jwvanderbeck Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 DAModder - A full replacement for DAUpdater, and more! The upcoming mod manager, DAModder, will be moving into an "Open Beta" very soon, and such i'm hoping to get as many modders as I can to ensure they are distributing mods in a format that is compatible with DAModder. DAModder is designed to allow mods to be packaged in such a way that they are compatible with the application, but the user can still easily install the mod with DAUpdater or by hand if they desire. Small tweaks to how modders are currently packaging their mods will allow DAModder to work with them in a player friendly manner. There are two types of mods in general. Standard mods and Core Override mods. Standard Mods are those that are released in a .DAZIP file and can be installed with DAUpdater. Core Override Mods are mods that aren't technically a "module" by the game's standard, but instead simply drop files into the players "Core Override" directory to change the behavior of the game. DAModder allows players to easily install and uninstall both Standard and Core Override mods. You can get the sample packages here:http://www.dragonagenexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=250 And Thank You! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwvanderbeck Posted December 5, 2009 Author Share Posted December 5, 2009 Just to follow up on this a bit. If your mod is a standard mod, that is currently installed by DAUpdater, then chances are pretty good its already compatible with DAModder. If you are just distributing the .DAZIP file, or you are ZIping it up along with a Readme file, it will work fine with DAModder. The user can simply drag and drop the .DAZIP file or the .ZIP file into the application, and hit install. No problem. About the only way a standard mod would be incompatible right now is if you're doing something like zipping it up, but hiding the DAZIP in a subfolder or something. Core Override mods is where the real crux is. By definition these are not "modules" by the game's standards, and as such there is no module data for DAModder to parse. In other words, DAModder has ZERO information on the mod. The instructions in the sample show some small changes you can make to how its packaged so DAModder can essentially be "told" the mod's details. This will make the end user experience for your mods much better, as users will be able to see details like Mod Name, author, version, URL, description, etc. Oh and if you do ensure your mod is compatible, let me know or post it here, and i'll be sure to highlight it once we go into open beta :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 I've downloaded the sample files, and I'll be posting a new file of my mod that conforms to these standards soon. Will you be supporting other compression methods than zip? I'd like rar and 7z support, personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexspeed Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Thank you for your Support =) I may quote from the Beta Forums, from the Readme for Beta 1.9 from DAModder:Only mods packaged as .DAZIP or .ZIP are supported. Mods packaged as .RAR or .7zip are not, and will not, be supported. Sorry. Ask the author to use ZIP! The problem lies with .rar and .7zip files itself, the libraries to de-compress them cost money, so they cant be supported at this time. This is the current state, most likely it wont change as far as i know, but John has the last word on this its his Application. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 I was not aware of the cost issue. Well, I have no problem using zip for my mods, but larger mods (like large texture replacers) will probably favour 7z for its higher compression, so I expect those won't be packaged with the mod manager in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwvanderbeck Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 I was not aware of the cost issue. Well, I have no problem using zip for my mods, but larger mods (like large texture replacers) will probably favour 7z for its higher compression, so I expect those won't be packaged with the mod manager in mind. I love 7zip as well. Its something I might be able to handle, and would like to, but I have to essentially write all the code for handling them because a library isn't (that I know of) available . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Okay, a little more information, please. I'm posting in this thread in case others can benefit from the same question: Should I reproduce my full readme.txt file as HTML in the Description DefaultText area of the Manifest file? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwvanderbeck Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 No don't use HTML. It is plain text, but you can use DAMarkdown to "spice" it up. See here:http://damodder.tenderapp.com/faqs/builder...iptions-readmes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Okay, the formatting is clear, but I see no fields called "Mod Description, Readme & Changelog" in the manifest.xml file -- only "Description DefaultText". I don't have a beta copy of the file, and expected I could just add the manifest manually. Should I just wait for the release? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwvanderbeck Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 "readme and changelog" refer to files you may distribute with your mod. For example, if you package your mod with a file named readme.txt, DAModder will display it to the user. Same with "changelog.txt". These files can use the DAMarkdown as well. As for "Mod Description" it is referring to the "Description DefaultText" field in the XML. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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