DMD Extensions Installer

[freezy Participant]

Hey guys,

I spent some time working on an installer and automatic builds recently. If anyone happens to be on anything other than Windows 10 64-bit, a quick test would be appreciated.

The installer does the following:

• Searches for VPM and copies the DLL to the VPM folder
• Also copies DmdExt.ini to the VPM folder if not there yet, and sets the DMDDEVICE_CONFIG environment variable so it’s always found
• Searches for Pro Pinball and copies the launcher .bat file to Pro Pinball folder
• Installs dmdext.exe into the Program Files folder and adds it to the environment PATH

More info here.

Once I merge this you’ll also get automatic builds by the CI. For example, the build of the last commit can be found here (click on the platform you’re interested in and under Artifacts you’ll see the downloads, the installer is the .msi file, but a zip file with all the files gets created as well).

Any feedback welcome!

Cheers,

-freezy

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[Thalamus Moderator]

Uh. This means you will only distribute via an installer ?

Did you know that there is mobile phone app that helps to keep track of site activity ?
IOS : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vpinball-mobile-app/id1446518720?mt=8
Android :https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vpinball.app&hl=en_US

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[freezy Participant]

freezy wrote:

but a zip file with all the files gets created as well

Installer will still save you time though.

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[Thalamus Moderator]

Yeah. I understand the reason behind using a installer. Hopefully less dumb questions :) I’m just not so happy with running installers when I’m trying to find a problem. I see that you explain exactly what it does and that is always a good thing.

Did you know that there is mobile phone app that helps to keep track of site activity ?
IOS : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vpinball-mobile-app/id1446518720?mt=8
Android :https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vpinball.app&hl=en_US

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[freezy Participant]

Duh.

First, there will always be a zip file. Second, the difficulty of dmdext is not really the installation. It’s to understand and configure all the programs using it, and the installer doesn’t do that. What the installer does is save you time and encourages people to upgrade because you don’t need to re-read all the installation instructions on every upgrade, you just double click and hit next until you’re done.

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[Queniart Participant]

Re encore Merci  Thalamus pour la traduction 

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[TerryRed Moderator]

Yes…I always thought that having both an installer and a zip option for most anything is always the best option…. at least for software that is constantly updated.

We’re going through debating this for 1.4 of PinupSystem as well. Not sure about using an installer still, or only zip files, or having Popper and PuP separate,etc… For us it can be a nightmare for support because it uses so many other components that (like freezy mentions) needs to be “correctly” setup.

This biggest problem for us NOT using an installer is the files can be blocked by Windows, and people refuse to use 7zip, etc to be sure they aren’t blocked when installing or setting up PuP/Popper. An installer takes care of that problem no matter what. However with updated zips…people can still screw things up. Even with the installer they still screw up not knowing where their VPinMAME folder is, or their B2S plug-ins folder.

This is why I refuse to do Teamviewer and remote assistance. If someone can’t get it setup on their own at some point, then they will ALWAYS be asking for someone else to fix their problems. This hobby isn’t “hard”, but it won’t hold your hand.

 

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[freezy Participant]

Well, creating an installer wasn’t trivial because I’m using the WiX toolset which has a relatively high learning curve (but is super powerful). But dmdext is downloaded around 1.5k times, so if it saves everybody two minutes for every release, it’s well worth the effort.

Anyway, if anyone at all is interested in testing this, let me know.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by  freezy.

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[freezy Participant]

@terryred VPM folder is pretty easy to obtain by looking at the registry where VPinMAME.dll is registered. If you’re going with WiX here‘s how you do it. Honestly, I’ll be using the installer for my cab even though I know what it’s doing.

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[CarnyPriest Participant]

I wind up downloading both. If the installer does not overwrite the ini file, that’s fine but I still want to know if there are any new sections or keys.

1. Update the old installed ini with any new sections or keys in the zipped ini.
2. Run the installer.

Installer works, but I still have yet to do any testing.

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[freezy Participant]

@carnypriest Thanks for giving it a try! In any case there are release notes on the page where you download the installer where such things are noted. It’s a difficult topic because if I wanted to automate this, I would probably end up with a difftool, and I’m not sure many will be familiar with it.

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[CarnyPriest Participant]

Yes. I read the instructions. That’s why I’m installing this way. Otherwise, I might naively overwrite the ini, and I’d have to configure it over again. Or I might miss out on added features. I am using a diff tool but making my edits “manually”. I don’t know what the answer is except that this is not a consumer product. It’s a hobby that rewards experience. Still, I appreciate that the installer saves some effort. Same reason why I appreciate MJR’s DOF installer. I can follow instructions and extract files to the right folder, but it is still a nice convenience not having to worry about it.

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[outhere Participant]

I went under Artifacts down loaded the 32-bit

I run the installer But it Did not install or update any files in VPM

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[freezy Participant]

@outhere Was VPM selected when you installed? What does it say under product version when you right-click on DmdDevice.dll in the details tab?

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[outhere Participant]

Product version 1.7.1
When I started the installer It asked me to agree with the license I click agree hit install, it installs But doesn’t ask about select VPM
There is nowhere to select VPM

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