[Official]BETA EQ2MAP Updater
 

What this program does:
This Keeps your EQ2MAP mod up to date, when ever new zones or points of interest are submitted on the EQ2MAP Website, this will update them for you automaticly. A previous installation of EQ2MAP is not necessary however using this program in a directory that has EQ2MAP already installed [b]should work as well. You must run the program before logging into EQ2 whenever you want to get more updates.

Newest Version is: 1.0

The official beta EQ2MAP Updater can be downloaded here. Any suggestions are welcome. Read the description there for more detailed information on features and installation.
You may also download this program (including the source code) from http://sourceforge.net/projects/eq2map-updater/

This Program is dedicated in loving memory of Scott A. Torroll, who was known and loved by many as Humudce in the Everquest community.

THERE IS NOT A VIRUS/TROJAN IN THIS FILE. If your antivirus detects one please report it to them so they can fix thier software. it is a false positive. see this thread for more info.

Before Installing:
You must have The Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 or greater for this program to run
The Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 can be downloaded either from this direct download link or if you prefer you can get it from windows update. When you try and run the program and you get "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click on OK to terminate the application." or something similar it is because you either dont have the .net framework, or you have the .net framework but its really old.

Instation:
1. Run the installation file
2. Run the program before running EQ2

I got a problem running the program. Everytime i start it i get a "Could not start the application correctly. Press ok to exit" or something... Code (0xc0000135)

I have the Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 installed. :S

Works great!

One comment though: I'm not fond of the "sh*t" word in the notes on the updater; it removes a bit of the perception of professionalism on your behalf. I noticed it in the beta screenshots, and was certain you'd remove it for any type of public release. Just my 2 coppers. :confused:

ick...oh...ooops...uhh...sorry, oversight on our part to remove that old note...:o

It works now. :D I installed Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 from this link. :)

Great, thanks for the update

Np ;)

This is really nice stuff. :D
Thanks a lot!

For whatever reason, "Auto Launch EQ2" wraps and is cut off when I run this. (see attached)

It would be nice to be able to configure the shortcut that launches EQ2. I run EQ2 from a batch file, not directly from EQ2.exe.

I'd also like to have the option to save a log of file changes.

Edit:
I didn't see that this shows on the taskbar when running.
When this is already running, it allows me to open a second instance, but the second instance froze on me when i clicked on it.

Can you explain what you mean just a little bit more. what is it you want to be able to configure about how it launches eq2, and what file changes are you talking about? if you are talking about the ones in the updates/new text boxes every time a new poi is added for a zone it is updated so that text file would get rather large quite fast.

Right now, when you enable "Auto Launch EQ2" it runs EQ2.exe. When I start EQ2 normally, I use a batch file that renames some files before the game patcher runs, then changes them back once the patcher closes and starts the game. There are also times when I run EQ2 using EverQuest2.exe directly and bypass the patcher all together. (like when modding the UI and want to get into the game as fast as possible) I'd like to be able to point the EQ2Maps updater program to what executable I'd like to run when "Auto Launch EQ2" is enabled.

The log file would just be what files are added/changed...not the changes within them. I was thinking about adding a couple of POI's to some maps for personal use, and it would be nice to be able to just reference the log to see if it was changed by the updater.

i will add a way for you to do this, thankyou for the suggestions.
EDIT: also i should mention the black boxes around the buttons should be gone and the launcheq2 should all be on one line in the next release as well.

Just installed it Taco....Works like a champ! Very well done!

just an update on the choosing what file to launch and turning logging on.
I have most of the code written, just for some reason i have a bug in my code that gets the command line arguments. As soon as i find the bug i will update it.

For some reason it only processes the first argument that it is passed. if any manages to notice the bug in my code let me know, here it is:

EDIT:found the bug in my code so the code was removed to save space.

I imagine you've seen this example VB code before, and I'm not even sure it's up-to-date with .NET VB, but here's some simple command line code for VB:
Just copied from some VB website; possibly give 'while' a shot instead of 'for' (I don't remember VB 'for' structure anymore, but it looks like 'while' is much simpler). Just /slap me if this was a waste of your time or if you'd tried this before. It's been about 6 or 7 years since I worked with VB though, so don't /slap me too hard...

Also, command line arguments are usually / (forwardslash) and command, like /autolaunch.

Also, here's a screenshot of the auto-updater as it appears on a Win98SE machine. Personally, I like the slimmer scrollbars of 98; but am just showing you how everything still fits and looks nice.

Quib

When opening the Beta updater I receive the application error Application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135) click to terminate the app.

I have no idea why this could be happening. :eek:

Verify that you have the latest version of the Microsoft .NET Framework from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

not to sound like an ass but perhaps if you had read the instructions you would know

You clearly do not sound like an ass. Instructions should be followed. Instructions should be referred to again in the case of a problem. Once those have failed: Complain.

Taco,
maybe you could add in a total est. download time remaining to it? Wouldn't let newcomers wonder how freakin long this things gonna download, and also be a great relief (in a way) if there are any dial uppers

Unforunately there is not way to do this. the closest thing would be the time remaining for the current file.

found my problem /slaps self 1000000000000000000000000000000000000 times for not seeing it.i was adding to i in a FOR loop WTF was i thinking...now i know why you are supposed to sleep for more than a few hours....

OK if you re download it the following this have been changed/added:
- Black boxes around buttons should not show up now, even on the systems that were showing them before.
- Autolaunch EQ2 should not wrap to the next line on the computers that it was previously
- You cant click update while the updater is downloading files
- only lets 1 instance of itself to run
- it accepts the following command line arguments /logupdates, /autolaunch filename.exe
Explanation for both arguments
/logupdates: when this set it keeps a record of what files were updated and new files that were downloaded, it includes a time stamp and keeps adding to the file "EQ2MAP_logfile.txt"

/autolaunch filename.exe: if you want to change what file it autolaunches instead of the default (which is the eq2 patcher) then use this command line switch. example you dont want to launch the eq2 patcher and you want to instead launch the game skipping the patcher, it would be /autolaunch EverQuest2.exe. IMPORTANT this assumes the file is in the directory 2 levels below the application (if the updater was placed in the correct location this will be the main "EverQuest II" folder. also, it will not work properly if the file has spaces in its name (neither eq file does so it should be fine).

another smaller update:
- Small Modification made to the way it writes logs. It should now seperate each "section" by a blank line and should not write to the log file if there was nothing downloaded.
- From now on the version number will be included in the program's "title bar"

In game, my map isn't displaying the new maps with POI.

I'm using the default UI.
I downloaded the .NET update and have run windows update too.
I downloaded and extracted the Updater into my EQII/UI/Default folder.
I've run the updater and it works without an error.

Nothing seems wrong, yet it doesn't work. What obvious thing am I missing?

Thank you.

The obvious thing you're missing is that the EQ2 patcher will overwrite the mod'd files in the Default directory. If this is the only UI mod you use follow the FAQ instructions to create a custom UI directory for it then run the patcher in that directory.

make sure you real all the instructions posted in the download, specificly the part that says "If you have never installed an interface before read the directions here about installing a custom interface before proceeding." read the page from the link in that sentance in the instructions and then once you have followed the instructions if you are still having problems post again.

Try making a new folder in your UI folder called mymods, and copy the Updater and the support files into that folder.

Run the Updater as you did before, it should add an XML file, a configuration file and 2 folders with information to that folder, to that new "mymods" folder.

Move up one folder to your EverQuest 2 folder and follow the instructions in the FAQ on installing new UI mods. Any files that the game does not find in your "mymods" folder it will use the Default Folder's files.

Installing Custom User Interfaces

another update was released today, check the download or this thread in the updates section. i also restructured the layout of the download description somewhat to hopefully make it easier to read/find what you are looking for.

Minor problem noticed:
 

I had the most recent version (without the auto-updater) of EqMaps up and running just fine with a custom UI (Slightly modified Incubi-Silver actually) and had many POIs visible.

However, after installing the beta_autoupdater program, I noticed the map for the Commonlands now held instead of the great variety of POIs that it had before, it held only 2. (Jereth Blackshield & Gil Mcmartin or so) where the only POIs visible after running the autoupdate software.

*Edited:
However, I would like to mention that Nek forest seems to display the POIs correctly..

i did my best to get most of the maps points of interest added to the website. however i was not able to get all of them, and that is why the following warning is in the download description.
if you go to the website and submit points of interest that were there before on the old version, next time you run the updater they will be there, and everyone else will have them as soon as they run the updater.

Feature request

1) I currently can't figure out how to tell what version of the updater I'm using. It would be nice if it were indicated somewhere obvious (lower-right corner maybe?).

2) Some kind of visual indictor which shows that there's a newer version of the updater available.

**EDIT**

Ok, either you got that in real quick, or I was incredibly blind.

Ahhh!
 

Ah, I read all the instructions, but hadn't read all the fine print. Thanks a lot man, btw, this is a very handy little add-on and I appreciate all your guys' efforts.

Wasn't sure if it was a bug or not, so.. (also, as a different bug, i notice that occasionally when I run the auto-updater, it gives an error warning as if I didn't have the .net framework update installed, however it is, but other times the program runs normally..)

-IMPORTANT BUGFIX! please download the newest version(0.95a Beta), more details are in the first post in the updates section. This fixes a problem introduced in 0.9f.

wailing caves should now have all the pois in it that it had before the updater i went to the site and submitted them.

you may have had the first version i released and then updated to a newer one. in the first version it had no version # but i have been including them for a few versions (which has only been like 1 and a half days) i also added a newest version thing a few hours before you made this post so you might not have noticed it. You know they say great minds think alike so if either you or i have a great mind we must both have them :p

Clicking A Link in the Updater
 

I use Firefox browser, and all of my user names and such are stored using Firefox. When I click a link using the EQ2MAP Updater, it launches MSIE, which is a serious pain for those of us who don't use that browser. Any way of having it launch the default browser instead of MSIE, when clicking on a link?? Thanks! :)

Myr

hear-hear! :)

Someone please point out where I missed an instruction. I'm sure that's what I did. I've reread it so much, it's all sorta running together.

I have the EQ2 maps already installed and working (beautiful thing that it is.) I downloaded the updater and put it in the same custom UI folder as the maps. Ran it and got an error message about Common Language Runtime Debugging Services. Hit OK to close it or Cancel to stop the debugging service. The next window says No Debugger Found. Registered JIT debugger is not available. An attempt to launch a JIT debugger with the following command resulted in an error code of 0x2 (2). Please check computer settings. cordb.exe !a 0xc44. I hit Retry to see if it would start the debugger manually but it shuts itself down.

Thinking I may have an old .NET, I used the link provided on page one by Taco Man. Overwrote the existing file and re-installed .Net framework. Restarted the PC for good measure and I keep getting the same error. :(

Next I tried putting the patcher in it's own custom UI folder...same error.

Penny for your thoughts.

Very odd message, in the Tools Menu of Internet Explorer in the Internet Options Window Advanced Tab, is the JIT Complier checked under Microsoft VM?

did you extract ALL 3 files like it says? you should have Interop.SHDocVw.dll, AxInterop.SHDocVw.dll, and BETA_EQ2MAP_Updater.exe all in the same folder.