81 replies to this topic

[Michael]

Any chance you will make the 'show' button into a toggle? I think it would improve usability.

Done.

On the individual mod pages, is there any chance of making the mod author and category links into URLs that run a search on that text (i.e. clicking an author shows all their mods).

Done. You can now use:
http://iem.rp-addict...;q=Wounded_Lion for example.

Since you seem to deleted the blank mod entries, could you check for entry 444? I entered it, and it's not showing anywhere (possibly because I (purposely) did not select a category - you should probably insist on one being picked).

There isn't a mod with an ID of 444 in the database. I may have selected it for deletion, but not deleted it for a while... sorry.

Finally, is 'Miscella' really a word? Presumably it's the plural of miscellaneous, which is actually miscellanea?

Ran a search about it... replaced "Miscella" with "Miscellany"

[Michael]

The component toggle isn't working for me (Opera 9). IE 6 doesn't seem to show the component list in-place at all, it just opens the individual mod page, but that's probably due to IE.

Works fine for me, running 9.26, so long as JavaScript is enabled. IE6 should also work with JavaScript on, with the method of AJAX I used. I suppose someone will have to upgrade to Firefox or IE7 from IE6 if they want to use the tools.

Getting picky, for the various pages that have form controls, you should probably set one of the controls to be the active field, so the user can just start typing (rather than having to click into a field, or tab through 100 links). The font used for the author on the category pages is almost illegible IMHO. Finally, it's a million miles from validating, but presumably that's not high on the to-do list at the moment.

The active field doesn't really bother me, as it is a simple click. For every page except the add mod, add mirror, and reload components, it wouldn't be very effective. Really, it's a simple click, and not worth the trouble of coding I think. And yes, validation isn't high on my to-do list. Basically, just checking if you have the CAPTCHA and any required fields so you can find the mod later at the moment.

[Michael]

Alright, the sessions are set up now. You can toggle the component list, or go onto the full mod view to select which components to use. So, new features:

• View which mods you have marked to install in both full mod view, and in category view.
  
• Select individual components to mark for installation or not in both full mod view, and in category view.
  
• Mass mark components for installation (or not) in both full mod view, and in category view.
  
• View which mods are marked for installation via a link on the menu.

Now I need to work on the order... I have a huge page that I generated of all the components. Now I just need to work on getting them in order. I suppose I'll start looking at the MEGA-mod installs to see what to do about ordering.


Thoughts and everything, as always, is loved.

[Kaeloree]

It might be helpful to have a more visible way of showing which mods you have installed. Other than that, no real comments--it looks great!

Is there anything in particular you would like feedback on?

[Michael]

It might be helpful to have a more visible way of showing which mods you have installed. Other than that, no real comments--it looks great!

I've been thinking of a way to do this, not really sure what to do about it now, though. The icons should be simple enough. If someone thinks of a way to do it better, let me know.

Is there anything in particular you would like feedback on?

Well, anything really. Anything you or anyone else thinks may be done better.

At the moment I'm working/thinking on ways to determine load order. Splitting into groups is easy enough, but I'm still thinking of a way to get it all working in a way that is easy to edit, and can easily bring in new mods to be placed at any location in the load order. Since you can have component #5 load at the start of the installation, then have #1-4 be at the end of the installation, with #6-20 being between them at places... well, it can get complex.

I suppose I'll make a component load order page, with a dropdown able to select which load group you can put each individual component in. Then you can go into the component edit page, and move the components around to change the load order.

Again, still thinking about it before I continue coding.

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Other then that, I've changed the design from being static, so the width of the site will scale. At resolutions below 800x600, which no-one uses, the site will get weird. At a width of 900px, the main section will stop growing in up-to-date browsers.

Edited by Michael, 30 March 2008 - 06:21 PM.

[Michael]

Little progress update.

I've made it so components can be given a 'sort group' now. Sort groups can be added, removed, and edited. Sort groups can be ordered.

Inside the sort groups, the individual components can be sorted as well.

The idea from this came from The BiG World Project.

I've started coding on this, and will work on getting the components sorted into installation groups. At this moment, you can give mods component groups, but can't sort the individual components in each group.

[Michael]

Another progress update.

Work is a bit slower now that I have school again. *grr*

I finished up the component group functions, meaning that you can now add component groups, remove component groups, and edit component groups. I need to assign components to component groups.

Next thing I'm going to work on is optimizing the XML generator. Currently it has each entry in the XML file be a component. Tomorrow I'll make it so if it finds groups of components in a row that are from the same mod, it will put them in one entry.

After that, I need to make the conflict detection controls, allowing people to report conflicts, remove conflicts, and manage conflicts.

Once that is done, I just need to make sure everything is set up right - meaning each component has been assigned to the right group, etc., then the project is done, for now.

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EDIT: Optimized the search engine. I put a requirement of at least 4 characters needed to run a search. Now you can't just search for 'a' and get tons of results. White space is trimmed too.
Before, the input for the search was set to what you searched for if you used the URL method. Now, though, if you search with the search button, your last search stays in the text box, as does the selection menu that says what you searched for.

I plan on adding support for searching components in the near future.


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EDIT2: Working on a News System now, too. Whenever anything is changed, it will be logged in the news, which details what was changed. This also logs information in case of abuse.

Edited by Michael, 02 April 2008 - 11:20 PM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Or you could make a mode choice tree;
1. step; Game
2. step; Category
3. step; Mod + choose button
(4.step; mod component + choose button, if needed)

After which you put the check(for conflicts) buttom, and the print buttom which puts this info to the XML(works even if the check fales, but gives also a warning).

Then you might consider putting up an anonymous(with option for names) message poster directly to you, as I am sure it will increase the interaction rate as you know what to do, they just need to notefy you, but put the CAPTCHA to it too...

[Michael]

The site is made for use with the SMM installer, for mega-mod installs on BG2/BGT. I don't really have any plans to support multiple games at the moment...

Maybe in future versions, depending on how popular this tool becomes.

[Michael]

Progress update:

Been busy, but getting back to working on it. I've added small new features on the search page, paged views, a news system, and I've changed some small layout bits.

Working on getting all the components sorted out into their proper load groups, then working on the conflict detection code + database entries.

[Michael]

Just an update to say that I'm not dead, and neither is the project - I've just been busy with work. In a week or so I should be able to resume work on this.

Though, anyone else can still go through and do the same thing, as all that needs to be done at this point can be done through the interface.

[Kaeloree]

Good to hear--I hope things ease up soon!

[Bearwere]

Michael, I think your project is great. Someone should have done it sooner or later (I was thinking of something like this, too, but now I don't need to bother about it ).
My ideas are:
1) it'd be useful to add a "version" and "last updated" fields for mods.
2) an option to build a simple text list which just shows the suggested order of installation (no xml/auto-installers), for users who already have local copies of mods and don't want to download them again.
3) a crawler parsing IE modding news over various communities, and also checking for dead links in the list from time to time.

[Michael]

Ok, so I've made some changes to the system, and updated recent mod changes to be in the database.

As per Bearwere's request, there is now a "version" and "last update" field. I've taken this one step further and implemented it into the downloads section of the mod page. Any download locations matching the current version are displayed as downloads. Any other links are categorized as outdated, and are shown under 'Download Archives." The download mirrors on the category/search page are also updated so that it only fetches the download mirrors matching the current version.

[Kaeloree]

Fantastic!