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Cbrad24
01-29-2010, 08:51 PM
Cbrad24's Guide To:
Making Your HonMod's Auto-Updateable
<--==[ Latest Update: Fixed a bug with FTP not using BINARY mode, for those who experienced trouble. ]==-->

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Table of Contents:


Tools Required
Uploading Your Mod (Guide For @Space.com)
Uploading Your Mod: Using FTP (FTP is a faster way to upload, Your web host must support FTP)
Editing The .honmod
Updating Via The Mod Manager
Miscellaneous

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Tools Required:

So you want to make your .honmod autoupdatable huh? Well first your gonna need the right tools for the job. Basically all your gonna need is a website to host your mod. Sorry but mediafire ain't gonna work here. You need a host that has direct downloads and the file can be re-uploaded under the same link. Personally, I found the best way to do this is to create your own website. So... after 4 hours of searching for a good host that lets you upload .honmods, I found one (So you don't have too :p).

The host we are going to use today is http://www.atspace.com/. They offer everything your going to need for this with no adds or stuff like that. @Space has a max file upload size of 200kb's (Fine for most UI mods).
--> Feel free to submit a host if you have a better one.

Along with that your going to need your mod file, and the HoN Modification Manager (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=25883).

Summary:


A Web Host Account -> Recommended: http://www.atspace.com (http://www.atspace.com/)
A .honmod File (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=25883#Format)
The HoN Modification Manager (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=25883)

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Uploading Your Mod (Guide For @Space.com):

First things first. Before you can upload your mod your going to have to create your account (using http://www.atspace.com (http://www.atspace.com/) for this tutorial). If the page bugs add an exception for it in Ad Block Plus, the Firefox add-on. So up the top right click register and do just that. Next, after the registration clutter everyone hates, Your going have to create your domain. So head over Step 1 and create your domain, then head over to Step 2.

http://i45.tinypic.com/a9vjib.jpg

Once here you want to create a folder for each of your mods. Do this like so:

Select The Subdomain:
http://i49.tinypic.com/2z65flt.jpg

Create The Folder to Contain Your Mod:
Try to avoid spaces here as your just asking for codeing trouble.
http://i48.tinypic.com/1snq13.jpg

Then Select (Navigate To) The Folder & Upload 2 Files:
-Version.txt
-ModName.honmod
http://i49.tinypic.com/29w5so3.jpg

Contained in the Version.txt your going to simply put the version number (Eg: 1.0). This will be used by the HoNMod Manager to identify the current version. Remember to change this everytime you upload a new version of your mod. With it you also have to upload the new version of the .honmod (Changing the version of that to match the version.txt uploaded with it).

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Uploading Your Mod: Using FTP (FTP is a faster way to upload, Your web host must support FTP):

So you want to upload your mods like a ninja? Well this is for you. :D
Download (http://cbrad24.atspace.com/Misc/Mod_Updater.bat) this (Right click, save as) and save it somewhere for easy access when you want to upload your new version.

Ok now you've done that we need to change it to work with your website and computer. Right click this file and select "Edit". Once there you should have notepad pop up. Were just changing one line here.

TITLE Mod Updater - Made By Cbrad24
ECHO OFF
CLS
ECHO Starting Mod Updater - By Cbrad24
ECHO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ECHO Starting Upload.
ECHO ---------------------------------
FTP -s:script.txt YOUR WEBSITE HERE (E.g. cbrad24.atspace.com)
ECHO ---------------------------------
ECHO Mod Updater Complete.
PAUSE (Can remove this. This just pauses it so you can see if there were any errors.)Kinda self explanatory. This is the line your changing in red. Any problems just PM me or try a combination of website names.

After that you want to create a new text file (Script.txt) in the same folder as the batch file. This will hold the code so when you run the batch file it knows what to do. Here is the layout you want.

<Username> (Cbrad24)
<Password> (Not telling you! >=[)
ASCII (Sets the upload type to ASCII for the Version.txt's)
SEND "C:\Users\Corey\Desktop\Mods\LR.txt" "/cbrad24.atspace.com/LockRequester/Version.txt" (Must use full path or a path relative to where you ran this file. E.g. "C:\Users\...." or if you ran this on your desktop "\Mods\LR.txt")
BINARY (Sets the upload type to BINARY for the .ZIP's)
SEND "C:\Users\Corey\Desktop\Mods\LockRequester.honmod" "/cbrad24.atspace.com/LockRequester/LockRequester.honmod" (Same as above)
QUIT (Disconnects from server and allows batch to end)After that save the file (TO THE SAME FOLDER AS THE BATCH) and run the Mod_Updater.bat. It should now work. If not send me a pm or post here and I'll help you out.

That finishes the guide on FTP. I plan to add auto zipping of the files too so you can update your mod by simply editing one file and running the batch (rather then zipping, uploading to website, etc...) so keep an eye out. ;)

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Editing The .honmod:

Simply enough you only have to add 2 lines of code to your mod.xml to add this functionality.
updatecheckurl="http://cbrad24.atspace.com/LockRequester/Version.txt"
updatedownloadurl="http://cbrad24.atspace.com/LockRequester/LockRequester.honmod"

Make sure you set the version to at least 1.2!
mmversion="1.2"Obviously you have to change the link to your own domain. But if you need to find the link just click the file and copy the browser link to the file.

As for where to put these tags, they belong in with the rest of the tags in the <modification> header. So it would look like this:
<modification
application="Heroes of Newerth"
appversion="-0.1.*"
mmversion="1.2"
name="The Mod's Name"
version="1.0"
description="Insert Description"
author="Your Nickname"
weblink="http://www.yourwebsite(or forum post).com/"
updatecheckurl="http://domainname.atspace.com/ModName/Version.txt"
updatedownloadurl="http://domainname.atspace.com/ModName/ModName.honmod"
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Updating Via The Mod Manager:

There are 2 ways to update a mod in the Mod Manager.

Right Clicking The Mod:
http://i48.tinypic.com/2ebtm45.jpg

Update All Mods:
http://i47.tinypic.com/fycoow.jpg

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Miscellaneous:

If you have any questions/criticism or whatever feel free to comment. :P

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Keshoon
01-29-2010, 09:35 PM
Nice guide, hopefully we'll start seeing more users adding the auto-update feature. Another good tool to use is Dropbox, basically a file hosting, but synchronizes with a folder on your computer. Pretty neat.

MaxGhost
01-29-2010, 09:49 PM
The upcoming online repository will support auto-updating too. It's almost complete!!!

Cbrad24
01-29-2010, 11:47 PM
Nice guide, hopefully we'll start seeing more users adding the auto-update feature. Another good tool to use is Dropbox, basically a file hosting, but synchronizes with a folder on your computer. Pretty neat.
Heard lots about drop-box :p
Problem is from what I gather you need 3rd party software whereas this just uses the easy mod update function.

As for the repository, sounds pretty good. I'll add a section to this guide for it when it's done. Will it support user uploads? or will they have to be verified.

MaxGhost
01-30-2010, 12:36 AM
Both. Users can upload updates AND new mods to the repo, and a select staff group will go through these as they get added, to verify the files, to assure they're virus-free, do what's advertised, etc.

Yuichi
01-30-2010, 06:11 AM
Didnt know this was possible.
Great job on good and easy to follow guide.
Will make life easier for lots of people :)

Bearsmith
02-01-2010, 02:28 AM
Didn't even know this was possible, you bet i'll be adding this to my mods as soon as I can.

PS : Looks like that web host has a max file size limit of 200kb, which unless I'm missing something is pretty lame for any mod that does more than add lines of code.

Still, can't really expect you to find us a host :P Free and good webhosts are impossible to find.

ReDsKiN
02-01-2010, 05:43 AM
I gotta test this with mediafire..

Cbrad24
02-01-2010, 07:12 AM
Still, can't really expect you to find us a host :P Free and good webhosts are impossible to find.
Yea thats the best outa a 4 hour search. Were some larger filesizes etc but they didnt have unlimited bandwidth and all the goodies this one has.


I gotta test this with mediafire..
If you read carefully I said sites like mediafire won't work because everytime you update it, the download link changes. As well as you can't direct link.

I'm kinda surprised as to how so many didn't know of this feature but that just makes me more glad I made this guide. Should see auto-update support more now :D

Tiger0211
02-01-2010, 07:47 AM
I'd like to recommend Google Sites (http://sites.google.com/) as a free webhost. It's pretty easy to use and allows direct linking. Max file size is 20 MB. http://sites.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=96770&cbid=kwf5592xi2nc&src=cb&lev=index for full details on storage limits. There is a bandwidth limit, but they don't say what it is.
You can't just upload a file separate from everything else, you have to attach it to a page. Not that that really matters. Just saying that so you know what to do.

Warchamp7
02-01-2010, 10:24 AM
Box.net works as well

Cbrad24
02-02-2010, 02:29 AM
I'd like to recommend Google Sites (http://sites.google.com/)
Yea thats quite good but it has a certain level of complexity for newbies. I will probably add this so people who use large mods can do this but until people show more interest towards this I wont (since mainly it will take like 5 pages).


Box.net works as well
Requires the downloader to sign up. Not what were looking for if you want people to update.

Courier
02-03-2010, 10:39 AM
Yea thats quite good but it has a certain level of complexity for newbies. I will probably add this so people who use large mods can do this but until people show more interest towards this I wont (since mainly it will take like 5 pages).


How many of these newbies make mods? I don't think many newbies make honmods.

Cbrad24
02-04-2010, 01:24 AM
(since mainly it will take like 5 pages).
Btw just cuz someone can write a honmod doesn't mean there fluent at using a complex website.

ReDsKiN
02-04-2010, 02:36 AM
Google sites has a maximum filesize limit of 11mbs, and overall it isnt that hard to create a webpage and upload files using it

danewfie
04-01-2010, 02:52 PM
I just created a simple web page for developers to upload their honmods too.
http://honmods.ufpag.com/

My site benefits are:

100 meg uploads.
file version is tracked so the mods can be auto updated.
download statistics are tracked so developers know how popular their mod is.

If people like the site or want to use it ... I will develop it more. (i'm open to suggestions)

MaxGhost
04-01-2010, 05:36 PM
On your site, you're saying dropbox doesn't let you autoupdate. That's not true, it does. Nice site so far though :)

danewfie
04-01-2010, 08:26 PM
I was misled! But hopefully more people adopt the update feature.

MaxGhost
04-02-2010, 12:49 PM
Mostly all new mods do at this point, most of the ones who don't are outdated mods anyways.