers.

[Commando84 0]

this seems lika good tool got to get it when i get home its only few hours left now

[tak 0]

Yeah, gonna be useful for every OFP players.

[Metalmalte 0]

gonna try that one out when comin home! looks & sounds promising!

[void_false 1]

It's a nice tool, but is there a way to change the font? I dont see a s**t with current one.

[[aps]gnat 28]

  ......... looks like my 100's of hours would have been better received on another M16 or Huey

@void_false ........ I'll change the grid to auto-height next version, that should fix that prob. Cheers

[343rdBadger 0]

Would there be any way to make this utility be able to read a mission file and then disable all addons that aren't in that file???

[[aps]gnat 28]

No ..... a do-able HUGE cross-referencing task, but I don't have critical code to open raw pbo -> find file -> read text file. Both the mission files and addon pbo's would need to accessed as such to do this.

[llauma 0]

Gnat @ Jan. 18 2005,01:43)]   ......... looks like my 100's of hours would have been better received on another M16 or Huey

@void_false ........ I'll change the grid to auto-height next version, that should fix that prob. Cheers

Sad but true.. That would also have made your tool even more useful..

Great work on the tool. We need more things like this.

[csj 0]

I will disregard that crack about the Hueys, this isn't the first Pbo manager either uno

But on a serious note.

After downloading I just ended up with PBOManager07 folder and a single jpg file in it.

Do you have another link?

[Placebo 29]

After downloading I just ended up with PBOManager07 folder and a single jpg file in it.

Do you have another link?

Works fine for me, have latest winrar? I use 7-zip and it extracts fine, either way I've mirrored it.......

PBOManager07.rar

[csj 0]

@placebo

Thanks have got it now.

Have had no other trouble with rar todate.

[[aps]gnat 28]

@CSL

Sure .... couple of other PBO file shufflers out there, but I honestly believe the extra features make it worth looking at, otherwise I wouldn't have wasted my time.

@placebo .... thanks.

It only make the news (hence mirror) at one site .....

.... but otherwise im a little disapointed about not getting some feedback on bugs or suggested improvements.

Maybe it needs more time or maybe the idea is completely misguided, maybe no one really pays much attention to the addons they have on their computer .... dunno

[hardrock 1]

"Bug": I'd change the code so that you don't scroll the list with the mouse wheel (takes very long, since every crc is loaded and it gets stuck after some turns) but the scroll bars.

Well, I'm sad to say this but this tool has only little use for me (or tell me which please)

My addons are orgnanised in about 10 mod folders, there are really LOTS of addons, so what should I use the pbo manager for? It's nice to have a overview about all the addons, but with that amount I can't really get the use of deactivating one or two addons just for one start of the game. I mean please tell me what your aim was with this tool, I totally respect and appreciate your work but I can't find out what to use it for

------ Edit ------

One tool I'd really like to see (would be a bit complicated though, I think) is a tool, that scans all your addons and reads their cfgAddons entries from their cpps. That tool should also check your Mission folders and check their requiredAddons list, now you could check the missions that you want to play, the tool searches all the necessary addons, checks if you got all of them, copies them into a folder and starts up ofp together with the folder as modfolder.

If you could make links into the program to download the addons directly this would be just greater, but a lot of work. And the über-hype would be to combine it with ofpwatch and keg's latest ofp launcher (where you can check which modfolders to load on startup)

Just my 2 cents

[All-a-Mort 0]

I downloaded the rar from the url provided in this thread, and read the readme, the exe when run opens the pbo manager window but all is greyed out and nothing responds. Pressing 'q' or 'r' has no effect, nor does left or right clicking on anything. It is a dead parrot...deceased...no longer living...

Have I missed something, or is the exe faulty?

Rgds

Stewy

[[aps]gnat 28]

@Dataplague

Did you click SETUP and tell the program where OFP is located ?

@hardrock

Thx for the feedback .... yes, I didn't really have a pinpoint function for this program, but its mainly to been developed to avoid 100s of mod folder (for various servers and mods etc) and to allow a user to see where they have multiple copies of the same addon (+ some extras functions).

The way Im looking at it is you can replace mod folders with "favorites" or even groups of favorites and the addons can all stay in ADDONS or RES/ADDONS. The "grouping of Favs" (ie suit servers) and OFP launcher functions will be easy to add in the next version ..... if the whole thing is worth it.

Other ideas like reading a small file from a server, then automaticily changing your pbo/pbx before OFP launch to suit also removes all this stuff with double ups on downloads.

As for the good idea of x-referencing addons with missions and detecting conflicts etc (I have been looking at it for a while) my only problem is the PBO decompression code. I can program the rest but reading the config and mission files from within the compressed pbo's is where im stuck. I will try talking to the PboX team and see if I can get help there.

[freda 0]

I dont know if this is the 'correct' area to post this but Gnat was requesting an addon to this current app to sniff inside pbo files.

I have supplied a depbo.dll that can be attached to C++ AND visual basic programs to avoid the need to do all this again and again and again...

it understands all about so-called 'encrypted' mission.sqm's and fps files.

http://www.ofpec.com/editors/list.php?show=pending

or http://andrew.nf/ofp/tools/

source supplied on request

[AiRBLaDE 0]

so would this program help detect addons that would have conflicts during the game and help with game crashing problems?

[[aps]gnat 28]

Thanks very much freda  Got your lovely little DLL and will now look at implementing the mission.sqm sniffer idea.

Nice work!

Quote[/b] ]so would this program help detect addons that would have conflicts during the game and help with game crashing problems?

Not the current version AB, but certainly if all things work out I intend to use freda's DLL to extend PBOManagers functions to include a mission scanner. The idea being that it can determine is a mission or missions are using addons you do or dont have installed/cateloged by the same tool.

This and may other things possible

[freda 0]

@Gnat

grab the addonscanner2 from the same site as above, it sniffs at mission.sqms and will, at the very least, give you some better ideas than my poor effort

(naturally, it uses the dll)

>This and may other things possible

_precisely_ that's the intention. To be able to quickly and easily dream up a Visual Basic quick 'n dirty to do 'something' without the agony of decompressing.

@airblade

>detect addons that would have conflicts during the game

nope.

>and help with game crashing problems?

definitely not.

it is there for authors prior to publishing to be sure they got ALL their godamn addons listed so we poor players can download ALL of them, not just the ones they remember

it is there for players to check they have all the addons required for the campaign/mission they just downloaded _before_ starting flashpoint and crashing to the desktop halfway thru the mission.

[-IT-Q- 0]

you might wanna have a look at this tool - ofpreplacer.

it can replace units (addons) in the mission.sqm

(still lacking of some stuff, yet very useful especially due to the xml profiles)

well ofpreplacer also needs on the one hand the class name of a unit itself and on the other the class dependency.

this might a good place where your tool could get very handy !

best regards

[freda 0]

>this might a good place where your tool could get very

handy !

thanks for that

I understand what pboReplace does, and it's my view that this sort of editing should not be done within a pbo file (ie direct manipulation). It _should_ be expanded out, and worked on 'properly' which the replacer currently does (albeit with bugz)

Originally I wrote AddonScanner to only inspect expanded files (rather than pbo's) and since source is supplied, it would be relatively easy for someone to modify it back, or more purposefuly, to snaffle the subroutines and incorporate them into pboReplacer eg.

The dll itself would not be suitable for this task because, ultimately, the changes made would have to be written back to a pbo file, and there is no (current) dll to do that. Unless of course one of the side effects of pboReplacer was, that if could grab a pbo and automatically extract it.

so, duh, what am I going on about