Our UI Manager

[anseloth]

thank you very much!!

[Spectro]

I'm getting a lot of errors with the old updater now. I think it's broken. I guess I just have to wait for the new one..

[Shirik]

There are only 2 real "big things" holding back the updater right now:

(1) An os-independent installer needs to be created for it as its installation is non-trivial
(2) Its automatic updating (that is, downloading updates for itself) capabilities are slightly touchy right now, and I want to solidify it a bit before a beta is released.

Assuming these two things go well, there shouldn't be a much longer wait.

[Spectro]

Originally Posted by Shirik There are only 2 real "big things" holding back the updater right now: (1) An os-independent installer needs to be created for it as its installation is non-trivial (2) Its automatic updating (that is, downloading updates for itself) capabilities are slightly touchy right now, and I want to solidify it a bit before a beta is released. Assuming these two things go well, there shouldn't be a much longer wait.

Sounds good.

On another note.. I'm new here, and I found it quite hard to find this thread. It should be more visible.

[Seerah]

It is posted on our front page (every thread in this "News" forum gets put there), but got bumped down from more recent News posts.

edit: This thread is also linked from the Updater's download page.

[Spectro]

I guess I expected the actual updater to be advertised a little more like Curse's. It is the official updater of the site, after all.. isn't it?

[Cairenn]

And when the new one is ready, it will be.

[jonathon]

Originally Posted by Shirik There are only 2 real "big things" holding back the updater right now: (1) An os-independent installer needs to be created for it as its installation is non-trivial (2) Its automatic updating (that is, downloading updates for itself) capabilities are slightly touchy right now, and I want to solidify it a bit before a beta is released. Assuming these two things go well, there shouldn't be a much longer wait.

Sounds good Shirik, take your time, I would rather get quality then quantity... and you guys do quality very well.

Thanks

[Seerah]

Originally Posted by Cairenn And when the new one is ready, it will be.

^^^ And the info block for it on the front page will go back up, too.

[Tarvonie]

WOW, I used the old updater when I was playing WoW a few months ago and it was the greatest. Can't wait for the new one to be ready, I'm really looking forward to it.

[Fellrond]

Wow! This sounds great. But what about Linux-сompatibility in new client? Will it be compiled binary, or it will be code with interpretator as java or python? What about open sources?

[Seerah]

It will work on Linux.

[Limb0]

Is the new UI Manager going to datamine our characters similar to the way Curse's does?

[Zyonin]

Originally Posted by Limb0 Is the new UI Manager going to datamine our characters similar to the way Curse's does?

Why should it? WoWInterface is not an all-one-site like Curse. Yes, both WoWHead and Thottbot are part of the Zam network however they have their own data scrapers that YOU the user have to install yourself. I seriously doubt that WoWInterface and the Zam network would ever try to force anything down a user's throat.

Anyway, regarding the Curse Client, at last check (a few alpha builds ago) a user had to enable the ability for the Curse Client to data scrape/mine. Kaelten (the current CC dev) listens to ALL of the feedback regarding CC (I know I have my say) and CC has changed quite a bit as a result.

[Shirik]

Uh.... no, I'm not going to be adding anything to datamine your character.

Why does the curse client do this anyway?

That being said, the end goal is that new and creative modules can be created to extend the functionality of this program. It is theoretically possible to make a module that will automatically pull, say, Gatherer node locations and sync them with a site. This, however, will not be done by me. It will also probably require some work with the security manager integrated into the core.

Having said that, I'm always looking for people to discuss (a) testing of modularity, (b) review of module development documentation, and (c) possible extensions to the module API. This is one section that has ONLY been looked at by me, as none of the alpha testers have both the time and knowledge to be able to think about these sorts of things. If you have a creative idea on what might be possible, I'd like to discuss it to see if things would work well.

EDIT: To address the other questions, we have alpha testers from Windows, Mac OS, and Linux all reviewing the software right now. Additionally, there will only be a single release for all three OSes, as an OS-independent installer application, which will identify OS, architecture, and JVM version to obtain the correct release for you, painlessly.

[Zyonin]

Originally Posted by Shirik Uh.... no, I'm not going to be adding anything to datamine your character. Why does the curse client do this anyway?

Curse has their own database sites (WoWDB for WoW, WarDB for Warhammer) and can produce character profiles. However as I said before, the Curse Client has went from automatically installing their data scraping AddOn to asking the user whether or not the user wishes to use this feature. Early beta builds of the new Curse Client installed the data scraper by default. However this behaviour was changed in later builds as a result of much feedback from the WoWAce/CurseForge community. Kaelten (the Big Kahuna) over at WoWAce has taken over development (quite some time ago acutally) of the Curse Client and he listens to feedback from the user base. Thus CC has changed a lot from the first beta builds and it acutally works quite nicely.

The problem is, many users tried the first few beta releases and have since judged the entire CC project from those early (and quite crappy) beta builds. Those users have not tried any of the latest releases of CC.

To users of any software product: Your software is only as good as the feedback you give to the developer(s). This is particularly true of any alpha/beta builds. Use the software, note any bugs, plus both what you like and don't like about the software. Then submit that feedback to the developer(s). Be complete, things like "it sucks", does not help the developer(s). If the project is using any of kind of bug tracking software (it should be) then use that software to submit your bug reports. Likewise submit usability feedback via that project's forums [or through other means stated by the developer(s)].

[Limb0]

Originally Posted by Shirik Uh.... no, I'm not going to be adding anything to datamine your character.

Excellent, I was just weary of this, the same way I get when a spider starts crawling towards me... what is that little guy up to?

Originally Posted by Lykofos ...However as I said before, the Curse Client has went from automatically installing their data scraping AddOn to asking the user whether or not the user wishes to use this feature. Early beta builds of the new Curse Client installed the data scraper by default. However this behaviour was changed in later builds as a result of much feedback from the WoWAce/CurseForge community...

I didn't mean to imply that the Curse Client was bad. I just didn't like the datamining part of it which is not described as optional unless apparently, you download it..

Originally Posted by Curse.com The client collects game data and submits is to our database sites

Originally Posted by Curse.com Your character information and statistics will be uploaded to the database sites as well

Originally Posted by Curse.com Information Collected by the Client * Item statistics * NPC information o Mob health, location, drop rates, etc. o Questgivers, item vendors, trainers, etc. * Quest information, starting and end points, objectives, rewards * Maps, zones, and locations * Character profiles and statistics

A few years ago I was heavily Ace Addon based and I used the Ace Updater. This seems to have been replaced with the Curse Client but the Ace Updater didn't collect info, at least not that I was aware of in this manner. Cheers

[Zyonin]

Originally Posted by Limb0 I didn't mean to imply that the Curse Client was bad. I just didn't like the datamining part of it which is not described as optional unless apparently, you download it..

Yes, the Curse Client will data mine, if you enable it. However in order for the Curse Client to actually scrape that data, it needs to download and install a WoW AddOn. However the installer will ask before it actually installs the AddOn. I use CC, yet the only AddOns CC has installed are the ones I have asked to install.

[tonsusbron]

Originally Posted by Shirik There are only 2 real "big things" holding back the updater right now: (1) An os-independent installer needs to be created for it as its installation is non-trivial (2) Its automatic updating (that is, downloading updates for itself) capabilities are slightly touchy right now, and I want to solidify it a bit before a beta is released. Assuming these two things go well, there shouldn't be a much longer wait.

How are you doing the update. The old one already has updates for the addons. Can't you treat the update like an addon and make the program restart so that updates take effect?

[Seerah]

I doubt it, as addons get installed to a different directory and do not need to be run to get installed.