I've got a new personal favorite now! MWFetcher!

I like Fetcher too .... MW mod Fetcher would be super cool IMHO

What a heck, just go for it.

Yeah, I could be happy with either MWAlchemist/Alchemy or MWFetcher. Even though the latter has me thinking of a cute little puppy walking around with an oversized bone in his mouth, it is more descriptive of the program. Either way, I think the name has been narrowed down to a couple of good ones.

Well, I think if we're all in consensus (burn the white smoke), MW (mod) Fetcher can be used.
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22MW+mod+fetcher%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3a%6ffficial&client=firefox-a. I'll get working on putting together a SF project page, and we can start an official WIPz thread.

Especially since I have a better concept for MW mod Alchemist.


Before that, though, here's a little thing. It should work, at least to view a local XML database, and is a good glimpse at the user interface. I can't guarantee things won't change in the future, and the archive is a bit messy. There should be few to no attempts at internet access (I'm still going through to make sure all possible ones are captured by my settings check code), but if there are, try going into options and unchecking the internet box. Obviously this is an early prototype (I think I actually left some turn-off code for the 10th, UTC, part of a plot to release a prototype a few days ago, before the change from MySQL to XML).
Anyway: http://www.mediafire.com/?bmlnthm5hoz
Full source included, as well as all necessary extra assemblies (I think). Project files are from M$ C# 2010 beta 2.

It seems to me that an agreement has finally accomplish here, a least about the name though.

@peachykeen: You can for now on decide what steps should be made and more important what pace this project has. Good luck ! :goodjob:

Sorry about the recent disappearance, main internet comp's processor burned out and had to be replaced (with a new mobo, Phenom 2, and RAM), and XP threw its usual you-just-replaced-every-[censored]-vital-system-component-and-I-won't-run fit. That's all sorted out now, as far as I know of, so I'm back.

Over the last few days, though, I've gotten a lot done on this. It doesn't look much different, but under the surface I overhauled the database handling and search, and got it working way better. I'll get a working online demo up as soon as everything is set up server-side, but I think I've managed to set up a nice system.
It will use a daily (most likely) dump of the database (expect that to be ~5-6 megabytes, my working copy is) in XML form, with per-mod comments downloaded when you select the mod. I've gotten that all set up and working on my sandbox LAMP server, so it's nicely compatible and easy to deploy (a single script and 15 meg database, requires MySQL, PHP, and the XML writing module). I used the SQL query on the PHP-side to filter out mods with no URL (no link provided by ESSearch and no local URL stored, so essentially, nowhere to find the mod). I'm not sure if that will be an optional download or if I'll leave it out entirely, those mods are usually just a title/author placeholder with no way to actually get them. It would be possible to generate a Google search link for them.

On the server-side, a simple PHP script (or similar) run daily will pull the data from MySQL and create the XML file (I have the script written and working perfectly). The client then asks the server for that page, saves a copy to the hard-drive, and uses it as the index. It saves the last day you synced with the server, and will ask you (daily) if you want to download the latest copy. You can always manually download the index and leave all internet options disabled (you won't be able to install mods from the internet, but you will have the complete listing with links).

I reworked the client itself to not directly connect to the MySQL server, for security, instead using much simpler (in a way) and certainly faster and far more secure method. I'm considering archiving the list on the server-side, but I'm not sure whether the advantage of saving 2-3 MB of space would outweigh the work of archiving and extracting, that'll be up to Fligg (or will be discussed with him extensively).

The UI hasn't changed much, but it doesn't really need to. I tweaked the menus a little, and the layout of some things. Simplified the options window, fixed the directory validation, some other behind-the-scenes stuff.
I think I fixed most of the issues I'd noticed with LINQ and the XML, but apparently M$ is very, very, very picky about how the XML is formed, and I spent at least a day figuring out a good way to filter out all the "bad" characters. Apparently ampersands in the fields sometimes cause Internet Exploder and .Net/LINQ to complain, but not always. As well as a few other characters. The obvious simple fix is to URL-encode every (%20 and such), but somebody (and I won't name names, oui oui) decided it'd be awful funny to have some strange words in there, a few of which are of the form "&[a-z];". .Net threw another fit over those, and I ended up filtering out everything but letters, numbers, and basic punctuation, using regex_replace in the PHP while dumping the database. That finally shut it up, and I got the internet->ESSearch->SQL->PHP->XML->LINQ->your screen chain working fine, and it should hold up well in the future. A similar process (but much simplified) will be applied to the comment system, which will be passed up and down probably using POST and XML.

A second XML file will be kept with your personal comments and ratings, and will not be affected by the database version. That will basically be loaded over-top of the other.

While I was working on the XML part of stuff, I totally redid searching to how it should have been. When you now type a search term and hit the button, it will filter out the results matching your request (instead of just sorting them to the top). All other results will be hidden (search for nothing, a blank field, to show everything again). Title, author, description, category, and version are all search-able. I got advlt mod flagging working properly and color-coded, I'm implementing the filter so you can hide those...

[deep breath]
I also started a Sourceforge project.


I don't want to be the absolute teller on what happens. I'm definitely going to keep this project very open to community input and suggestions, and implement everything possible and useful. I wouldn't have thought of this on my own, and actually pulling it off would be difficult without some of the suggestions and help put forward so far.
Not everyone will be pleased, but there's really nothing that can be done to guarantee 100%, so I'll do the most I can.

Well, I'm happy with the results so far and, since I'm the one who made the request, that's all that counts. Right? Obviously I'm kidding. Its nice to see you making such excellent progress on this while tweaking the programs performance on the way to the finish line.

Sorry to hear about your computer, but at least you got a new mobo, etc out of the deal. I've been praying for my desktop to die so that I could get a new one. Its older than my daughter (who will be 11 this year). But the wife insists it has to die of natural causes, and I can't seem to convince her a sledgehammer striking it repeatedly is a natural event. I'm just glad to hear that the following phrase was not also attached to your message: "Unfortunately, I lost everything I was working on." Keep up the great work. And if I haven't said it before, thanks for taking up this challenge. Also, thanks to Fliggerty for allowing you to use his server to host this. I love this community.

I agree with you Skinjack, peachykeen does an exellent job.

Just thought I'd bump this to see how things are going. I don't think I missed a WIPZ Fetcher thread, so I'm assuming this is still active.

Me too !

Sorry, no WIPz thread yet. Didn't figure there was any point opening one before I had something working, and was fixing up some back-end stuff with Fligg. I think that's handled, I just have to make sure the DB is fully uploaded and then put some stuff on the server and test that. Haven't been posting much, when the mobo fried the RAID array died and XP had to be reinstalled, and this isn't my system so I had to wait for that to be done (I swear, I should be sysadmin around this place, but anyway).

I've gotten rating and comments (at least coming down, no way to post them) implemented. I've got everything generated server-side in a pretty efficient way, basically dumping the DB to XML every so often, with the program downloading a new copy every 24 hours (thinking of setting an option to have it at 6/12/24, but I'm not sure). Comments will lag a little, because of that, but I don't know whether it's more important to have them up-to-date or not. Maybe having comments update hourly. Of course, they're really not the main thing here, so that's just a side issue. I've worked up a few simple ACP pages for it, not secure at the moment, but functional for my testing db.

Basically as soon as I get a copy tested to work with the server (and get things setup server-side), I'll start a WIP thread with a demo. Hopefully that'll be soon.

Sounds like progress is being made. Excellent! (said in my best Montgomery Burns voice). I really appreciate all the work you've put into this. Looking forward to the WIPZ.

I always checking this thread on regulary basis. We could make a bet you and me Skinjack, who is first to discover the WIPZ-thread ? Just for fun !

I have the database partially uploaded to the server. To make it usable, however, I need an ACP of some kind, and that's taking forms and PHP. I have one mocked up, but it's not letting me edit the mods right now. I may just upload the DB as is and release a demo, but it won't be entirely functional.
I'm still working on this on and off between my other projects (it is not forgotten! and yes, I know those are famous last words ).

Take your time and get it done the way you envision it. I'm in no rush. Actually, I'm incredibly patient. (Until you get me behind the wheel of a car. Then I think every idiot in the world gets out on the road just to tick me off.)