Addon Serial Database

[bn880]

Since we have this Addons At Ease forum here and it doesn't get 100% attention I thought I'd post this here for BIS eyes:


We have a lot of people playing a lot of missions or trying to, where they get missing addon warnings and error messages. This is followed by them not knowing where to get the addon and which version it might be etc.

Auto Addon Server resolves this slightly, honestly not much more than that. And AAE has too many requirements to scoop up the lazy addon makers, such as myself.

Now, here is my idea; if we could have a central addon database, maintained at a single site like BIS or OFPInfo or elsewhere, where each addon, each variation of an addon, and each mod, has a unique numeric serial number or index assigned to it.

The serial number would function like a MAC address does for NIC's, no duplicates allowed ever, everyone must sign up for it at the same place.

Now, in the cfg patches section of a config, people could type in that serial number at the end of the name of the addon, so that people can write this number down, type it in to the OFPEC addon cross reference, find it, click on the link and DL the addon from a server.

This is how I think each row for each addon may look like:
<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">
&#60;index/serial&#62;, &#60;name&#62;, &#60;version&#62;, &#60;maker/team&#62; , &#60;date&#62;, &#60;released&#62;,&#60;relaced by index&#62;,&#60;DL locations&#62;
unique integer, string, string, string, date, boolean, unique integer, string&#40;s&#41;

0000001, &#34;Bn Tracers&#34;, &#34;1.24&#34;, &#34;bn880&#34;, 08/09/2005, true, 0000000, &#34;http&#58;&#92;&#92;blah blah&#34;
[/QUOTE]

^ this is all a rough draft and idea. Now, if each addon and mod has a seperate and unique serial, we can fairly easily decentralize the download locations to dozens or hundreds of servers. SQL queries can easily be run on the entries to search for addons.

I do not have any of the web server for this written, nor do I plan to work on this personally. However I think it is a valuable thing to consider, to have ONE central place to find every addon ALL the time.

The addon makers could apply for their addon serial number before they publish the addon, so that they have time to insert the serial in the cfgPatches section. Each entry in the DB would need to be administered by someone, as with most other submissions. An admin could take in a request for a serial, create the entry, and send back to the addon maker the number.

This can extend to Armed Assault, and probably as far as Game2... :-* Thoughts? Actuallty remember, when ArmA comes up a lot of addons will be repacked for the new updated engine, a great time to serialize them.



The main thing I am concerned with is that this be kept without any requirements for registration besides: author or valid team member submits their addon/mod, it is not an exact duplicate

This is not about requiring things of addon makers, for approval, this is to give them a tool to identify their addon globally, to make it easier for lazy users such as ourselves.

[bn880]

A previous discussion about this that may be relevant:

An automated Registration Site

Addon maker registering would be required to fill out a simple form

Registration Form
<span style='color:Red'>NAME:</span>
<span style='color:Blue'>VERSION:</span>
<span style='color:Red'>Previous versions avail:</span> (YES/NO)
<span style='color:Blue'>MAKERS NAME:</span>
<span style='color:Red'>EMAIL:</span> (With option to hide it)
<span style='color:Blue'>TYPE:</span> Pull down list eg (MOD / Air / Armour / Weapon / Units / Combination / Misc / Island / Objects)
<span style='color:Red'>DESCRIPTION:</span> simple text entry field
<span style='color:Blue'>LINK:</span> (Verified as a working link during registration Process)
<span style='color:Red'>FILESIZE:</span>
<span style='color:Blue'>ADDITIONAL ADDONS REQ:</span>
......................................... Serial No
......................................... Name
......................................... Version

_

something simple but time consuming enough to deter timewasters and spammers
Some form of anti spam protection, only 1 entry per IP per XXXX amount of time

Emailed Registration Number and requiring validation something on those lines


As an OFP user searching for the addon, they would log onto the site and be able to search either by

Serial Number
OFPEC tag, (which ideally would be in the addon name anyway)
Name of addon
Type

this will then pull up a simple window, with the content filled out in the registration form and the link highlighted to them



An automated link checking system, would monitor the condition of the link and inform an admin, if it went down
(A highlighted message box in the search process would inform the user that the link was down)

But as BN stated, only thing an addon maker has to do to the addon is add a serial number to the Required addons field nothing more than that, or it just simply starts to create unescessary complications

and as we all know, the more complicated it is, the more likely it is to fail



<span style='color:Red'>I think its a great idea,</span> and if those technically able to do such a thing, get it together, this could be running before Arma is released, which will be great for the community

a good idea, but too late i&#39;m afraid...
how would you handle already released addons which most missions rely on? would you want the addonmakers to re-release their addons with such a serial, or would you wanna assign the serials to addons ex post?
anyway, this would be a hell lot of work given the sheer number of addons. and what about the addonmakers that have disappeared - or are out of reach for the english-speaking community?

if realized right from the start then it&#39;s a good idea for ArmA i think; in close cooperation with BIS preferably.

Its never too late
From the outset of the OFP Release, of course it would have been better, however thats hindsight.
A good addon making tutorial would have also been welcomed, but that didnt happen either

I am sure that when the OFPEC tag system entered its initial discussion phase, the same was said

just because previously made addons may not be upgraded by their makers to utilise any such system, does not detract from the fact that overall it would be a worthwhile system

And better a system like this too late, than never at all

The OFP community still flourishes, even in OFP1&#39;s twighlight days, and it will continue to grow, so please dont think about the past, think about the next 5 years and the hundreds more addons that will be created that could utilise such a system


<span style='color:Red'>MANPOWER REQUIREMENTS</span>
For the web based scripting system, i have no idea, but from a registration point of view, nothing more than a minute or so, and to add the serial to the addon config, even less

Once the system was incorporated, it would i imagine be fairly easy tro manage, as most of it will be automated


<span style='color:Blue'>ARMA RELEASE</span>

I would also expect, that when Arma is released, that a lot of existing addons may be upgraded to utilise any new entries in the comref or new engine attributes

so preparing such a system in advance would be a very sensible approach

[Jinef]

Bravo&#33; Encore Encore&#33;

Darling you are so talented.

I want your baby&#33;

[bn880]

Damned weirdos&#33;




Nothing to add to the topic?&#33;

[Spinor]

An absolute dream (for AA etc.) would be if this unique addon identifier is included in the mission file, and missing addons can be automatically downloaded from the BIS server.

[bn880]

Well yes, the plan is for the identifier to exist in the mission file, as it will be appended to the current cfgPatches of the addon, such as:

addOnsAuto[]= {
"bn_tracers_<serial>",
"finmod_<serial>",
"coc_ce_<serial>"}

(as an example)

But for this to be automatically linked inside AA to a download location would be amazing indeed. I figure only the lookup database has to be centralized and administered at BIS, the actual download space can be decentralized and offloaded.

[blackdog~]

If someone else does all the work I&#39;ll host it and gladly take all credit for the idea.

[tug2000]

Funny you should say about this. I&#39;ve previously posted about a similar idea. And have started the programming work in C#.

But mine does not use anything in the config file for the reference instead using a MD5 hash of the addon.

Also, this means existing addons can be ported into the system.

The GUI would have the ability to auto-download updates, could detect missing addons and download.

Planning on making this modular to allow support lots of different games.

Any thoughts?

[bn880]

Well I don&#39;t know exactly about your idea as it&#39;s really a similar way to solve something different?

What I am aiming for here is for the user to know 100% which addon he/she needs to get when they get a missing addon message (currently it&#39;s not that easy). This by the unique serial number in cfgPatches, and it requires no additional software to be run. With an MDS, I am unsure as to how the user will know what they require. However, I am not saying your project is a bad idea nor am I trying to deterr you from working on it.

I would be happy if BIS could pick up on the idea of 100% addon identity match via mission.sqm, and a download/info database which is linked to that via AA GUI.

[CrashDome]

Sounds like a super idea. Glad people are thinking of the add-on issue.

Just want to get your gears grinding:

1) What if an author (or someone) makes a change to an add-on?

If it is enough to break a mission how will you know? In the case of MD5, what if the change is a simply a small bug fix like text change or something that doesn&#39;t affect anything? won&#39;t the hash change?

Sounds like we would need a team in place to control either when a serial number should change or if it&#39;s truly a new version of an add-on.

In that event, who and what if it gets difficult?

2) What if a mission uses only a single unit or weapon? Is it still required to download the whole add-on pack?

IMO, the whole concept of add-ons should be re-thought. Why must we pack everything together as we have? We should be further breaking down add-ons and making them multiple files (one for sound, one for each weapon, etc..) and simply have a way to organize them better.

If that were the case, could we not pack most of this into the mission directly??? Most people will download 200mb of add-ons for the hell of it. Having the ability to (as an option) compile the add-ons directly into the mission (or as I would like - mission packs part-by-part or unit-by-unit would increase mission size (e.g. 5-10mb) but for most people this is chump-change compared to the amount of add-ons downloaded w/o missions. Sure you may double up some add-ons but I have so much space from regular un-used add-ons that if I just downloaded the missions I liked, I would save most of my HD actually. It also solves when we get the JIP feature. I Imagine trying to JIP w/o the proper add-ons is going to be the next big disappointment for most. Compiled into the missions solves that (Just an idea)