Wootbit Client - downloads and auto-installs mods from wowinterface.com

[Wootbit]

I just released my new WoW addon manager, Wootbit Client, today at http://www.wootbit.com/. It has an embedded web browser so you can browse wowinterface.com, when you click a download link it automatically recognizes it and installs it into your WoW installation without any of that manual unzipping or copying. It should make wowinterface even more convenient. Because it uses a web browser you are still directly using and supporting wowinterface when you use the tool.

Hope you find it useful. I certainly find wowinterface useful and I tested Wootbit Client extensively with wowinterface. If you have any questions/comments/feedback please feel free to let me know here or on fb/twitter.

We also posted the download on wowinterface.com itself here

[Phanx]

I haven't actually tried the app (and probably won't, as I already get free Curse Premium as an addon author and I don't use many addons that can't be updated through the Curse Client) but based on your screenshots I have a few suggestions for the addon management list:

(1) Add a way to quickly visit an addon's website. A button up there with Browse, Refresh, and Delete would work for this.

(2) Increase the font size, or at least increase the padding (whitespace). People with poor vision and/or high screen resolutions will likely find the current small size and lack of whitespace between text and borders rather eye-straining. The best solution would be to use the system text size setting (Control Panel > Display > "Make it easier to read what's on the screen") and the system font setting (Control Panel > Personalization > Window Color and Appearance > "Advanced appearance settings") with a generous amount of padding, but I don't know what GUI framework you're using or whether it supports using the system settings.

I'm also not really clear on how useful this whole thing is... does it recognize when updates are available for the user's installed addons are? I don't see anything in the screenshots indicating that. Without that feature, it seems like you've put in a lot of work just to spare the user from having to look directly at their AddOns folder or learn how to extract a ZIP file. Am I missing something?

[Wootbit]

Hi Phanx,

You're right, the tool doesn't detect when an addon is out of date (yet). That's the next feature on the list though! We're targeting the 0.2-alpha release to switch on our web service which is still under development. This is an alpha release, so the tool is not finished yet. I thought this release might still be valuable though because it makes it really quick and convenient to install addons in one click. It might be helpful for people installing WoW addons for the first time.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[Phanx]

Originally Posted by Wootbit It might be helpful for people installing WoW addons for the first time.

That's true, but people installing WoW addons for the first time are probably barely aware that the Curse Client exists, let alone that your new alpha-version app exists.

[Cairenn]

That doesn't, however, mean that you shouldn't continue the project if you want to.

[Phanx]

Obviously.

My point was more that rather than focusing on/highlighting features for newbies at this stage in the project, it would probably make more sense to focus on features that will appeal to advanced users, since they're the ones who are more likely to find out about a new "universal" addon updater and be willing to try it out.