UI Switcher

[ger]

Well, the first half of this project took a lot less time than I'd thought. The second half, that's going to be a doozie though. Recursion, fun.

Anyway, the first half:

UI Switcher.

Installing: Unzip into your EverQuest II directory. (Not your UI directory or any subdirectory of it)

Using: Run the application. Select the UI you'd like to use from the left-hand list (details on the selected UI will appear in the right-hand box.) Click "Set UI". The switcher will automatically write your EQ2.ini for you and launch the EQ2 patcher.

The second half, in case you hadn't guessed, is going to be a UI installation utility that mod authors can include with their mods to allow for easier installation by users. (One that'll prevent users from putting UIs in places where they shouldn't be)

Edit: Forgot the ZIP. Oops!

[Dolby]

Split thread and moved to correct forum =/

nice tool though.

[ger]

Woot. Thanks.

[Laffs]

Nice one

Maybe SoE should trash there /loadui and use this insted Lol



*EDIT*

Just ran this... works well ....... But (hehe you knew this was coming Ger)
Maybe you could parse the old .ini first, reason I say this is I have extra info in mine that gets lost when I use this tool the extra info being=

cl_letterbox_position 1
ics_maxcameradistance 10.0

Whilst there is probably only a few of us that have extra info in that .ini, I thought it was worth pointing it out

[Kosmos]

As far as I can tell with my experiment with the whole Custom UI fun.

You can't use more than one UI Piece or set while useing the eq2.ini trick we use.
The eq2.ini points the game to one specific directory.
So the people that just use pieces here and there are still going to have to move those around, because you can't use eq2.ini to point to two different directories, at least I've not been able to.
You could put your custom pieces in all of your directories that you switch between.
This is pretty nifty utility for newbies thought that are having trouble.

Personally I think we might need to include a screenshot of the correct directory structure, with ICON types, LOL.
I really don't know how we could make things more clear.

[ger]

Originally Posted by Laffs

Nice one

Maybe SoE should trash there /loadui and use this insted Lol



*EDIT*

Just ran this... works well ....... But (hehe you knew this was coming Ger)
Maybe you could parse the old .ini first, reason I say this is I have extra info in mine that gets lost when I use this tool the extra info being=

cl_letterbox_position 1
ics_maxcameradistance 10.0

Whilst there is probably only a few of us that have extra info in that .ini, I thought it was worth pointing it out

I used to have similar data in my eq2.ini, moved it to the eq2_recent.ini and it works just fine. (In other words, if it's a question of me coding extra parsing or you changing which file your extra settings are it...guess which one it's gonna be? )

[ger]

Originally Posted by Kosmos

As far as I can tell with my experiment with the whole Custom UI fun.

You can't use more than one UI Piece or set while useing the eq2.ini trick we use.
The eq2.ini points the game to one specific directory.
So the people that just use pieces here and there are still going to have to move those around, because you can't use eq2.ini to point to two different directories, at least I've not been able to.
You could put your custom pieces in all of your directories that you switch between.
This is pretty nifty utility for newbies thought that are having trouble.

Personally I think we might need to include a screenshot of the correct directory structure, with ICON types, LOL.
I really don't know how we could make things more clear.

The next stage of this project (which I'm working on now) should solve some if not all of the problems you outlined here. This part is intended for use once you have the UIs installed correctly. The next part is going to make sure they get installed correctly in the first place.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by ger

The next stage of this project (which I'm working on now) should solve some if not all of the problems you outlined here. This part is intended for use once you have the UIs installed correctly. The next part is going to make sure they get installed correctly in the first place.

Just out of curiosity how do you plan to use pieces from various UIs?

Are you going to use the UI installer to allow the user to grab files from the various folders and install them into one folder, then adjust the eq2.ini to always look in that folder?

You are alot like me I think, you like to take on a challenge!

[Laffs]

I used to have similar data in my eq2.ini, moved it to the eq2_recent.ini and it works just fine. (In other words, if it's a question of me coding extra parsing or you changing which file your extra settings are it...guess which one it's gonna be? )

Lmao so basicly your telling me to go shove my settings up my .........erm ...... recent.ini , insted

Yes boss doing it right now....

[ger]

Originally Posted by Kosmos

Just out of curiosity how do you plan to use pieces from various UIs?

Are you going to use the UI installer to allow the user to grab files from the various folders and install them into one folder, then adjust the eq2.ini to always look in that folder?

You are alot like me I think, you like to take on a challenge!

The idea is to provide a tool mod authors can package with their mods to allow the end user to take the guess-work out of installing a mod. It will allow the user to autodetect their EQ2 folder (got that part working) and will then check that the folder they're installing to is a first-order child of "UI". Once those conditions have been met the installer will recurse the file structure provided by the mod author and copy the mod files into the specified folder, prompting the user if any files are going to be overwritten (to allow users to install multiple components to the same mod folder.)

Anyway, I've got the directory search working, I've almost got the install conditions working, after that I get to figure out how progress bars work and finalize the format of the install package file structure. Right now I'm thinking I'll just have the installer check a folder named "EQ2Interface" and copy the files over as-is, creating an eq2ui_skininfo.xml if one doesn't exist so that the newly-installed mod shows up in the UI Switcher.

[Laffs]

Re: progress bars is THIS link of any use to you?

[Humudce]

Ger,

Love the mod, would it be possible to put in a checkbox for Auto-launch, and then an option to either AutoLaunch EQ2 or the EQ2MAP Updater that TacoMan is working on? I know his Updater also Autolaunches the Game.

This would be nice for those that want to get the latest maps prior to entering the game.

For example, they launch your UI Switcher, they check the Autoplay Box, and then select the EQ2MAP Updater option. They then select the UI they would like to use, and the eq2.ini is written, and the EQ2MAP Updater is launched. Once any new information from EQ2MAP is downloaded EQ2 is autolaunched?

What do you all think?

[Humudce]

Originally Posted by ger

The idea is to provide a tool mod authors can package with their mods to allow the end user to take the guess-work out of installing a mod. It will allow the user to autodetect their EQ2 folder (got that part working) and will then check that the folder they're installing to is a first-order child of "UI". Once those conditions have been met the installer will recurse the file structure provided by the mod author and copy the mod files into the specified folder, prompting the user if any files are going to be overwritten (to allow users to install multiple components to the same mod folder.)

Anyway, I've got the directory search working, I've almost got the install conditions working, after that I get to figure out how progress bars work and finalize the format of the install package file structure. Right now I'm thinking I'll just have the installer check a folder named "EQ2Interface" and copy the files over as-is, creating an eq2ui_skininfo.xml if one doesn't exist so that the newly-installed mod shows up in the UI Switcher.

This additional feature sounds awesome, right now for my Guild I have written installer Versions for all of my Mods, and the most popular ones on EQ2Interface so that my guild mates can install the mods with out having to know anything about the Directory structure of EverQuest 2. To write my installers I have used NSIS (Null Soft Install System) to do the installers. From my end it's a lot of work to setup the Files installed and such in the installer, this feature would make everyones (including my life) allot easier.

But wouldn't that break the Upload Rules for interface authors where is states No Exe's? I forget exactally how it was worded but I'm pretty sure it says it. I may be wrong and it only says it after uploading to the EQInterface site.

[Kosmos]

Ahh, VERY fantastic idea ger!

That is going to be one popular utility for us! It would get us all in the habit of including the skininfo file which will be nice for the future when /loadUI works.

One suggestion I had.
If we are going to package this 'with' the released mods, the installer shoudl probably check to see if a version is already installed?

Now, if Dolby can just figure out a way for this thing to work from the server side, so that when you click the 'download' button it does everything for you!!!

[ger]

Originally Posted by Humudce

Ger,

Love the mod, would it be possible to put in a checkbox for Auto-launch, and then an option to either AutoLaunch EQ2 or the EQ2MAP Updater that TacoMan is working on? I know his Updater also Autolaunches the Game.

This would be nice for those that want to get the latest maps prior to entering the game.

For example, they launch your UI Switcher, they check the Autoplay Box, and then select the EQ2MAP Updater option. They then select the UI they would like to use, and the eq2.ini is written, and the EQ2MAP Updater is launched. Once any new information from EQ2MAP is downloaded EQ2 is autolaunched?

What do you all think?

Doable, and honestly I expected that one to come up. Once I get the installation system beta out I'll start taking suggestions/requests for both halves of the...uh...I don't have a name for both together. Any suggestions?

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by ger

Doable, and honestly I expected that one to come up. Once I get the installation system beta out I'll start taking suggestions/requests for both halves of the...uh...I don't have a name for both together. Any suggestions?

Ger's GizzleFob!

[ger]

Okay boys and girls. Installer with sample UI (my EQ2MAP icon replacements) for testing purposes. Zip file format is pretty simple, just archive the mod you want to install with its full file structure intact, but do not include the UI/CustomUI folder (i.e. include images, images/maps, images/icons, et cetera, but not the overall parent folder.) Name the zip file EQ2Interface.zip. Enjoy.

Oh, and for the love of god, don't try it out on your actual working mod directory without making a backup first. The overwrite and skininfo checks worked correctly in all of my tests, but I really don't want to find a bug on somebody's working directory and destroy who knows what.

Note: the DLL and the ZIP must be in the same folder as the EXE. As always, .Net Framework 1.1 or better required.

Note2: Now that I've ot a beta of the installer out, time to figure out what works well, what could be done better, et cetera. So please, let me hear what you authors want the installer to do, and what you users want the switcher to do.

[taco-man]

any chance of adding a way to launch the auto updater, for users that have used the new installation version of my updater the path to the updater is stored in the registry in the (default) key for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\EQ2MAP_Updater.exe

[ger]

Originally Posted by taco-man

any chance of adding a way to launch the auto updater, for users that have used the new installation version of my updater the path to the updater is stored in the registry in the (default) key for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\EQ2MAP_Updater.exe

Yup. Going to add that when I fix the name parsing in the switcher. Just finishing up drag & drop for the installer (trying to make it work with any ZIP file if the file is dropped onto the installer) and I'll get that posted to downloads, then make a couple fixes on the switcher (including autoplay settings and a play button.)

[ger]

AutoPlay settings enabled in this download. If you don't have the newest version of the EQ2MAP Updater installed the option will be greyed out, but you can still launch it via "Other." (I do suggest that you download the newest version of the EQ2MAP Updater though)

You'll notice a button for UISettings Management. It doesn't do anything yet, but it will by the time I update the downloads version of this thing.

[Kosmos]

You know Ger, I was half joking when I made the comment about Dolby having the site do this when the people click the download button.


But I got to thinking about this.

Take WinAmp for example.

You can download skins for WinAmp this way. You have the option to download the file, or I think it can alter the skin on the fly right through the website. With the implementation of map updater and how well it's working, I really don't think its too far feteched of an idea.

[ger]

Originally Posted by Kosmos

You know Ger, I was half joking when I made the comment about Dolby having the site do this when the people click the download button.


But I got to thinking about this.

Take WinAmp for example.

You can download skins for WinAmp this way. You have the option to download the file, or I think it can alter the skin on the fly right through the website. With the implementation of map updater and how well it's working, I really don't think its too far feteched of an idea.

In theory it'd be possible. What WinAmp does is use custom-named ZIP files that are associated with it in Windows. When it sees a file it unzips it to the apropriate folder and triggers its skin change function.

In this case we'd have to custom name our ZIPs (EQI maybe?) and associate them with the UIInstaller. Since the UIInstaller can already take command-line variables (that's how drag-and-drop works) it could be set to accept files directly from the IE/Mozilla Open feature.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by ger

In theory it'd be possible. What WinAmp does is use custom-named ZIP files that are associated with it in Windows. When it sees a file it unzips it to the apropriate folder and triggers its skin change function.

In this case we'd have to custom name our ZIPs (EQI maybe?) and associate them with the UIInstaller. Since the UIInstaller can already take command-line variables (that's how drag-and-drop works) it could be set to accept files directly from the IE/Mozilla Open feature.

That would remove the issue of having to package the Installer with the mods.

[ger]

New version pending approval, now with more formy goodness. (Seriously, this thing went from 1 form to 4 between yesterday and today.) Teaser screenshots to tide you over until it's approved:

[Laffs]

Is it able to wash the car yet? j/k

Nice work Ger