Total Updater 0.8.6.9 - Total Commander & plugin updater

[petermad]

rewrote wincmd.ini path catcher routine (now it should handle the most special cases too)

It still can't handle the situation where the plugins are redirected to fx. plugins.ini and there also is a copy of plugins.ini in TotalUpdaters own program folder.

Why should the prescence of a plugins.ini file in TotalUpdaters own program folder make it fail, when Totalupdater otherwise has no problems using the plugins.ini in the %COMMANDER_INI% path.

[iana]

hi Bluestar a question/idea
is it possible to dump the entire Total Updater Database to a csv or xls file, you've compiled quite the information and having that info might help us users find a particular plugin.

[Bluestar]

I open TU and see, that status of all items - "OK"...
IMHO, status "OK/Exist update" must be only after check for updates, but not on start TU...
On start TU, status of list items must be "Unknown"

I see your point, I had been thinking on that for a while earlier...

Actually theres two kind of logics:
a) [the actual behaviour] On start, we assume that the actual user always (tries to) keep updating his/her stuffs on the PC, so everything is *possibly* the latest version (who knows, maybe it really is the case). Also the initial "OK." is a state that everything is fine with the actual plugin, so its version information is successfully retrieved using any method (see the case when there are plugins without verinfo in the list, no "OK." can be seen there [Configuration/Autohide... unchecked]). It also gives the user the "feeling" that the software is already doing something which is "good" (besides this, the green also goes well with the design lol).
b) On start - as we know nothing about updates - we could really show a note "Unknown" or "-", but for the end-user it could mean several things: what is unknown? The plugin in the list is unknown for the software, so its latest version can't be detected? Or something went wrong with it, thats why it states it... ? It gives the "feeling" that something is just faulty, if you know what I mean. Though I really see the point, in reality we know nothing about a plugin after start (in the future I could save the latest state though & load it on start, so TO could display the note according to the infos in the saved file, but its not the case yet).

I'm curious what others think about it - should I change the initial "OK." note to "-" or "Unknown", or leave it just as it is now?

Btw same after checking: what if we just can't find a given plugin in the online database? The utility currently then states that it is "OK." (and represents online version as "-" in the list), cause no information is available regarding the actual item. I did check one of the most-known software updater (SUMo), and it does exactly the same in such cases (assume & shows its OK when no new version / no online version can be found).

@petermad: Problem found, one single line of 'poorly' written code.

Code: Select all

If (FileExists(pluginPath_Pck)=False) AND (FileExists(ExtractFilePath(tcIniPath)+pluginPath_Pck)=True) then pluginPath_Pck := ExtractFilePath(PlugLoadPath) + pluginPath_Pck;

(if file doesn't exists in the packer plugin's dir (which is in your case "", so the current directory - and it did exist there! - so the second "AND" condition wasn't checked, thus the real path in such cases hasn't been set)

changed to ->

Code: Select all

If (ExcludeTrailingPathDelimiter(ExtractFilePath(pluginPath_Pck)) = '') AND (FileExists(ExtractFilePath(tcIniPath)+pluginPath_Pck)=True) then pluginPath_Pck := ExtractFilePath(PlugLoadPath) + pluginPath_Pck;

@iana: Hi,
I'm not exactly sure what you mean. If you'd like to save the current list of plugins, you can press Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C, and then you can paste the informations anywhere. In case you meant the precisely collected data that can be found in the Internal Plugin Database (IPD) [and i guess you did], I don't really plan to let the users export its data - what would it be good for?
Could you please describe me a scenario when the exported data could be useful / handy for an user?

[EricB]

I'm curious what others think about it - should I change the initial "OK." note to "-" or "Unknown", or leave it just as it is now?

Btw same after checking: what if we just can't find a given plugin in the online database? The utility currently then states that it is "OK." (and represents online version as "-" in the list), cause no information is available regarding the actual item. I did check one of the most-known software updater (SUMo), and it does exactly the same in such cases (assume & shows its OK when no new version / no online version can be found).

I had the same train of thought as Tichij. Personally, I like to see something happening in software for every line that is shown. Think of it as an extra progress bar.
Therefore when you press Search for updates, I would like to see the status change from - / Unknown to OK / Update available / NA (for items not in database) / [Other status needed].

First of all, you see "action" for every available line. Moreover, more specified statuses make the action you can take after search more clear. OK would just mean you have either latest or even newer version. N/A would mean the archive is not available at totalcmd.net, but maybe somewhere else.

Regards, EricB

[Gerby]

About the OKs, I would like to throw two ideas into the round.

One thing would be to let the column initially empty instead of showing OK. The OK implies that something already has happened referring to the meaning of the header "Update / Note" of that column. This isn't the case at program start.

So another solution could be to just rename that column to "Status". This makes it more flexible. In this case the OK would mean that the status of the plugin is OK. If I understand you right, Bluestar, this is your intention, isn't it?

[Sir_SiLvA]

FIRST: nice programm

But

- At the start of the Programm ist working (yeah i know its checking what tools/plugins etc are there) WITHOUT saying so ANYWHERE on the tool....
- Why do you check for Tools like Aimp (wich gets shown 4! times on the list (AIMP3.exe, AIMP3lib.exe, AIMP3ac.exe, AIMP3ate.exe and firefox ie is even worse...)
- Why the heck cant I resize the update windows? (bad coding imho...)
- Why do you use tab-headers (id, name, progress, etc) but dont allow sorting after clicking on them (ie so one can check at once wich things failed to update with word error)
- Error ist very INFORMATIV - like calling into mercedes and telling them your car dont start and they should fix it but you wont give them any more infos about the car...
- I dont find the option of deleting the zip files after the update has been made

WISH:
Insead of using DEU/ENG/etc i would wish for a list of small country-flags

Keep up the good work!

MISSING: a button to uncheck all check boxes at once...

PS: BIGGEST FLAW - after updating the list doesnt get UPDATED and you have to RESTART to get a new list... plugins just updated claim there is still an update...

PS2: nope even after restarting i get the same plugins I just downloaded/updated as there is a new version marked....

PS3: and the update checking is not realy working i fear
ies:
-> Audioinfo (audioinfo.wdx)
my system: 1.4.0.0 - totalcmd.net: 1.4.3 get shown as just ok instead of new version avail
-> UltraTC Editors
my system: 6.1.0 - totalcmd.net: 6.10 get shown as just ok instead of new version avail
-> Torrent.wdx
my system: 1.0.0.0 - totalcmd.net: 1.3 get shown as just ok instead of new version avail

really strange im not gonna test it any further at this point as for example it says TC Plugin Manager is 2.0.0.0 (wich is in reality 2.4) and the one on server is 2.6a (wich is in reality 2.7) and downloads the zip file but doesnt install it???

PS4: okay my flaw i didnt saw "Unpacking & the installation of the downloaded plugins is not yet ready" on tcmd.net but without that crucial function its not better as http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/versions.html

[Bluestar]

@EricB & Gerby: Seems reasonable - in the next versions the current behaviour is surely going to change.

I've uploaded an updated language file to the server, with added extra line "Unknown" - so this can be used in the future for TU to show on startup for each plugins (and maybe even after detection for the ones without online version info). Gerby, you are correct, my intention was to show the plugins status after startup, thats why the field is called "Update / Note" and not just "Update" (could be renamed even though theres not a big difference between them, but then it would need to be retranslated by every lng author).

@Sir_SiLvA:
Thanks, glad you like it (Or not? Can't really decide based on your comment...).

First of all, the software is working using much more complex methods than you would think so. If you have concerns, please read my previous post which basicly explains how does it manages to do its tasks to deal with the different version numbering per plugin (yes, in most cases a local version format differs from an online version format even for the same plugin AND same version - in many cases 1.0.1 = 1.1 [same hash], etc...).

To understand its whole concept, its needed for you to know that basically what TU is trying to do is nearly an impossible task - yet I'm trying to bring out the most from it.

To react to each of your remarks:

- At the start of the Programm ist working (yeah i know its checking what tools/plugins etc are there) WITHOUT saying so ANYWHERE on the tool....

Sorry, I have absolutely no clue about that first point, don't know what exactly do you mean / have problem with...

- Why do you check for Tools like Aimp (wich gets shown 4! times on the list (AIMP3.exe, AIMP3lib.exe, AIMP3ac.exe, AIMP3ate.exe and firefox ie is even worse...)

Why would you put such tools in your Total Commander folder? Cause Total Updater checks TC's default folder, and searches for addons & utilities inside this <-- this is optional though, you can just switch to Configuration tab, and check the "Do not automatically recognize & load external addons & utilites to the list", then press Ctrl + R, and problem solved. Or another option: you can simply select the the unwanted items (by marking them / holding down ctrl/shift + mouse click), then right click in the list and choose "Exclude from list" -> "File" (or "All marked items, if you ticked them").

- Why the heck cant I resize the update windows? (bad coding imho...)

Cause its not yet implemented, the main form is resizable though. I'm developing the utility in my own spare-time for free, and just can't focus on everything at once. There are much more important tasks than "everything being resizable" imho - of course its a nice feature too, but seriously, you are calling it a problem, and shouting "bad coding" because of such things... ?

- Why do you use tab-headers (id, name, progress, etc) but dont allow sorting after clicking on them (ie so one can check at once wich things failed to update with word error)

On the to-do list, it is definitely going to be implemented (just as it is for the UserDB atm, it is already sortable).

- Error ist very INFORMATIV - like calling into mercedes and telling them your car dont start and they should fix it but you wont give them any more infos about the car...

I'm going to add more error messages in the future for each problem, that just needs some more translation.

- I dont find the option of deleting the zip files after the update has been made

After a successful update there will be an option for the user to choose if he/she decides to keep / delete the downloaded & installed packages - when this feature (unpacking & updating) is going to be ready for being public.

Displaying country-flags came into my mind too, but throw the idea quickly after thinking a bit more about the exe size. Even though they are just a few kB, the main exe is growing bigger and bigger even after embedding each new language, and including such images would just make it even bigger. Dunno, maybe going to add them in the future, but first I'd like to optimize the code.

MISSING: a button to uncheck all check boxes at once

Please press right-click on the list. Marked items -> Unmark all items (or Invert marked items).

PS: BIGGEST FLAW - after updating the list doesnt get UPDATED and you have to RESTART to get a new list... plugins just updated claim there is still an update...

There is no such flaw, TU works correctly - it doesn't gets any notification on plugin update (from where would it get it from?), so currently you have to press F2 (refresh) on a given updated item to see its updated latest local version (or right click on it & "Refresh item"), or reload the list by pressing Ctrl + R / F5 & search for updates again.

PS2: nope even after restarting i get the same plugins I just downloaded/updated as there is a new version marked....

Still not Total Updater's "flaw" - I have a strong suspicion that those plugins you downloaded contains old/obsolete version informations - possibly their author just forgot to update the VersionInfo section inside the PE (w*x) file (this is the most often scenario), so the utility identifies them as an update. No problem, if you find such items -> right click on the list: Marked items -> Confirm updatable items as latest. Problem solved. (In the future the addition of these problematic items into TU's configuration file will be done automatically, so you won't find such issues at all)

PS3: and the update checking is not realy working i fear

It does work and do its job very well - at least as it is possible given the situation. Please read this post I referred to above, if you haven't done it yet.

For example:

-> UltraTC Editors
my system: 6.1.0 - totalcmd.net: 6.10 get shown as just ok instead of new version avail

Seems not to be the same, but in fact they are absolutely the same versions, and the utility can recognize it - I think that is the thing what did embarass you.

PS4: okay my flaw i didnt saw "Unpacking & the installation of the downloaded plugins is not yet ready" on tcmd.net but without that crucial function its not better as http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/versions.html

I don't know what exactly that "Versions" fs-plugin does (download link is unavailable at the time of writing this post), so if you think so, just use it instead of Total Updater (even though its last update was exactly 10 years ago, so I really doubt that it knows as much as TU, but if you say so...).

Edit: found that so-called "Versions" wfx plugin on the internet (which you claim is just as useful as TU), and just as I thought: your post is nothing more than a clear insult which you wrote by probably testing the utility for a couple of minutes, and instead of trying to figure out whats wrong / seeking for advice, just take the conclusion that "its useless" (cause that Versions wfx does absolutely nothing for me, it detects 10(!) of my installed programs [from ~150 or more softwares], and shows "unknown" for all of them - needless to say it doesn't support detection of plugins at all, so yeah... it just rocks).

[iana]

@Bluestar

@iana: Hi,
I'm not exactly sure what you mean. If you'd like to save the current list of plugins, you can press Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C, and then you can paste the informations anywhere. In case you meant the precisely collected data that can be found in the Internal Plugin Database (IPD) [and i guess you did], I don't really plan to let the users export its data - what would it be good for?
Could you please describe me a scenario when the exported data could be useful / handy for an user?

Well information for information's sake, it's not that big of a deal I thought it would be nice to have a database (or an xls file) for every plugin: it's home page an what it does, as your application seams to have collected all this data, if I double click on an installed plugin I can see it's info, I thought it would be nice to have this information for all plugins. So if I need a particular function I could search the database.
This is not an important function as totalcmd.net does this.

[Bluestar]

@iana:
Actually the only things I collected about these plugins are their Filename, ProductName, WebID (totalcmd.net IDentifier, e.g. "MK_ls"), and some other fields to identify the plugins like InternalName, OriginalFileName, and Description. Thats all, everything else is queried runtime from the online database of totalcmd.net - so when you e.g. double-click on an item, the information you see is requested directly from the server runtime, and is not saved anywhere.

@Sir_SiLvA:
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so as I missed this from my previous post to you (regarding comparing version of AudioInfo), here it is, which maybe explains everything more cleaner than I did before:

Click here for the screenshot.
(in case you disable the date compare function in TotalUpdater.ini - [Plugins] section UpdateDateCheck=False - it will be showed in the list as a [false] updatable item)

@tbeu:
Flint has modified some things regarding the server-side scripts, so from now on TU should work fine even for the previous versions. Could you please confirm it?

[petermad]

How is the feature "Comfirm updatable items as latest" supposed to work? - here it is always disabled.

It's always disabled in case there aren't any items in the list with "Update available!" note.

I still cannot understand this - all I see for ALLl my plugins and addons is OK in the Update/Note column, even when the version I have is obviously older than the online version.

For example I have both Universal Viewer 6.5.3.0 (shown as 6.0.0.0) and Universal Viewer 5.7.0.0 (shown as 5.5.0.0) and for both versions it is shown that the online version is 5.7.2.0 so at least I expect that the 5.7.0.0 version should be marked as updatable - but it is marked as OK, and the context menu item "Marked items" -> "Confirm updatable items as latest" is greyed out ???

[petermad]

I've uploaded an updated language file to the server, with added extra line "Unknown"

Accordingly updated Danish language file can be downloaded at: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/TotalUpdater0_7b7Danish.zip

[Bluestar]

I still cannot understand this - all I see for ALLl my plugins and addons is OK in the Update/Note column, even when the version I have is obviously older than the online version.

For example I have both Universal Viewer 6.5.3.0 (shown as 6.0.0.0) and Universal Viewer 5.7.0.0 (shown as 5.5.0.0) and for both versions it is shown that the online version is 5.7.2.0 so at least I expect that the 5.7.0.0 version should be marked as updatable - but it is marked as OK, and the context menu item "Marked items" -> "Confirm updatable items as latest" is greyed out ???

Please, believe me. The utility works just fine, such an 'interesting' situation occurs if the actual plugin's / addon's developer has forgotten to update the version informations inside the file, and Total Updater is still able to handle it and shows "OK." because of its extra checks (e.g. TimeDateStamp/last modification date). Please check my screenshot above. So if you see "OK." note everywhere, you can just lay back and relax, 'cause every single plugin & addon you are using is already the latest one (at least according to totalcmd.net database).

But still, here is one screenshot regarding this specific "Universal Viewer" addon (although the case is almost the same as Sir_SiLvA's AudioInfo):
Universal Viewer compare explanation (in details).

Edit: Thank you for the updated Danish language file, embedded it into the next version of the software.

[petermad]

http://s23.postimage.org/f9i84u97f/Universal_Viewer_explain.png

Hmm - in my case the size and last modification date of viewer.exe is: 2.350.592 02-06-2011 17:56
wich definitely is older than 13-6-2012 - still it is marked as OK

The fileversion info says: 5.5.0.0
The About dialog says: 5.5.6.0 (jun 2011)

I have put the viewer.exe up for download here: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/viewer5560.zip - so you can try it yourself.

Here are two other addons wich TU shows as OK even though they are way older than the online version: http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/TU-false.zip

Could it have something to do with my systems date format (dd-mm-yyyy) - I can see here http://s23.postimage.org/f9i84u97f/Universal_Viewer_explain.png that you use yyyy.mm.dd ??

[Gerby]

Another issue I'm thinking about: Right now the INI file (TotalUpdater.ini) is located in the same directory as TotalUpdater.exe. This doesn't work if you want to place Total Updater in the protected Program Files branch. (Beta 7 actually crashes; Windows shows that the program doesn't work anymore.)

Would it be an option to place the INI file separately, maybe at the same location where wincmd.ini is lying?

[Bluestar]

@petermad:
Thanks for those three files. I've just added them to my "tools" folder under Total Commander, and voila': screenshot (3 / 161 items updatable).

Checked them under XPSP3 with Danish locale settings too, and the result:
screenshot (B7 vs B8 under VirtualBox)

So indeed this seems to be the same date conversion problem under some locales which EricB just noticed me before in email, and should already be corrected in the next version. Could you please try it out by downloading the latest (pre) B8? I just sent you an e-mail.