Community Tools Updater

What is it? Introduction…
Some of you may already know I was working on such project. It was delayed, postponed because of lack of time, it has required more analysis and conception than planned… but, today, here we are.

The Community Tools Updater is a very simple application able to check if the supported tools need to be updated/installed. If an update is needed, it downloads the new version from a depot maintained by the tool author(s) and install the newer version without asking a single question.

The main purpose is to provide to the modding community a simple method to install/update the tools they need without being forced to hunt news on all over the web and take the risk to download an outdated version (I saw this many times with Poseidon Tools). More, the risk of installing an outdated version is avoided by a simple fact: It’s the tool maker that update the depot with his work, not a random person.

You may recognize some tools made by the community veteran Mikero and some other made by me.

For users…
Usage is very simple, just download it, extract where you want and use it 
In short-term, the updater will update itself when needed, but for the moment, you just need to take a look at this topic or the depot.

It downloads the depot manifest at startup, then checks for updates. Once it’s started, you can:

  • Explore the local depot (place where all downloads are stored, including installers and zip tools)
  • Clear local depot (delete the entire depot, just to be sure to do not have unnecessary files)
  • Populate local depot (this synchronizes your local depot with the server depot)
  • Update / Install (obviously, install or update the tools that need it and are checked)


* yes, pretty basic UI for now but it’s working like a charm!

For tools developers…
For now, only Poseidon Tools and Mikero tools “packages” are included, but I’m looking for more developers to join us. If you’re interested, just let me a message here or a PM!

In the best case, your tools need an installer that can take one of the following startup parameters:

Code:

And one of the following if there are some configuration to do during the installation:

Code:

If your tool supports this kind of options but not these ones, it’s just a matter of exception, not a big deal here. By the way, if you don’t have an installer, note that NSIS does the job perfectly (used by Mikero Tools) and is very user friendly.

If you have questions

What tools are supported?

  • ArmA3p (1)
  • Rapify (1)
  • SteamToolCheck (2)
  • MoveFolder (1)
  • IsRap (1)
  • DeWss (1)
  • ExtractPbo (1)
  • DeWrp (1)
  • DeRtm (1)
  • MoveObject (1)
  • GetDePboVersion (1)
  • DePew (1)
  • DeRap (1)
  • DeTex (1)
  • LintCheckRapV (2)
  • DeP3d (1)
  • texConverters (2)
  • Poseidon Tools (*)
  • TM4 Indenter (*)
  • MakePbo (1)
  • SetVersion (1)
  • DePbo (1)
  • QueryAddons (1)
  • pboProject (1)
  • Eliteness (1)
  • ConvertWrp (1)
  • DeKey (1)
  • DeOgg (1)
  • DePac (1)

(1) Fully supported (check version, install/update)
(2) Partial support (check version, tool available in the local depot when populated)
(*) Will be supported soon (this tool is supported by the updater but the tool is not yet ready to be used with it)

How it works?
The concept is simple, the updater retrieve a XML file live generated from a depot including what is inside the depot, compares local installations and what’s in the depot, then, update if needed. Note that it can install if the tool is missing from your workstation. Advanced and curious users can have a look at the application parameters in the registry: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\bohemia interactive\Poseidon Tools\Updater”

Get the Community Tools Updater:

Note: I developed this tool to allow the modding community to get tools in the simplest way as possible, it was firstly designed for Poseidon Tools, then, Mikero tools have arrived and there are more to come!

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