Custom Spring installer and Spring Module Updater

[Forboding Angel]

Just tried Forb's installer:

• Do NOT install in C:\Program Files\, I heard it causes issue in Vista.

You're crazy. There is a manifest file for wget, so you just get a uac prompt. The only time you get a UAC prompt EVER, is when the menu has changed or been updated.

[*] I clicked [Install] the first time. That installed no mod, no desktop shorcut, and of three Start Menu shortcut, none to actually go play the game.

Multiplayer lobby? Cry me a river? The installer is a template for others to be able to make their own. THat spring engine installer is what I use for evolution.

[*] SpringLobby is really not at all the best newb friendly way to get your game started. Not entirely your fault since few games have an easy frontend.

Quite true.

[*] The dos windows that opens up at the end is scary. Even though I know it's not a virus but just your updater thing, I can't help but close it.

And your fear is my problem? Actually, you should feel at ease, because had you actually thought about it, it is impossible to invoke UAC with a batch file or from a console window, therefore, you're fine and your HD isn't getting reformatted any time soon. If you're still using windows XP, well that's your own fault. Win7.

[*]The second time I didn't click install but next,next, next, and realising it had no asked for mod, I let Spring Updater run this time. But by then my internet connection had died. Put all the files in the installer, realising in mid-installation you need an internet connection to download the rest is annoying. Don't download them by what looked like an optional thing after Installation is Finished. But at least the updater patiently waited for my connection to come back instead of crashing with ominous message, kudos for that. Still choosing and installing mods through a dos bat file doesn't really convey the idea of intalling the best RTS ever.

Make a better one that is dynamically configurable.

[*]So maps go into:
C:\Program Files\Spring Engine\maps\
But mods go into
C:\Documents and Settings\LoginName\My Documents\My Games\Spring\mods\
Be consistent!

Yeah I agree, with excelsior installer I can't do a lot of the cool shit I could do with install creator, so I'mma switch them all back. Course I own the pro version anyway.

[*]Also, by:
C:\Documents and Settings\LoginName\My Documents\My Games\Spring\mods\
I believe you mean:
C:\Documents and Settings\LoginName\Mes documents\Spring\mods
Yes, not everybody is American.

Hurr hurr %userprofile% happens to be universal.
Edit: Forgot to finish my point... Find me an environment variable for "My Documents" smartass (protip: it doesn't exist. Complain to microsoft).

[*]Add the Cursed to the mod list, please, it's way better than NOTA or XTA.[/list]

Doesn't this have a new release often? If so, then I'm not going to add it unless azuremoth will update the menu when he releases a new version. For stuff like BA, NOTA, etc I don't mind cause they don't have new versions very often.

[Forboding Angel]

Also, you'll notice that in the install creator version of the installer, the map actually goes to my documents, excelsior can't touch anything outside of it's ownb directory, which is a HUGE limitation.

Both files have been updated the the install creator version (I like them a lot better anyway, but I wanted people to have the chance to see both).

[zwzsg]

You're crazy. There is a manifest file for wget, so you just get a uac prompt. The only time you get a UAC prompt EVER, is when the menu has changed or been updated.

I never used Vista more than 10mins, so I can't test nor even properly understand the issue. I just now there were tons of angry people complaining on the forum, and that a simple answer often given to them was to not install in Program Files. If you tell me having a manifest solve this completly, I'll just have to trust you.

Multiplayer lobby? Cry me a river? The installer is a template for others to be able to make their own. That spring engine installer is what I use for evolution.

I though you aimed to make a more user friendly installer. Sorry if I've been mistaken.

And your fear is my problem?

That batch just look totally unprofessional. And having to install mods from a batch file prompt after the installer said install is finished feels damn weird. But a good point I forgot to mention is that this installer doesn't have the click team advert at the end.

If you're still using windows XP, well that's your own fault. Win7.

You're misleaded. I'm not using Windows XP, but Windows 2000. Blaming user for their choice of O.S. is not how to gain their support, though.

Make a better one that is dynamically configurable.

Oh, I probably will. Except I believe the whole "dynamically configurable" deal is a delusion, since no one use the dynamic configurability, and to the contrary it makes thing so complex people lose the ability to change the installer. See how Tobi said he couldn't change the TASClient in 0.80.2 because the installer was made automatically, or how in the old time when official installer included mod, the mod filename couldn't change.

Hurr hurr %userprofile% happens to be universal.
Edit: Forgot to finish my point... Find me an environment variable for "My Documents" smartass (protip: it doesn't exist. Complain to microsoft).

From an user stand point: The majority of other games and other programs have no trouble locating "Mes Documents". That you are unable to find how, throw technical words like "environment variable", and blame Microsoft, is none of my concern. Other application do it fine, you just suck.

From a fellow installer-maker standpoint, I could tell you about LOCALAPPDATA and APPDATA, but I won't because I feel your "Hurr hurr", "smartass" and "protip" was rude and uncalled for and just makes me want to insult you back.

Doesn't this have a new release often? If so, then I'm not going to add it unless azuremoth will update the menu when he releases a new version. For stuff like BA, NOTA, etc I don't mind cause they don't have new versions very often.

Making an installer and then not updating it would be fail. But no, the Cursed don't have that frequent updating.

[Forboding Angel]

A manifest file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0"
processorArchitecture="X86"
name="Sample"
type="win32" />
<description>Sample Manifest Test Application</description>
<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
<security>
<requestedPrivileges>
<!-- <requestedExecutionLevel level="requireAdministrator" /> -->
<requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" />
<!-- <requestedExecutionLevel level="highestAvailable" /> -->
</requestedPrivileges>
</security>
</trustInfo>
</assembly>

The whole point of it is to cause a UAC prompt to be invoked (cannot be used with batch files to my knowledge -- at least I didn't have any luck whatsoever).

I though you aimed to make a more user friendly installer. Sorry if I've been mistaken.

Well if you installed an application, and in the start menu it had "Configure graphics settings" "multiplayer lobby" and "Spring Module Updater", Which one would you choose?

That batch just look totally unprofessional. And having to install mods from a batch file prompt after the installer said install is finished feels damn weird. But a good point I forgot to mention is that this installer doesn't have the click team advert at the end.

The click team advert is common among freeware software for programs that I've used int he past, dunno why it bothers you so much. I suppose I'm just used to seeing it.

You're misleaded. I'm not using Windows XP, but Windows 2000. Blaming user for their choice of O.S. is not how to gain their support, though.

I'm not blaming you for anything, but if you're still using 2000 or XP over win7 yoos must be crazy ./security holes

Oh, I probably will. Except I believe the whole "dynamically configurable" deal is a delusion, since no one use the dynamic configurability, and to the contrary it makes thing so complex people lose the ability to change the installer. See how Tobi said he couldn't change the TASClient in 0.80.2 because the installer was made automatically, or how in the old time when official installer included mod, the mod filename couldn't change.

Its fairly obvious that you haven't looked into how it works at all. I'll take you step by step.

When you start the module updater, this file is run:

ECHO OFF
CLS
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO Updating the Automatic Updater, please wait...
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO.
wget -N http://springinfo.info/moddownloads/updaterdefs.bat
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO Update Successful!
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO.
updaterdefs.bat

As you can see, it downloads a batch file from the springinfo server, and runs it:

ECHO OFF
CLS
:MENU
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO Please select the Module that you would like to install or update
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO.
ECHO 1 - Balanced Annihilation - Version: 7.00
ECHO 2 - Evolution RTS - Version: Pre-Alpha Test 15
ECHO 3 - Kernel Panic - Version: 3.6
ECHO 4 - NOTA - Version: 1.59
ECHO 5 - Spring: 1944 - Operation Lyuban (Version: 1.06)
ECHO 6 - XTA - Version: 9.585
ECHO 7 - EXIT
ECHO.
SET /P M=Type your selection, then press ENTER:

IF %M%==1 GOTO BA
IF %M%==2 GOTO EVORTS
IF %M%==3 GOTO KP
IF %M%==4 GOTO NOTA
IF %M%==5 GOTO S44
IF %M%==6 GOTO XTA
IF %M%==7 GOTO EOF

:XTA
wget -N http://springinfo.info/moddownloads/XTAPEV9585.sdz -P "%DEFAULTUSERPROFILE%\My Games\Spring\mods"
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO XTA has successfully been downloaded and installed!
ECHO ................................................................................
pause
GOTO MENU

:S44
wget -N http://springinfo.info/moddownloads/S44Lyuban_v106.sdz -P "%userprofile%\My Documents\My Games\Spring\mods"
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO Spring: 1944 has successfully been downloaded and installed!
ECHO ................................................................................
pause
GOTO MENU

:KP
wget -N http://springinfo.info/moddownloads/Ker ... ic_3.6.sd7 -P "%userprofile%\My Documents\My Games\Spring\mods"
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO Kernel Panic has successfully been downloaded and installed!
ECHO ................................................................................
pause
GOTO MENU

:NOTA
wget -N http://springinfo.info/moddownloads/NOTA159.sd7 -P "%userprofile%\My Documents\My Games\Spring\mods"
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO NOTA has successfully been downloaded and installed!
ECHO ................................................................................
pause
GOTO MENU

:BA
wget -N http://springinfo.info/moddownloads/BA700.sd7 -P "%userprofile%\My Documents\My Games\Spring\mods"
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO Balanced Annihilation has successfully been downloaded and installed!
ECHO ................................................................................
pause
GOTO MENU

:EVORTS
wget -N http://springinfo.info/moddownloads/evo ... test15.sd7 -P "%userprofile%\My Documents\My Games\Spring\mods"
ECHO.
ECHO ................................................................................
ECHO Evolution RTS has successfully been downloaded and installed!
ECHO ................................................................................
pause
GOTO MENU

If it isn't obvious by now. The fact that the menu and all it's commands are updated every time the updater is run makes it dynamic. I can change the menu however I like, whenever I like and the next time it is run on the client computer it is updated. That's why I want moddevs to update the menu or inform me if they have a release, so I can get the file on the server and update the menu.

Batch scripts or no, it is a powerful system, and has yet to be outdone by any of you wizbang programmers out there yet. The only language I know is PHP. If MS all of a sudden started including apache on computers I would be in heaven, but that's not going to happen anytime in my life.

From a fellow installer-maker standpoint, I could tell you about LOCALAPPDATA and APPDATA, but I won't because I feel your "Hurr hurr", "smartass" and "protip" was rude and uncalled for and just makes me want to insult you back.

How in the heck does appdata and local appdata help find "mes documentes" or what the hell ever it is? It doesn't! So why are you going on about appdata? I've already spend over half the afternoon trying to find a solution to this, and so far no luck, which brings me to another point, if someone will find the problem in this and help me out, I'll steal a cookie from af and give it to you:

@ECHO OFF
ECHO.

for /f "tokens=1* delims=\t" %%a in ('reg query "HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" /v Personal') do @SET MYDOCPATH=%b
ECHO.

IF EXIST %MYDOCPATH%\textfile.txt (
ECHO File found!
) ELSE ECHO File not found!
ECHO.
ECHO %mydocpath%

Now, about insults and snarky comments...

Also, by:
C:\Documents and Settings\LoginName\My Documents\My Games\Spring\mods\
I believe you mean:
C:\Documents and Settings\LoginName\Mes documents\Spring\mods
Yes, not everybody is American.

Orly? And only Americans speak English as their first language? Oh wait...

That was an asshole thing to say Z. You should have known damn well what was going on.

Making an installer and then not updating it would be fail. But no, the Cursed don't have that frequent updating.

With the module updater, there isn't any reason to build another installer unless a new spring version comes out, the only thing you have to do is update the menu.

If you will notice, if you install KP, it now grabs the maps and puts them in the correct folders as well. All with nothing having to be changed in the installer. Only updating updatedefs.bat on the server.

[Forboding Angel]

Ok, I solved the problem Z. I had to do a lot of changing around, but technically this way is "better". Instead of having wget place the files, I'm having archive mover do it (the new one... the one that doesn't suck).

Also added core updating to it. Simply run the updater and your local machine will be updated with the latest.

Hope you like this way a little better. Oh and btw, I left archivemover in verbose mode, mainly because I feel that the user will feel as tho he is more informed as to what is taking place.

[AF]

It is not installing spring in program files that caused issues under vista. It was that spring under windows relied on the current directory to save and read files, which made things awkward for archive mover.

Following microsoft guidelines fixed this, hence why spring content and data is written into user land.

[Forboding Angel]

Updated to .80.4

[Forboding Angel]

Is this worth a sticky? There are plenty of mod devs around who don't know how to do this.

[Saktoth]

Is this the one that is at the top of the download page for Spring? It has a command line interface and doesnt include Spring Downloader in the install?

What happened to the old installer?

[Forboding Angel]

Long story short...

SL > SD

[Saktoth]

Old Installer > Command Prompt...

What you mean is SL took Spring Downloaders torrent system and left out the whole CA bit. Great.

Please consider this a formal request to include CA stable versions in the installer, or include the downloader as the download when you request to install CA.