Widget Manager

[very_bad_soldier]

I did some work on a thing which is supposed to be a user friendly tool to browse an online widget database and install, remove and update your locally installed widgets.
Thanks to Licho, the "Widget Manager" has found its way into the CA's Spring Downloader as a seperate module.

It is based on an online database to hold the widget information stuff. A thumbnail and full-size images can be added to each widget to provide eye-sexyness. The widgets description is HTML at the moment. So it would be possible to provide a full-featured HTML-page to describe the widget features in detail, dont know if its a good idea.

Adding/Modifying/Deleting widgets in the database has to be done manually. There is another tool for it to manage the DB. Until svn support is ready, widgets can be added and updated by that admin tool only. User accounts are possible so widget coders are able to adminsitrate their own widgets and release new ones.

Additionally I am searching for 1-2 full-rights admins who would have control over the entire DB and have an overall look at the widgets which are not maintained by their creators.

So, widget coders, PM me if you want an account to maintain your stuff. I will send you a message afterwards including all information you need.

WebVersion available here:
http://widgets.springrts.de

New Version:
-less HTTP-request -> more fluid UI
-new context-menu by right-clicking the widget list:
-install/remove multiple widgets at once
-install widgets based on an xml-widget-list
-reset your complete LUA-folder to spring default in case you messed up

Protocol description
I sucked at writing documentation but I gave it a try though:
http://trac.caspring.org/wiki/WidgetProtocol

Don't hesitate to ask if stuff is unclear.


Any critics/thoughts/ideas are welcome as always...

[Hoi]

Cool!

I'd be great if ALOT more widgets will be added to it.

[dizekat]

Looks great, good job!

Hoi:
Well... on topic of widgets being added.
Widget store would need to be well moderated to be useful.
If database grows large, and someone adds/uploads my widgets so that them aren't hosted on my site (edit: wait. is that commandinsert my commandinsert or is that the other commandinsert?), even though I cant have any control if someone does or not (GPL and stuff), i'm gonna be irritated nonetheless. Because thats just giving outdated/broken widget versions for download (and many wont work with 0.77 anyway), without possibility for author to remove old versions or with it wasting too much time to do so.
The widget database would need to be manageable by authors somehow, with clean versioning so that it would always prompt latest version, and so that various bad apples cant easily upload widgets posing as someone else.

edit: btw your avatar reminds me of something

[Hoi]

edit: btw your avatar reminds me of something

explain?

[Cremuss]

Half-life logo -1 scaled on x axis ? xD

I've nothing to say, just I really like the idea :)
I could be cool with lots of widgets in DB

Are you thinking about a linux version ?

[dizekat]

edit: btw your avatar reminds me of something

explain?

sorry for confusing, it was remark about very_bad_soldier's avatar :)

[very_bad_soldier]

Thanks for comments guys.

I added some more widgets, there are 32 now. If someone knows more widgets to add to this, please tell me...

A Linux version would be cool. I dont know what the status of the spring downloader for Linux is, but since I think adding this to the spring downloader could work, maybe it can be ported when the downloader gets ported.

The widget database would need to be manageable by authors somehow, with clean versioning so that it would always prompt latest version, and so that various bad apples cant easily upload widgets posing as someone else.

The program is able to handle different versions of widgets and to tell them apart, available for download is only the latest version while bugged versions can be deactivated at any time.

The database itself is manageable by another tool that can add/edit/remove new widgets. But I am unsure if it would be wise to grant all Lua coders full access to the DB. Maybe there should just be 2-3 people who take care for keeping the DB up to date. Lua-Coders could tell their wishes to the admins to edit/add/remove a widget.
Any volunteers?

I took most descriptions and stuff directly from jobjol, so if widget developers would like to have their widgets added/removed or would like to see special screenshots or a better HTML-description, just tell me.

edit: btw your avatar reminds me of something

Yeah its indeed quite similar to the HL-logo but actually its from Aphex Twin. I dont know if Valved "borrowed" it from Aphex, maybe he should demand money from Valve for using it

[MelTraX]

Very nice.. I was thinking about writing something like this myself..

Does it support widgets that are more than one file (for example IceUI)?

How about user accounts (maybe the springfiles accounts) to identify authors and them add/edit/delete at least their own widgets?
And it would be cool to use HTTP or something similar for uploading so it can be done in an SVN post-commit hook script or similar automated system..

As soon as this works with IceUI I can finally ditch that buggy and outdated updater :) ..

[TheFatController]

I'd like an account to keep my stuff up to date if possible, I do have a handful of widgets to share.

[Pendrokar]

Is my widget on high demand?

[dizekat]

Thanks for comments guys.

I added some more widgets, there are 32 now. If someone knows more widgets to add to this, please tell me...

A Linux version would be cool. I dont know what the status of the spring downloader for Linux is, but since I think adding this to the spring downloader could work, maybe it can be ported when the downloader gets ported.

springdownloader does not work on Linux, countary to what Licho may tell you.
Springlobby's torrent systen works however.

The widget database would need to be manageable by authors somehow, with clean versioning so that it would always prompt latest version, and so that various bad apples cant easily upload widgets posing as someone else.

The program is able to handle different versions of widgets and to tell them apart, available for download is only the latest version while bugged versions can be deactivated at any time.

The database itself is manageable by another tool that can add/edit/remove new widgets. But I am unsure if it would be wise to grant all Lua coders full access to the DB. Maybe there should just be 2-3 people who take care for keeping the DB up to date. Lua-Coders could tell their wishes to the admins to edit/add/remove a widget.
Any volunteers?

That would need to have each coder manage his widgets.
I dont think admining will work well or is even required.

Can you just have it reference HTTP links to widgets? My widgets are currently on my site, which is quite stable and definitely gets less downtime than spring website.

I took most descriptions and stuff directly from jobjol, so if widget developers would like to have their widgets added/removed or would like to see special screenshots or a better HTML-description, just tell me.

edit: btw your avatar reminds me of something

Yeah its indeed quite similar to the HL-logo but actually its from Aphex Twin. I dont know if Valved "borrowed" it from Aphex, maybe he should demand money from Valve for using it

lolz. i doublechecked with other browser and found i have very weird cache corruption issue in firefox with your avatar. Thats how it looks

[very_bad_soldier]

Does it support widgets that are more than one file (for example IceUI)?

Yes it does, I added IceUI yesterday after adding a feature to include whole directories. Adding 50 files manually would have been a pain...

How about user accounts (maybe the springfiles accounts) to identify authors and them add/edit/delete at least their own widgets?
And it would be cool to use HTTP or something similar for uploading so it can be done in an SVN post-commit hook script or similar automated system..

I added user accounts too yesterday but it is not finished yet. Each user will be able to "administrate" his widgets then. And yes, the upload uses HTTP already, so should be doable.

I'd like an account to keep my stuff up to date if possible, I do have a handful of widgets to share.

Nice to hear, I will create an account as soon as the user-account-stuff is finished. You can even become "uberadmin" if you want :D

Is my widget on high demand?

Yes, so to speak, I "misused" it for testing while deving

Can you just have it reference HTTP links to widgets? My widgets are currently on my site, which is quite stable and definitely gets less downtime than spring website.

Technically it is already done this way. It would be possible to add URLs directly linking to your server. But I am not sure if this is the best way to do it.
Imagine we got 50 widgets hosted on about 10 different servers its most likely to have some unavailable widgets at any time. We would be highly dependent of each single server to have all widgets available.
I think it doesnt matter here if a server has a downtime of 6 or if it has 7 days a year but it might provide a better user experience if all widgets are available at once from one central, well administrated place.
PS. Thats a really weird browser bug. Maybe a feature, call it "client-side avatars" or something

I will need some more time to polish up and fix things but I will continue working on it...

[Licho]

Note that you can also "hijack" downloader machinery to distribute widgets - they can be torrented and shared using existing p2p system.

[very_bad_soldier]

*BUMP*

First post updated...

[clumsy_culhane]

Can you please allow selecting of multiple widgets to be downloaded? It would be a great help. (Shift click or ctrl click, watever).
Thanks.

[very_bad_soldier]

Next version will have it... it also has some speedups at various points.

BTW: I am still searching for admins. Not a single one has been registered yet

[ZellSF]

buildbar, customformations, healthbars

All missing, very important widgets.

[very_bad_soldier]

I assumed most mods to include these by themselfs, but nevertheless I have added them and many more.
Additionaly I would appreciate if widget developers could provide me with the latest stable version of their widgets so I dont have to search at different places and try to figure out which one is currently working.

[Posts]

"Auto close Spring on game end."
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=11892

[very_bad_soldier]

Can you please allow selecting of multiple widgets to be downloaded? It would be a great help. (Shift click or ctrl click, watever).
Thanks.

Added. And some more stuff changed. See first post.

@Posts:
This seems to be a "highly specialized" widget. I dont know if it makes sense to add it to the DB. Should probably better bundled with springie?