MOD Site?

Started by Grudge, August 03, 2003, 11:46:32 AM

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Ben_S

Likewise, I use boardmod most of the time for the reason Sliff said about being able to edit the mod slightly to get it to work. Just prefair to have that little bit more control, e ven though it is less convinient.
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Jack.R.Abbit™

The only problem I have with BoardMod is that, from what I hear (never used it actually), it only does entire line searches.  This makes mod writting a bit different.  I like YaBBPaks because you don't need to do entire line searches.

Haase

Well, I'll have to say that 3 or 4 of you who just posted haven't been paying close enough attention to the beginning of the thread.  Sure, you may prefer boardmod because of conflicts/incompatibility between mods, but the whole premise of this thread is that Simple Machines will be putting more effort towards a set of "SMF Approved" mods.  Part of this effort would be to ensure that all approved mods were compatible.

I still think that Package Managers's ability to parse out and run a DB update script gives it a huge advantage over boardmod, on which Joe "SMF" User is going to get confused if he has to upload a page and navigate it once and only once.  This I believe is responsible for a.) uneccesary questions like "I ran the db script a second time and got an error, is that okay" b.) users with duplicate rows in settings.php, etc.
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Big P

Quote
Part of this effort would be to ensure that all approved mods were compatible.
Not possible without various different releases for each mod. Incompatability *willl* happen. It's just a matter of time. I personally started learning Perl by trying to install Mods on the original Yabb and by coming across errors. I don't like the idiot proof way the world is turning... Damn you M$!!111
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Jack.R.Abbit™

I, for one, am fully aware of the topic of this thread  :P  But I think that had already been answered.  And yes, its being worked on.  AS far as I understand, there will be both mod formats available for download.

truecrimson

Well, it's just my opinion, but I had nothing but trouble with boardmod.  I couldn't get anything to work with it, even on a clean board, so I ended up doing all non yabbpak mods in dreamweaver code view, by hand.

As for the yabbpaks, I have never had a single problem.  I had about 5 mods on my board when I used my first yabb pak, and it worked flawlessly(Jack'sweather forecast mod).  No yabb pak ever caused me any problems.
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mattsiegman

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Big P

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mattsiegman

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old dan

I realize I'm getting into this conversation rather late but why can't boardmod files and yabbpack files be compatible? Then if someone wishes to dl the file and install it themselves then can, or use the packager. I haven't looked at the code but it can't be that hard. They are just manipulating text.

And perhaps yabbpack should now be known as smfpack?
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Joseph

Dan, the main reason is because the boardmod format doesn't have all the functionality required.  It is, unfortunately, a little limited at this point.
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Haase

Yeah, besides...  anyone who has the minimal skill required to hand install a mod knows that they can just open up a YaBBPack in a text editor.  It reads almost *exactly* like a mod file...   All you have to do is find the breakpoints between files, which are clearly marked with a bunch of unreadable gobblety gook.
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mattsiegman

the format of yabbpak files [at least, when I worked on the package manager]: stuff in parathesis is just an explanation


file|^|(path to file)|^|(length of file)|^|(file last modified [seconds since epoch])(new line [\n])
(file)


this is all output in binary mode, so chance are, some of the characters are wierd

example:

file|^|Sources/Fakefile.php|^|30|^|12343212
Hi, this is 13 characters longfile|^|package.sql|^|24|12324321
INSERT name INTO member;
-- Matt Siegman

Jack.R.Abbit™

And I made a mod (later included in the 1.5.x) that made PackMan undterstand the BoardMod tags as well.  The only problem is that sometimes BoardMod files did not give the proper path to the source files (I guess BoardMod would look for them... PackMan just assumed they were where you said).  And the db modification files were not usually compatible without a bit of tweaking.  The idea was that you could get a BoardMod package and could easily turn it into a YaBBPak.

mattsiegman

Pacman extracts them exactly where the path tells it to, relative to the directory it was running it in.

So in the above examples, they would be put in:

/path/to/yabb/Sources/Fakefile.php
/path/to/yabb/package.sql

The Pacman would extract the files, add the mod to the installed list (so it could be uninstalled by my beautiful uninstaller ;) ), and then it would run the SQL file, which had to be in a certain place.  Then it ran a PHP file.  Then it parsed the .mod file and saved the backups (the ~ files), and actually did the modding.  Then it showe the readme.

These all had to be put in a set place so the pacman knew where they were.
-- Matt Siegman

Jack.R.Abbit™

I was actually referring to the files to be modified.  I had come across some BoardMod files that did not specify that the file to be modified was in the Sources directory... so PacMan could not find them.  It should be made to look at forumroot, then Sources, to locate them rather than just choking.  It also should be able to skip a file that it can't find (noting the error of course) rather than failing the whole install.  This would make it easier to add the different languages for mods without fear that the installing party does not have that particular lang file... PacMan should just note the error and move on.  As it sits now (with YaBB SE) it throws a crazy error and aborts.  If these things have not yet been fixed in SMF, I suspect they will... assuming other provisions have not already been made to handle it differently ;)  I've not had a chance to look at that.

old dan

Ok. From what I see (read acutally) Boardmod is not as robust as the package manager. Which makes sense as Boardmod was written for the perl board.

I do know a lot of folks prefer Boardmod. It is perceived as easier to use for one thing. And if you want to argue Boardmod eou vs. package manager eou with me prepare to be ignored. That's not the issue, the issue is how to enable board updates for the most people.

Secondly, there is also the perception that the package manager is a security risk. At one time it was and, as I'm sure you're aware, that's a hard concept to overcome. And there is always the concept that letting another website write to yours is never a good thing. Again, I"m not going to argue security issues with anyone.

I think you have basically two options, make the package mananger the prefered and (only) supported method of updating SMF or write your own boardmod and offer both. I would suggest dropping the names package mananger, yabbpack, etc. and call it 'SMF update', 'module loader' or something like that. A shiny new name for a shiny new board. :D

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

btw, what would be your requirements for a new boardmod? And is there a listing for all the package manager tags, etc.?
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Jack.R.Abbit™

All good points dan.  I wasn't trying to argue :)  I was just providing some things I had discovered/done.  There are a few options that have been discussed... its still in the works.

mattsiegman

Well, at YaBB 2, we are working with Boardmod to get a mod format that is compatible.  We really want to be able to compress the data in mods, and we haven't quite been able to discuss this much recently, as everyone has been busy.
-- Matt Siegman

[Unknown]

I *still* like my xml format better.... but that's because I like xml.

-[Unknown]

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