Application: Game Downloader
Category: Utilities
License: GNU GPL
Language: English
Description: Game Downloader is a portable and open source download client, which interacts with a server side library for downloading numerous games.
Game Downloader Portable 3.6 Development Test 2.exe [752.0 KB download / 2.90 MB installed]
(MD5: f63b4489665ef28acad7adfc7874e4e7)
Release Notes:
Development Test 2 (2013-01-22):
- Fixed icon though it looks really small now?
- Changed Category from Internet to Utilities
- Replace the content of Launcher
Development Test 1 (2013-01-18): Initial release
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I knew this would happen no one here is willing to test my project because it uses the .net framework I have made a release for the portable apps format for this project for 2 years and have not tried to get it tested here because i thought no one would test it and i was right... All i wanted to know is if it was done correctly.
If i cant get testing for this and one of my users has an issue with the build I'm going to be forced to remove the support for portable apps from my project due to the lack of support from the portable apps community.
I try to get around to a lot of the new beta tests by unestablished developers, test them out and give some feedback. Weekends are a bad time though, it takes till sometime during the next week for me to get there.
Will have a look soon and get back to you.
Just note that this project will more than likely never make official release here (even when .NET apps are officially included) due to the fact that this app's entire purpose is to download non-portable components (the games).
Hey, quick couple of comments on the program.
First, when you try starting the program using the included launcher or via the menu, it doesn't seem to start at all. This could be because of the space in the name of the main executable. Try either putting an underscore, removing the space, or putting quotes around the name in the GameDownloaderPortable.ini file.
Second, if my other suggestion is wrong, it could be possible that it won't launch because on my Win8 test machine, it required admin rights to run. This can be easily fixed by adding RunAsAdmin as seen here.
Otherwise, I didn't get a chance to use RegShot or anything to see what it leaves behind in the registry, but if I get a chance to, I will. Cheers and good luck.
darksabre76's comments above:
Spaces in the executable name are fine, it must be an admin rights thing. I'll test on Windows 7 when I get home.
appicon.ico:
You don't need the 24, 64 or 128 pixel icons, but you should include 8-bit versions of the others. See here for more info.
launcher.ini:
Replace the content of Launcher\GameDownloaderPortable.ini with the following
This will set a custom download directory on first run (because the current default - App\GameDownloader\Downloads - will be deleted on re-install or upgrade), will handle changing drive letters and/or folders for all paths when the app is moved and tells the Launcher it is fine to move around. It also moves the Settings.cfg between where it is meant to be while running, and the Data directory otherwise it would be deleted on upgrading or re-installing.
DefaultData
You will also need to add these folders and files:
1. App\DefaultData\
2. App\DefaultData\Settings.cfg
3. App\DefaultData\Downloads\
The copy of Settings.cfg in DefaultData should have the following:
Both projects executable is portable to an extent, they check for drive letter change and other operations in settings.cfg for lines like:
DownloadPath:
StartupSoundPath:
DownloadCompleteSoundPath:
Do I still need to make the changes you suggested for it operate properly in Portable Apps?
Also, the program does require administrative privileges, so that the program can download, create directories, files, etc. but you should not need to right-click and run as admin unless you have UAC on or are a guest user.
For UAC Settings in Visual Studios I have the following:
Is there something I need to do in portable apps?
For paths, you need the following:
That will handle relative paths all the way to two directories up (where Start.exe is normally for platform users) to ensure it works on cloud drives and the like.
Regarding admin, unless the base app requires it for specific reasons like a system tool to defrag a drive or work with the registry, we don't accept apps that require admin rights for listing. The simple fact is that lots of users won't have admin rights and wouldn't expect to need them except for system utilities.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
First off Sorry for my bad spelling or if I don't make any scene
I am not that smart i was always in special education class's growing up and i dropped out of school at a vary young age
//Admin
From (msdn.microsoft) highestAvailable:
The application runs with the highest privileges the current user can obtain.
Recommended for mixed-mode applications. Plan to refractor the application in a future release.
I'll look into lowering the permissions
I just want my application to have enough permissions to run properly
I am just looking for testing and I'm not trying to get it to be officially released on portable apps that’s not what i am trying to do i just really want it to work correctly for my users that use it on portable apps
Would utilities be a better category for these apps ?
//Paths
The settings.cfg does not store the default download directory its handled by the executable
the executable always knows what directory it started from
and where all the needed folders are
and for drive letter changes it checks if they have been changed
If I putt the executable on a usb it works portable without being in portable apps
this includes the settings.cfg path directories.
If DownloadPath: needs "DEFAULTDOWNLOADDIR" what about the other lines that store paths ?
StartupSoundPath:
DownloadCompleteSoundPath:
Will my executable have issue with drive letter changes if i add those scene it already checks for drive letter changes?
I would also like to note i really appreciate the time you have taken to help me with this
I will be sure to read the documentation again so I don’t ask more stupid questions that can be just answered on there I have not read it in about 3 years so I think I need to give it a reread
in the long run if I cant get everything working right it will not be anyone here’s fault of course or a lack documentation It will be mine and I would feel like a ass for wasting the time you have spent helping me
Category:
Games or Utilities. I'm thinking more Utilities because it isn't actually a game, and users can always change it within the Platform if they want it listed elsewhere.
DEFAULTDOWNLOADDIR and other paths:
For PortableApps functionality, having the Downloads directory inside the app's directory is bad because everything inside the App\AppName directory is deleted if the user re-installs or upgrades using the PortableApps installer. Also PortableApps users expect things like this to be inside the \Data directory because most of our other apps store user settings and downloads in \Data.
Because StartupSoundPath and DownloadCompleteSoundPath are manually set by the user at a later time and are not automatically set by the base app we don't need to force them to anywhere else on first run.
Drive letter changes
You won't have issues with drive letter changes, all the changes will be made by the launcher before Game Downloader is executed, so when it is run there will be nothing left to change.
Just noticed a slight problem with mine and John's code (I assumed he copy/pasted mine, thus the error).
Anywhere that %PAL:LastPackagePartialDir% or %PAL:PackagePartialDir% appears should not have a \ preceding it.
So in John's code [FileWrite1] should be
and [FileWrite4] should be
[FileWrite2] and [FileWrite3] are fine.
See Release Notes.