Yoma's Arma Addon Synchroniser

[Yoma 0]

Ok i need some feedback on this idea i just had.

Sometimes you launch a mission, but it uses addons you don't have/didn't have loaded.

Wouldn't it be great to have something that checks which addons a mission uses, and kinda builds a temporary addonfolder with exactly those addons in it and gives you a list of addons that you don't have on disk. So you wouldn't have to search for ages if the mission is badly documented?

I don't know if it's possible. First of all: is there a simple generic way to find out what addons are used in a mission?

Will this allways work, aren't some pbo files "secured"?

I need someone with loads of addon experience to help me out here.

[.kju 3241]

Quite hard to do I think.

People from OFPEC and a few others tried to build an addon DB.

You might be able to find the thread in the forum here.

It's a year back or so (try search posts for members: Artak, crashdome).

Scanning the addons itself is quite complicated.

The only info you get from missions is the vehicle class of the

object and the requiredAddons class.

The requiredAddons class isn't always added to the mission.

Also a requiredAddons class can require multiple pbos.

Even more broken addons don't have a proper requiredAddons

definition (and quite many addons are broken).

I guess you need a DB in one way or another.

An idea is to have a (or more) static site(s) and add some

information container file with the addon (xml).

So people could add new tags inside their missions from the

unified format of the xml. People could add an

"requiredAddons.xml" in the mission itself or so.

Hope its more or less understandable.

---

Don't worry about "secured" addons. They aren't.

Most times they add a few bits at the start of the file to

confuse the unpacking tools.

You need to have pbo pack- and unpacking tools and the game

server locks the mission and addon files while the server is

running - so many many ugly problems to tackle here.

[dr_eyeball 16]

Some very minor requests:<ul>[*]require option to Launch ArmA as single player or without connecting to any MP server. i.e. Just start ArmA with selected options.

[*]I believe the patch updates are erasing any previously added servers by the user. Perhaps don't overwrite it or back it up somewhere. I'm guessing we are supposed to use "Export Settings" before patching.

[*]Trying to export/import to ServerList.dat results in an error: "file in use by another process".

[*]It would be nice to have an "Untick All" button/option on the Synchronise tab Download list. When synchronising the MPMissions, you may get hundreds of missions. I may not wish to download them all and unticking them all is a major bother.

[*]In current version, upon clicking "Compare Files" button for MPMissions, it now comes up with dozens of Ok Message dialogs comparing the files of the MPMissionsCache with MPMissions. There's no explanation. Is that just a debug? Then it shows a full list in one final Ok Message dialog.

[*]The "Auto Launch" checkbox on the "Launch Game" tab page is not anchored to the right margin and so appears in the middle of the form when maximised. (already reported)

The program is proving very useful.

[Yoma 0]

Some very minor requests:<ul>[*]require option to Launch ArmA as single player or without connecting to any MP server. i.e. Just start ArmA with selected options.

[*]I believe the patch updates are erasing any previously added servers by the user. Perhaps don't overwrite it or back it up somewhere. I'm guessing we are supposed to use "Export Settings" before patching.

[*]Trying to export/import to ServerList.dat results in an error: "file in use by another process".

[*]It would be nice to have an "Untick All" button/option on the Synchronise tab Download list. When synchronising the MPMissions, you may get hundreds of missions. I may not wish to download them all and unticking them all is a major bother.

[*]In current version, upon clicking "Compare Files" button for MPMissions, it now comes up with dozens of Ok Message dialogs comparing the files of the MPMissionsCache with MPMissions. There's no explanation. Is that just a debug? Then it shows a full list in one final Ok Message dialog.

[*]The "Auto Launch" checkbox on the "Launch Game" tab page is not anchored to the right margin and so appears in the middle of the form when maximised. (already reported)

The program is proving very useful.

problem 1: will be fixed.

problem 2: this is a bitch to tackle: the problem lies in the the clickonce updates. The solution may be to create another folder somewhere containing the settings file. Also sometimes it is needed to erase the files as they actually have changed.

(new serversettings saved and the savefile is really the actual object dumped to disk) This is indeed why i implemented export/import. I'm thinking of fixing it by saving the settings file in mydocuments/YomaArmaAddonSync everytime you save a server.

problem2: i'd have to test it, are you trying to export to the file it's actually using, as that would cause that too?

problem3 & 4 & 5: i'll fix it tonight ,will get looked at also, 4 is indeed a debugmessage

Damn i have to go work today, updates will be slower...

[Auss 208]

I import my serverlist file after anyupdate, problem solved

[mazza 1]

Firewalls

I had an issue where my firewall was blocking the app accessing etc. I then went looking for an exe and was unable to find one.

What is the path to manually enable the app for firewall? (if one exists) I did check the shortcuts etc

[Yoma 0]

The application path is a bitch (sorry for bad language).

The problem is clickonce deployment installs it every time in a different path.

-I'll code in a button that tells you the app path soon.

It's somewhere under

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Apps\2.0

Impossible to tell you exactly where, run a search for "yoma" under that folder.

[mazza 1]

Thanks Yoma

[Guest]

Excellent work Yoma.

I have made a news post about your release on the Armaholic.com homepage:

http://www.armaholic.com/index.php?m=single&id=2338

As we have already been discussing the last few weeks we are now updating our download section to make sure your program can search the Armaholic.com download section as well.

[G_H_Play_AKA_BOSS 0]

looks very smart indeed

[Yoma 0]

Excellent work Yoma.

I have made a news post about your release on the Armaholic.com homepage:

http://www.armaholic.com/index.php?m=single&id=2338

As we have already been discussing the last few weeks we are now updating our download section to make sure your program can search the Armaholic.com download section as well.

I'll code it in as soon as it's possible to do it on the site.

[Yoma 0]

**New Version Out**

-user can launch game without connecting to remote server

(checkbox Local Game)

-user can "check all/uncheck all" on the download tab

-Debug Messagebox removed when copying local files.

-Auto Launch anchor corrected.

-Cryptic Message replaced when gameserver is not online.

(now it says "server unreachable")

-added in some code that allows player to decide when to download update (which will in future maybe allow auto backup/restore of server settings)

-Thinking about disableing auto update completely allthough it's very easy to apply changes this way

-Added button that displays application folder when you click it

[Yoma 0]

Quite hard to do I think.

People from OFPEC and a few others tried to build an addon DB.

You might be able to find the thread in the forum here.

It's a year back or so (try search posts for members: Artak, crashdome).

Scanning the addons itself is quite complicated.

The only info you get from missions is the vehicle class of the

object and the requiredAddons class.

The requiredAddons class isn't always added to the mission.

Also a requiredAddons class can require multiple pbos.

Even more broken addons don't have a proper requiredAddons

definition (and quite many addons are broken).

I guess you need a DB in one way or another.

An idea is to have a (or more) static site(s) and add some

information container file with the addon (xml).

So people could add new tags inside their missions from the

unified format of the xml. People could add an

"requiredAddons.xml" in the mission itself or so.

Hope its more or less understandable.

---

Don't worry about "secured" addons. They aren't.

Most times they add a few bits at the start of the file to

confuse the unpacking tools.

You need to have pbo pack- and unpacking tools and the game

server locks the mission and addon files while the server is

running - so many many ugly problems to tackle here.  

I understand perfectly fine. Where i thought that maybe a mission had an autoreference to the pbo files it uses it doesn't have that at all, only refrences to the classes within the pbo files...

I admire people that try to build addon databases, but i'm affraid the one and only way to obtain something that is remotely workable would be if people could get their addons

"BIS" verified and listed on a BIS maintained depot.

All the rest is gonna be crap i'm affraid...(the only reason for it being crap would be that it's a bitch to maintain the db)...

Unless... what we could do is make some kind of scanner that can scan classes from pbo's and generate checksums.

If we'd implement an autoupload on scan we could get something like a giant collaborative database... Not of the files themselves, but of their contents. That could help people a bit allready...

Hmm i'm sticking to this little tool for the moment, that pot looks a bit too hot to touch...

[Yoma 0]

**WARNING**

I found quite an annoying bug in the program:

When you select server A, and then select another server B, before it was able to download the modfolders.txt of server A, the grid will fill up with the modfolders.txt from server A linked to server B.

=> This causes some trouble as these folders/files will not exist on the remote server.

For now you'll just have to reselect the server and wait till the modfoldersgrid gets filled with the correct modfolders.

I'll figure out a way to fix it in due time.

[Praxtor 0]

Hello:

Now when i try to compare files from the server to my Pc with the new version i always get this error message:

Quote[/b] ]Unable to load local Xml

[Yoma 0]

Hello:

Now when i try to compare files from the server to my Pc with the new version i always get this error message:

Quote[/b] ]Unable to load local Xml

-Did you shut down and restart the program?

-Is your arma path correct in the Arma Directory textfield?

I did change something over there, the arma directory is now a setting, that autosaves if it's changed.

If you make it empty it should refill itself with the detected arma path in registry, after startup.

A final possibility is that your local xml file is corrupted somehow. In the past this could have to do with some "strange" filenames.

Can you give me a listing of all the files in the local modfolder?

Did you try changing the local modfolder path? (it's best not to!!

Another possibility is that you somehow still have arma running...

By the way you're absolutely positively sure that you're one the Sync tab are you?

There is a logfile in c:\YomaArmaMod.log that may prove usefull as well.

Keep me up to date so i can help solve it.

[Praxtor 0]

The problem was fixed i could see that the Xml file was not correctly created for the Packet of Addons.

I opened one of this and i could see this:

Quote[/b] ]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?><Files>

<File>

No more data.

The problem was fixed but maybe is interesant can add one code that say to you the Xml is corruct or something like this.

[Yoma 0]

The question is why was it corrupted?

Did you interrupt the program while it was comparing or something like that?

How did you fix it, by deleting the file and retrying?

The more i think about it, the more i think that you may be using an old version of the program.

Do you have a "Update Now?" menu on top?

If you don't you then you don't have the correct version. Remove the app, download it from yomatools.be and reïnstall it.

[Praxtor 0]

i think that i have the last version i download yesterday night from your web.

But in the server it work correctly and i can make the packages in the server.

[Yoma 0]

**New version**

TEAMSPEAK!!!

-You can now save TS details on a server and have TS autolaunch on connecting to the server.

-For now the Teamspeak path is semi hardcoded, (it's a parameter but most of you won't be able to change it yet), gonna change that later...

[gonk 0]

thx... makes life easy...

[Yoma 0]

**New Version**

-Added "delete extra files" button.

This basicly deletes "new local" files. (These files are files which are in your local modfolder, but not known on the server)

=> This gives you the possibility to start with exactly the same addons as the server.

[Yoma 0]

**New Version**

-Added Settings Tab

-Moved Server combobox to menu

-Added TSOverlay support

[dr_eyeball 16]

Ever since the last update or so, the program now takes 2 minutes to start up and performs some sort of an intensive hard drive scan.

- Is it performing some sort of a scan each time it starts? If so, could you explain what it is doing.

- Most of the time I use the program as a ArmA launcher (due to it's nice long Mods list) and not for synchronising. Is it possible to avoid this scan unless required?

- Also, when starting up, the mods list is empty by default. Is it possible to refresh the mods list upon start up or to default to one of the servers by default, in order to have the mods list filled ready for use?

Edit:

You must have a very large program files folder, or a slow disk...

Not sure, if 115gb, (160,000 files) is big for Program Files.

[Yoma 0]

**New Version**

-Scan for TS/TSoverlay will only occur first time you launch.

(you can let it scan later via settings tab)

-Modfolders are shown after startup, without selecting a server.

Quote[/b] ]Ever since the last update or so, the program now takes 2 minutes to start up and performs some sort of an intensive hard drive scan.

You must have a very large program files folder, or a slow disk...