updater features wanted and slight bug?

ffxiedyn · 10-17-09, 04:41 AM

ok, now that a fellow gamer was able to solve my issue with minon and its fully functional and running after 5 months of sitting on my comp...

id like to post about a few features that id love to see implemented to make this updater worth the time to use for me personally, and i am sure others would find them useful as well!

as minion stands now, there is no way to tell if the addon you currently have is a previous version then the one minion would like to install for you (or if there is, im a dummy and cannot find it, i have to manually look up the toc of my addons to figure this out)

also, i have discovered, that minion is wanting to update addons with thier version, even if the one i already have installed is a version that is newer then the minion version... O.o.. (however, this seems to be maybe a bug, and is a huge reason i do not use minion to update along with the fact that i have to maually search for the versions of my addons)

so, i have yet to use this program to update any addons, as i use curse website for addons as well, and alot of the addons i use have already been updated via curse client (which does let me know if my addon is a previous version then the one they would like to install!!) and i have found that minion still would like to update the updated addon O.o...

i am sure you can see why this feature is godly to an updater without me having to explain!! ^_^

once that feature gets implemented (or if) and i use minion to update my addons, ill post back any other features that would be lovely to have.

thanks!

forty2j · 10-17-09, 08:10 AM

There have been many threads on the issue of "downgrading", all of which boil down to the issue that Minion has absolutely no way to tell which version is "newest". It can only tell you if a version is different from another.

Take tomQuest, for example. Here's the last several revisions:
r183
3.2 pre-beta2
3.2 beta2
3.2 beta3
3.2 beta4
(and so on until)
3.2 beta 11 (note space)
3.2 beta 12
(and so on until)
3.2 beta 23
3.2 beta 25
r244

These were all released by the author as "normal" releases.. some were technically beta, but weren't posted in the "optional files" area, and at some point you needed one of the betas because r183 didn't work well with some of the UI changes.

So how can Minion know that:
r184 is before 3.2 beta2?
3.2 beta2 is before 3.2 beta 11?
3.2 beta 25 is before r244?

It... can't. The best it can do is start comparing upload dates, but even that isn't infallible if versions are uploaded to curse on different days than they are on WoWI.

So the responsibility then falls to the user - figure out which of your addons are more frequently updated on Curse, and set Minion to ignore them. Do the same in the Curse client for WowI stuff. Then run both happily.

(Or do what I do: find a WoWI replacement for all your Curse stuff

The only thing I'm running that isn't updated on WoWI now is Recount.)

ffxiedyn · 10-17-09, 08:29 AM

erm, curse client, as i stated, has a feature that lists the version you are using, and then lists the version it wants to update...

therefore you do not have to manually search for the version yourself...

this is the feature i was requesting...

thanks for the reply however

forty2j · 10-17-09, 11:43 AM

Oh, well if it just want it to show you, then it's almost there already.

The Status column should show you what you have. When you right-click on an addon and say "More Info", it takes you to that addon's page on WowI to tell you what you would be downloading. Not quite as convenient as old & new being shown next to each other or whatever, but it's far from impossible.

ffxiedyn · 10-17-09, 11:48 AM

nope, i know it shows me what im going to install, im wanting the feature to automatically see what i have installed already as well, so i can make an informed decision on which addon is the newer one O.o... (as in in my addon folder right now)

not sure how else to explain it, sorry

empiricist · 10-29-09, 11:13 AM

Given the previous discussion regarding the near impossibility of determining automatically the latest version when addon authors use inconsistent versioning methodologies, I agree that a simple side-by-side comparison of currently installed and proposed update versions would be immensely useful in deciding intelligently whether or not to "update".

I recognize that Minion has yet to emerge from beta but this issue of whether the version offered is the latest has caused me some pain. I currently perform most of my updating through the Curse client as it is extremely quick and easy to check whether Curse has a later version than is currently installed. For the addons which are more current on WoW Interface than Curse, I use Minion - but I fear that I always have to check as Minion does not always pick up the most recent version. In the early days, before I became cautious in my use of Minion, I downgraded several addons with predictable results... I know the late and hated WoWMatrix required much manual intervention by the author to ensure that such errors were quickly rectified.

A simple illustration of this issue: EventHorizon on WoWI (not available on Curse) has been discontinued and replaced by EventHorizon2. Minion still offers to update to the discontinued version, even when the later version is installed. Without a means of comparing installed and proposed versions, the Minion user is relying on a reliability that the authors of Minion understandably cannot guarantee...

This is not intended as negative criticism of the efforts of the tireless Minion authors, merely a suggestion of how to counter and contain inherent deficiencies resulting from the lack of consistent version-control standards in the addon universe.

forty2j · 11-01-09, 05:59 PM

I see what you mean now. The status = the current version, UNLESS there's an update available. .then you see the new version but can't get to the current. Agree this would be a nice change.