Overgrowth Downloader (Version 0.1)

[matto1990]

Hello all!

I want to show you all something that I've made. It uses the Community Content Pack 2.0 by jo-shadow. The application shows you a list of all the avaliable mods and then allows you a one click install. It puts the files into the correct folder (/data/Custom/[username]/[modname]/[version]/) automatically.

For anyone that's interested I'll tell you how it works; if you don't care just skip this bit... It takes the About.json files in the pack and puts all of the mods into a searchable mysql database. The application then sends a query to the database which returns the list of mods avaliable. When you click a version number it gets the list of files that makes up that mod (including where it is located on my server and what path it should be on the users computer when it's been downloaded). That's pretty much all it does so far.

Ok this bit's for everyone again... If you want to see it in action before you download it, take a look at this YouTube video.

Ok, how do you get it yourself:

• Make sure you have Adobe Air installed. If you haven't got it (or don't know what it is) take a look at the Adobe AIR download page
• Get the installer from this link. It should open the installer automatically but if not just save the file and open it once it's been downloaded. Don't worry about the warnings, that's becasue I haven't signed it properly (and don't really know how to )
• Open the application and select where you have Overgrowth installed (the root folder, the one where Lugaru2.exe is found. No idea where this is on the mac)
• Choose a mod to install by pressing on the version number (eg. "Version 1.0")
• Press download and wait. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes unless it's a mod with a lot of large files
• Press download and wait. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes unless it's a mod with a lot of large files
• Open up Overgrowth and admire your new levels, objects and other amazing bits

Edit: By the way. This would also work on amc but I don't have one so I can't test it. If you do then report back with how it works if you can Also, if anyone wants to buy me a mac (for testing purposes obviously ) I'm happy to accept

Because of where the levels are put I don't think you are able to load them in the latest Alpha (22). Maybe the developers could add support for levels that are inside the Custom folder in the structure described by jo-shadow, as it isn't a good idea to mix official and community made content in the same folders.

That's it! Enjoy the downloader and tell me what you think. See the todo list bellow to see what (might) be coming up:

TODO:

• Make it look nicer
• Show author information (Sorry to all the people who made these mods and haven't got there names on the interface. I'm not trying to steal your stuff... honest...)
• Make it so stuff that's downloaded can actually be used (this is down to the developers really)
• Make it so if a mod has dependensies it will download them automatically as well if you don't already exist
• Save the overgrowth folder so you don't have to select it everytime you load the application
• Get a list of mods that are already installed so that duplicates can't exist
• Allow mods to be uninstalled
• (Somehow) get some images to represent the mods (might have to get developers to take screenshots and add them manually at the minute
• Add search
• Add tag information (and view by tag)
• Add ratings (may be a long way off yet)
• Open up the database using an api so anyone can make an application using the information (this will be a while off because it is nowhere near done and I don't know if i have the resorces to cope with it at the minute)
• Add loads of other stuff I haven't even thought of yet

Enjoy!

Edit: Take a look at some screenshots from the latest version I've got going. I haven't released the air package yet, but you can see what's on the way. Go here to see it.

[idbeu]

Holy hell! This is very nice. Excellent addition to the community pack. Jo-shadow?

Would you be at all interested in releasing the source code? Not that I have as whole lot of time on my hands, but it might be nice to get the group involved in it.

I'm glad someone came up with this; downloading mods is usually annoying.

[matto1990]

Holy hell! This is very nice. Excellent addition to the community pack. Jo-shadow?

Would you be at all interested in releasing the source code? Not that I have as whole lot of time on my hands, but it might be nice to get the group involved in it.

I'm glad someone came up with this; downloading mods is usually annoying.

Yup. I'll release all the source code I have when I get it into a semi-nice state or repair I'll release it. I release basically all of my code under the MIT open sourse license so I'll most likey do the same for this one. I'll release the code for the application, api and praser if I can get it all going nicely.

Does anyone else have an experiance with AIR (XHTML and JavaScript) or PHP?

[Johannes]

Aw man, dude! Just watched the youTube video. That's awesome!
Gonna try it out right now...

=Update=

Works perfectly on mac.
Haven't done any stress testing/bug testing, but the initial thing worked. Very very awesome.

Some suggestions:

- Allow the 'Data' Folder as an alternative for the folder you have to select at startup. The root folder is confusing on a mac with how it's currently set up, data would be better.
- Show an indicator if a Project is installed or not.
- Show in red letters if dependencies are missing. When you click it it will list the dependencies, and clicking on them will bring you to their page.
- If you have an older version installed, and a newer one is available somehow show that.
- Have the downloader tell you percentage/transfer rate/files being transferred/time remaining/etc. you know, standard downloader info.
- Have different display methods, like what you have now would be 'name'. Others would be by author, date created, and type.
- And most of the stuff you already mentioned yourself =)

OG now is officially better than Gmod because they never managed to get a system like this set up.

You reading this Jeff? This is worth a blog post.

[Nimai]

Awesome!! you make things so much easier for us : )
Thanks Matt!!

[matto1990]

Haven't done any stress testing/bug testing, but the initial thing worked. Very very awesome.

Please don't, I fear for my programs life I did this in about 2 hours last night so if so much as breath near it there will be major bugs.

- Allow the 'Data' Folder as an alternative for the folder you have to select at startup. The root folder is confusing on a mac with how it's currently set up, data would be better.

I'll just make it so everyone selects the data folder. It's an easier folder to aim for then as everyone has it called the same thing.

- Show an indicator if a Project is installed or not.

I'm going to work on making the program scan the custom folder to see what's currently installed. I've not started working on this yet but I know roughly how to do it.

- Show in red letters if dependencies are missing. When you click it it will list the dependencies, and clicking on them will bring you to their page.

The data for dependencies is in the database but I haven't built anything into the api yet to support it. This will be added in though.

- If you have an older version installed, and a newer one is available somehow show that.

Good idea. I'll find a way to get it worked in.

- Have the downloader tell you percentage/transfer rate/files being transferred/time remaining/etc. you know, standard downloader info.

That will be fairly tricky as I can't actually get the file size untill it's completely downloaded. This was my origional plan however as I'm using a URLLoader instead of a URLRequest the bytes avaliable attribute is always set to 0, which isn't too useful. I'll try and work on a solution soon using some php and some cleaver hacks I've just thought up

- Have different display methods, like what you have now would be 'name'. Others would be by author, date created, and type.

Noted. I want to get the basics up first before I start messing around with visuals and stuff though.

OG now is officially better than Gmod because they never managed to get a system like this set up.

GMod is a pain to get working with a load of mods. The best method that they have is use svn as an updater but the majority of GMod's users seem to be too stupid to understand what SVN does or how to use it

You reading this Jeff? This is worth a blog post.

Oh god! I fear for my server if you do that It isn't used to getting more than 100 requests a day. Go for it though. Let's see how it crashes

[Johannes]

You reading this Jeff? This is worth a blog post.

Oh god! I fear for my server if you do that It isn't used to getting more than 100 requests a day. Go for it though. Let's see how it crashes

Haha, nah, it shouldn't be too hard on your server. He'd just link the youTube video, and this topic which only preorderers can get to, and of those I doubt more than a handful will try (although I have been wrong before )
If you ask him nicely Jeff might even be willing to host this on the wolfire server.

[matto1990]

You reading this Jeff? This is worth a blog post.

Oh god! I fear for my server if you do that It isn't used to getting more than 100 requests a day. Go for it though. Let's see how it crashes

Haha, nah, it shouldn't be too hard on your server. He'd just link the youTube video, and this topic which only preorderers can get to, and of those I doubt more than a handful will try (although I have been wrong before )
If you ask him nicely Jeff might even be willing to host this on the wolfire server.

I guess it wouldn't be too bad I'll get it all going properly before I think about asking other people to host it for me. At the minute I need to make sure it's all stable enough not to crash everything

[Skofo]

How neat! Great job!

Just out of curiosity, what functions did you use AIR for? The pop-up window said jQuery test, which I assume is JavaScript.

[Jeff]

This is awesome! Good job!

It looks like you have the skillz to help us out if you are interested.

Here are a few things that would be cool.

a) Make a Lugaru mod browser. This is sorely needed and would be amazing.

Here is the JSON feed: http://www.wolfire.com/lugaru/mods.json
There is an admin interface here: http://www.wolfire.com/lugaru/mods

Joel Levin (aim: joellevinaim) is currently working on a Mac OS X Cocoa Lugaru mod browser, but it would be awesome if you could make an Adobe Air version for Windows.

b) Regarding Overgrowth, it would be sweet if you could port your stuff to App Engine, and then I could run it on wolfire.com and it would scale indefinitely so we could actually use it without potentially crashing your server or ringing up a lot of bandwidth costs.

c) Adobe Air uses WebKit, right? Feel free to plug in my UI or adapt it however you want: http://www.wolfire.com/ui/newmodbrowser/browser.html

If it is in WebKit, then we can easily integrate the browser into Overgrowth itself.

Feel free to message me, aim: osxii or catch me on IRC.

[Skofo]

Hahh, it's a shame that Jo-Shadow never got a job proposal like this.

Joel Levin (aim: joellevinaim) is currently working on a Mac OS X Cocoa Lugaru mod browser, but it would be awesome if you could make an Adobe Air version for Windows.

*cough*

[Johannes]

Hahh, it's a shame that Jo-Shadow never got a job proposal like this.

eh, yeah, I don't got the skillz. I just talk alot.

[Jeff]

Hahh, it's a shame that Jo-Shadow never got a job proposal like this.

You're creating drama out of nothing.

Jo-shadow does tons of awesome stuff for us and has definitely secured his place in the list of people we are insanely grateful for.

[TheBigCheese]

Nice! If you're still looking for someone with PHP or JavaScript knowledge, I've got moderate PHP and JavaScript skills.

[Johannes]

Nice! If you're still looking for someone with PHP or JavaScript knowledge, I've got moderate PHP and JavaScript skills.

Awesome. I'll be including this in the next Content pack update, and will be asking around if anyone things they might be able to help.

After talking to Matt a bit, I think he wants to work out some details first so we know exactly what all we need, and once he's happy with what he's got, the Downloader/Server code will be made open source, and people can take a look at it if they want.