State of addon managers

[hoho]

Hi there

I'm here to ask what is the state of wow addon managers. Reason why I ask is that the only existing manager that worked for Linux was banned from those two sites and now I'm pretty much forced to spend hours to keep my stuff updated. I'd like to use an application that can use several sites and would work under Linux.

I know there is Curse Client but it has major problems with OSX and it doesn't work under Linux at all. I also know of the pre-alpha wowinterface made client that should work on pretty much anything but I think it will only work for addons hosted on wowinterface. What I'd like is a manager that would be capable of unifying multiple addon hosting sites while working on all major OS'es.

So, can someone tell me if there is any work being done on multi-site addon manager? Because if not then I'd start writing my own. If needed I could also help others with developing their manager but only if it is working on all platforms that Wow works on (basically Windows, OSX and Linux) and that can use several sites.

I could probably write up wowmatrix-clone relatively easily but having something that would be liked by addon hosts and users would be good for all people. Seeing two sites develop separate applications is just plain wrong and waste of developers and users time in my opinion.


About me:
I've been programming for roughly 12 years or half my life, past 5-6 years professionally. I have relatively good experience writing both server and client side applications and fat-clients aswell. I should have enough experience on the field to write such an application.


This has been also cross-posted to curse forums

[Cairenn]

Originally Posted by hoho I also know of the pre-alpha wowinterface made client that should work on pretty much anything but I think it will only work for addons hosted on wowinterface. What I'd like is a manager that would be capable of unifying multiple addon hosting sites while working on all major OS'es.

Had you read the thread about our new one that is in Alpha, you would have seen this post (it's only the third one in, not like you have to go digging through multiple pages to find it. )

Originally Posted by Shirik As a teaser I can probably let you in on a few secrets: OSGi Interface - The MMOUI Manager now interacts with a framework known as OSGi. This allows ANYONE to write modules for the application so that it can connect to other sites, add in new unpacking utilities (such as if someone wanted to write something to unpack 7zip, for example), etc. The possibilities are endless. Multi-Game Tracking - As a side effect of being able to link any site to the MMOUI Manager, the MMOUI Manager is now capable of tracking and updating multiple games in a single pass. News Features - A panel is added which allows for the display of news information (such as what you are reading now). This interfaces with OSGi so that anyone can link the MMOUI Manager to any site. Automatic Updates - The MMOUI Manager now checks an update script to allow for automatic updating of the core and any supported modules Improved Addon Heuristics - The MMOUI Manager has advanced heuristics now in place which automatically detects the ID of any addon to update. This eliminates the need for users to manually type in the ID of any addon not in their favorites list (which was required previously). It also eliminates the need to log in to access your favorites list. This is not an all-inclusive list and just was what I can think of right now off the top of my head, but I hope it lets you get an idea of what to expect in the new version. -- Shirik

[Torhal]

Was that just a blanket statement or have you actually tried? I'm using the Curse Client without any trouble at all under Wine in Linux.

[hoho]

Ah, good to know. That's exactly the kind of information I was looking Sorry for not doing enough research before posting.

# OSGi Interface - The MMOUI Manager now interacts with a framework known as OSGi. This allows ANYONE to write modules for the application so that it can connect to other sites, add in new unpacking utilities (such as if someone wanted to write something to unpack 7zip, for example), etc. The possibilities are endless.

So technically there is support for supporting other sites but has there actually been any dialog with Curse and other sites about supporting them? How is "leeching of data" that wowmatrix was accused of being handled?

If those questions should be asked in the addon development thread then I apologize but I feel like it won't hurt to get a bit more attention to the subject considering all the buzz that was created after banning WM.

[edit]

Originally Posted by Torhal Was that just a blanket statement or have you actually tried? I'm using the Curse Client without any trouble at all under Wine in Linux.

I haven't yet tried it but I will surely do it tonight. Though it would be nice to not have to rely on several different and potentially conflicting addon managers as my addons are downloaded from different sites.

[Cairenn]

The other sites are aware of our project and if they wish to write plugins for it we've made it really easy for them to do so.

We won't be leeching bandwidth because if you are using a module for their site, it will be their news, downloads, ads, etc that you will be seeing.

[hoho]

Originally Posted by Cairenn The other sites are aware of our project and if they wish to write plugins for it we've made it really easy for them to do so.

I'm sure they are aware of it but has any shown any kind of interest in doing so? Having a support and having people actually writing the plugins is two different things.

Originally Posted by Cairenn We won't be leeching bandwidth because if you are using a module for their site, it will be their news, downloads, ads, etc that you will be seeing.

Good to know, I just hope that module is smart enough when deciding what site adds to display when you have N+1 sites supported

[hoho]

I just tried Curse Client with Wine and it didn't work, it crashed right after login. It might be because of Wine as I've heard it can have problems with >4G ram and 64bit OS'es, I have both :-P

[Torhal]

Originally Posted by hoho I just tried Curse Client with Wine and it didn't work, it crashed right after login. It might be because of Wine as I've heard it can have problems with >4G ram and 64bit OS'es, I have both :-P

I have both as well, and it runs fine using Wine 1.1.19 from WineHQ. Did you try running it again after it crashed? Did you use the top program to see if it was a zombie process, and kill it?

[hoho]

Originally Posted by Torhal I have both as well, and it runs fine using Wine 1.1.19 from WineHQ. Did you try running it again after it crashed? Did you use the top program to see if it was a zombie process, and kill it?

Yes, I used the latest version of Wine and I did kill all zombie processes after every crash. I tried several times and it crashed every single time. If I remember and if anyone cares I can put the error messages up here.

Do you use 64bit Linux? Do you have >4G ram? I know Wine is having a bit of a problem when those two are combined. Wow works decently fine but even that can occasionally crash during zoning.

[Torhal]

Originally Posted by hoho Do you use 64bit Linux? Do you have >4G ram? I know Wine is having a bit of a problem when those two are combined.

Yes to both. And Wine doesn't have a problem with the combination - sometimes WoW itself can, for various reasons on various machines, and nder those circumstances limiting the amount of RAM the OS sees to 3GB can help alleviate the issue.

[tinyu]

wouldnt have this issue if you used Windows LOL... sorry had to say it :P

[Torhal]

You're right...just a plethora of different issues.