One question: Is there a way (or will there be) for another mod to grab what needs updating and the severity level of that? That would be a good idea, so that it could be more of a GUI tacked on to the start screen (or whatever the screen with singleplayer/multiplayer/mods/etc is called).
Reika's Update Checker
- Thread starter TomeWyrm
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The data inside the mod assumes that said mod is the most recent, because there's no point in releasing an update and, in the same post, release another, more recent version. There is no way to find out without checking against a server or - you guessed it - updating!
I like this approach.
This said, I still have no idea how this will address the "bad pack makers not installing version checker mod" problem.
Not sure. Right now it's still in the design doc and we're more focused on a couple of backend features first, like json recipe-managers for TE.
We could probably standardize something for it though.
Well that's easy. If the pack doesn't have CoFH Core, it's already a bad pack.
...I'm gonna assume y'all know I'm kidding on that.
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I would be willing to help with it, and I think @trajing would to
You could make the version checker mod a dependency for dragonAPI. That way players need to have the mod installed to use your mods.
And I'm pleasantly surprised with how this thread turned out. Instead of a massive clusterfrak and several bans, y'all came together on a reasonable solution that satisfies most people.
Or you know. It is none of your business trying to force pack makers to update. I an sure it has been stated a million times before but you completely disregard the chances of an update breaking something or causing an incompatibility issue that is all too frequent in mod packs.
Yeah it is your mod and your license and whatever, but it is hard to support and appreciate someone who thinks they need to be in total control over something that I HIGHLY doubt reduces false bug reports.
Let the user be in control. You make unique and cool mods, but the fact that this is even a thing is silly. I am glad you are changing it. It really speaks well for you.
Eighteen minutes after we're commended on being able to stay nice and civil, this happens.
We have come to a conclusion and everyone here seems happy. Could we not resurrect an issue that's been dead for an hour?
Or maybe disable my own version checker if this mod is installed. I like this idea.
Is it too early to call Demise a necromancer? The corpse needs to stew properly first.
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It is when his comment rehashes what has already been says and is not adding to the discussion at all besides fostering further hostility. A conclusion had been reached. Reika is happy. His supporters are happy. The opposers are happy. We don't need more fuel on the dimly glowing embers of the shit flame.
Well, this came out a lot more pleasantly that I, for one, expected.
I'll start by throwing this out there: I am pretty well in support of most of the things that Reika has done, including the old DragonAPI update marquee and the new popup. I feel like I'm in a minority here, but at least I am evidence that the minority isn't nonexistent.
Yes, the marquee was annoying, but it was there for a very good reason. I've only seen a fraction of the nonsense and vitriol that's been thrown in Reika's direction, and were it directed at me, it'd be more than enough for me to seriously rethink modding at all. Props to Reika for staying strong through all that.
The popup, I would say, is much less annoying. Among other things, it should let me take screenshots without having to go out of my way to edit the banner out.
I'm also fully in support of hooking into a version checker built into CoFH Core. I'd be wary about relying on NotEnoughMods, say, since I don't really have much reason to have that mod installed. However, I already have CoFH Core... so no problem there. There's a lot of modpacks out there that already have Thermal Expansion, and I'd wager that a good chunk of those that don't have Thermal Foundation for the worldgen configuration capabilities.
However, the main reason that I still have the marquee on my modified Infinity client is that updating mods is just annoying. When I load up Infinity+Reikamods these days (I'm current playing Pathfinder), it's usually because there's something in one of the mods that I want to test quickly in Creative mode. So I load it up, and when I log into the world a few minutes later, I get the marquee saying "DragonAPI is out of date! And RotaryCraft is out of date! And ChromatiCraft...". And then I'm like "Oh yeah, I should update those sometime..." And then I promptly ignore the marquee and never get around to actually updating, because I just want to see how quickly some Thaumic Tinkerer item can actually ruin a world and can't be arsed to close out Minecraft and update some totally unrelated mods.
So, I propose a solution: Make it possible to update the mods in-game. If I understand how Minecraft and Java work correctly, neither actually need the jar files after the game starts. So the outdated jars in the Mods folder could be disabled by adding ".disabled" to the filename, then the new jars could be downloaded directly to the Mods folder, so they load up next time the game starts. This could be added to the DragonAPI popup or the CoFH Core thing- preferably the latter, for compatibility with more mods.
All that would have to be made transparently obvious to the user, of course- if Reika just added an "Update" button to his popup with no explanation (outside of this forum/the MCF thread/the changelogs), I could easily see people complaining about "What if it the new update breaks my world? I want to be able to go back to the old version in case something breaks.". Something like "Click here to update <list of mods>. This will install <new versions> to your mods folder without deleting the old versions, so you can easily go back if something breaks. These changes will take effect the next time you open Minecraft." would do it. Better yet, have clicked-by-default checkboxes to each of the mods in the list, in case anyone doesn't want to update a particular mod for some reason.
If that's too much, at the very least, pop up a reminder when the client closes that some mods are out of date. A popup or chat message when the game starts makes me go "Eh, I'll do it later" and then forget about it. If I'm reminded when I leave the game (by, say, a "Some mods are out of date!" dirtscreen that lasts for two seconds when disconnecting from the (internal) server), I'd be much more likely to actually download and install the updates while I'm thinking about it.
Oh, and one more thing, this one more Reika-specific. I'd appreciate it if whatever notification (other than an easily-ignored startup chat message) didn't appear until, say, three days after the most recent version. I don't want to download DragonAPI, RoC, ReC, ChC, Geostrata, and ExpandedRedstone v7A just to download them all again tomorrow. With Reika's update cycle, this means that I'll just get the latest updates. Keep the chat messages for all updates, though (unless the non-critical ones are explicitly disabled)- I don't want to miss out on something cool in Botania or any other mod that updates almost daily, for instance.
TL;DR: I find Reika's notifications annoying, but still acceptable, all things considered. I think the best solution would be a simple way to update mods in-game, preferably built into either DragonAPI or a mod such as CoFH Core.
I'll start by throwing this out there: I am pretty well in support of most of the things that Reika has done, including the old DragonAPI update marquee and the new popup. I feel like I'm in a minority here, but at least I am evidence that the minority isn't nonexistent.
Yes, the marquee was annoying, but it was there for a very good reason. I've only seen a fraction of the nonsense and vitriol that's been thrown in Reika's direction, and were it directed at me, it'd be more than enough for me to seriously rethink modding at all. Props to Reika for staying strong through all that.
The popup, I would say, is much less annoying. Among other things, it should let me take screenshots without having to go out of my way to edit the banner out.
I'm also fully in support of hooking into a version checker built into CoFH Core. I'd be wary about relying on NotEnoughMods, say, since I don't really have much reason to have that mod installed. However, I already have CoFH Core... so no problem there. There's a lot of modpacks out there that already have Thermal Expansion, and I'd wager that a good chunk of those that don't have Thermal Foundation for the worldgen configuration capabilities.
However, the main reason that I still have the marquee on my modified Infinity client is that updating mods is just annoying. When I load up Infinity+Reikamods these days (I'm current playing Pathfinder), it's usually because there's something in one of the mods that I want to test quickly in Creative mode. So I load it up, and when I log into the world a few minutes later, I get the marquee saying "DragonAPI is out of date! And RotaryCraft is out of date! And ChromatiCraft...". And then I'm like "Oh yeah, I should update those sometime..." And then I promptly ignore the marquee and never get around to actually updating, because I just want to see how quickly some Thaumic Tinkerer item can actually ruin a world and can't be arsed to close out Minecraft and update some totally unrelated mods.
So, I propose a solution: Make it possible to update the mods in-game. If I understand how Minecraft and Java work correctly, neither actually need the jar files after the game starts. So the outdated jars in the Mods folder could be disabled by adding ".disabled" to the filename, then the new jars could be downloaded directly to the Mods folder, so they load up next time the game starts. This could be added to the DragonAPI popup or the CoFH Core thing- preferably the latter, for compatibility with more mods.
All that would have to be made transparently obvious to the user, of course- if Reika just added an "Update" button to his popup with no explanation (outside of this forum/the MCF thread/the changelogs), I could easily see people complaining about "What if it the new update breaks my world? I want to be able to go back to the old version in case something breaks.". Something like "Click here to update <list of mods>. This will install <new versions> to your mods folder without deleting the old versions, so you can easily go back if something breaks. These changes will take effect the next time you open Minecraft." would do it. Better yet, have clicked-by-default checkboxes to each of the mods in the list, in case anyone doesn't want to update a particular mod for some reason.
If that's too much, at the very least, pop up a reminder when the client closes that some mods are out of date. A popup or chat message when the game starts makes me go "Eh, I'll do it later" and then forget about it. If I'm reminded when I leave the game (by, say, a "Some mods are out of date!" dirtscreen that lasts for two seconds when disconnecting from the (internal) server), I'd be much more likely to actually download and install the updates while I'm thinking about it.
Oh, and one more thing, this one more Reika-specific. I'd appreciate it if whatever notification (other than an easily-ignored startup chat message) didn't appear until, say, three days after the most recent version. I don't want to download DragonAPI, RoC, ReC, ChC, Geostrata, and ExpandedRedstone v7A just to download them all again tomorrow. With Reika's update cycle, this means that I'll just get the latest updates. Keep the chat messages for all updates, though (unless the non-critical ones are explicitly disabled)- I don't want to miss out on something cool in Botania or any other mod that updates almost daily, for instance.
TL;DR: I find Reika's notifications annoying, but still acceptable, all things considered. I think the best solution would be a simple way to update mods in-game, preferably built into either DragonAPI or a mod such as CoFH Core.
With how many accusations my ingame bug reporting form got of trying to sneak data, I see this as going even worse. Automated downloads - though ChickenBones somehow gets away with it with DepLoader - are a nuclear drama bomb.
I am OK with this, but is it possible? What if you just click the "X" on the top of the window?
I want to do this too, but I currently lack a means to do so, namely because I have no idea how the mod can know when an update was released (the original idea of putting it in the version file worked terribly because I forgot so often).
Point taken. This might be better left to CoFH Core, if/when their checker system becomes available for other mods to use.
(Although if you want to be nitpicky, my intention was for it to require two or three mouseclicks to download anything. Which may still enrage the masses.)
I have no idea. I'm just spewing ideas right now.
I was thinking it could be tied into the "Client disconnecting from server" event, but I don't know if mods are able to use those to take over the GUI momentarily.
Then you may or may not get the reminder, depending on how it's implemented. I never intended it to replace the chat messages or login popup, though.
Most of the groundwork for something similar to this probably already exists in your "Notify once per version" system. I assume that it currently works by caching the latest mod versions locally somewhere, and only notifying the user if the cached version numbers don't match those returned by the server.
In short:
- Contact whatever server to get the current versions of the mods.
- Check if they match those stored in a local file somewhere.
- If not, overwrite the file with the current local time and mod versions and exit silently.
- If so, compare the timestamp in the file to the current local system time.
- If they differ by less then three days, exit silently. Do not edit/overwrite the file.
- If they differ by more than three days, notify the user.
The problem was that people say things like "I don't know what else you could be downloading".
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Also, WTF forums...
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Botania and a few other mods have a clickable link in the outdated version message that opens the download page for the mod in the default browser. You still have to copy the file into the mods folder yourself and remove or disable the old one. To my mind this is still an order of magnitude more convenient than having to remember to go download it while still avoiding the 'I don't know what you are downloading" complaint by making the user actually do the download in their browser.
Edit to add: I think this feature is in the CoFH update checker too, which you're already thinking about using..
Edit to add: I think this feature is in the CoFH update checker too, which you're already thinking about using..
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