Download Service Beta Testing

[tspeirs]

Ok, i think it's much better. Can you rename

and the folder where it creates;

Should be good now. Thanks for the feedback.

[tspeirs]

To use this I am going to have to reconfigure my system.

When I set up all my systems I opted for a flatter file structure.

-Data

--Arcade roms

--Arcade cp

--Arcade marquee

--Arcade flyer

...

--Visual Pinball tables

--Visual Pinball roms

--Visual Pinball flyer

...

As opposed to:

-Data

--Arcade

---roms

---cp

--Visual Pinball

---tables

---roms

....

Am I the only one who did this?

I dont think thats a big deal, you can just move/copy the downloaded files around with explorer I would have thought.

[Stubborn]

Mysterious error:

I set system to MAME, Media to CP. I downloaded a successful pass to a dummy folder, and it worked without a hitch.

I then changed the Media to title, Match folder to my real data, and download folder to my real data.

I received a model error "Search Error: System Not Found!"

I then opened a second instance of the downloader while the error was open and the System drop down will not populate.

XPsp3

[Stubborn]

Mysterious error:

I set system to MAME, Media to CP. I downloaded a successful pass to a dummy folder, and it worked without a hitch.

I then changed the Media to title, Match folder to my real data, and download folder to my real data.

I received a model error "Search Error: System Not Found!"

I then opened a second instance of the downloader while the error was open and the System drop down will not populate.

XPsp3

I am working again. I think what happened is I was disconnected from the server somehow, but the Error was not indicative of that.

[MadGear]

Something strange is done to me.

It seems that in the category of mame located the Zinc

[Stubborn]

I dont think thats a big deal, you can just move/copy the downloaded files around with explorer I would have thought.

True but you would have to move the files before and after the scan. Otherwise you are chewing up unnecessary bandwidth re-downloading the files. One of the best features of the app.

I haven't tested it yet but I assume the goal is to be able to update a set with ten new roms and have a single click that will update all media for the new files. To be more flexible it would be nice to be able to configure each of the media directories independently. The down side of this is it makes for a very large amount of settings for the user.

I think it depends on the demand for this functionality. How many users would find detailed folder control useful to them. ( other than me )

At the very least in the "download all new media" scenario above, you will need a settings control with checkboexs for each media type for a system. I can envision users that only keep CP, title, snap, and video on their system. etc.

[Circo]

True but you would have to move the files before and after the scan. Otherwise you are chewing up unnecessary bandwidth re-downloading the files. One of the best features of the app.

I haven't tested it yet but I assume the goal is to be able to update a set with ten new roms and have a single click that will update all media for the new files. To be more flexible it would be nice to be able to configure each of the media directories independently. The down side of this is it makes for a very large amount of settings for the user.

I think it depends on the demand for this functionality. How many users would find detailed folder control useful to them. ( other than me )

At the very least in the "download all new media" scenario above, you will need a settings control with checkboexs for each media type for a system. I can envision users that only keep CP, title, snap, and video on their system. etc.

I don't think an advanced tab with those types of directory options would be a bad idea. It would also be nice to have last update date viewable in the app.

IE: Snaps (08/21/2010)

[Stubborn]

I am assuming that the application is only checking for the existence of a matching media files and not examining the date and content. If I am wrong let me know.

Once this is running you will encounter the issue of updated media files on the server side. i.e. someone gets a better high rez cabinet pic of MK2.

This will require the app to identify newer files for download.

If it is not yet part of the project plan, you should start planning for the need to create local hashes on the initial scan and compare them to the server source.

This might require tighter file control on the server side. You may have to run a utility to generate a small CSV with the Media hashes when there is a file update.

[Stubborn]

I don't think an advanced tab with those types of directory options would be a bad idea. It would also be nice to have last update date viewable in the app.

IE: Snaps (08/21/2010)

For my own edification; If you enumerated it out, how many System - Media conbinations are there that would have to have an advanced path & last updated for?

Also the Client would have to have the ability to add more elements in your setting list as data is added to the server.

[Circo]

I am assuming that the application is only checking for the existence of a matching media files and not examining the date and content. If I am wrong let me know.

Once this is running you will encounter the issue of updated media files on the server side. i.e. someone gets a better high rez cabinet pic of MK2.

This will require the app to identify newer files for download.

If it is not yet part of the project plan, you should start planning for the need to create local hashes on the initial scan and compare them to the server source.

This might require tighter file control on the server side. You may have to run a utility to generate a small CSV with the Media hashes when there is a file update.

The nice thing about having all of the files for this app on a separate server vs the current FTP is that we do now have tight file control. But I think long term this feature would be a must.

[tspeirs]

I am assuming that the application is only checking for the existence of a matching media files and not examining the date and content. If I am wrong let me know.

Once this is running you will encounter the issue of updated media files on the server side. i.e. someone gets a better high rez cabinet pic of MK2.

This will require the app to identify newer files for download.

If it is not yet part of the project plan, you should start planning for the need to create local hashes on the initial scan and compare them to the server source.

This might require tighter file control on the server side. You may have to run a utility to generate a small CSV with the Media hashes when there is a file update.

Thats actually very noteworthy and slightly ahead of us right now. We do deffinitly have the potential to do that at a later date as Circo says. However the goal right now is to keep things simple. As I mentioned though, theres a whole API behind this that can potentially be accessed by other download apps and frontends. GameEx should hopefully use it soon and ill be providing some documentation

[tspeirs]

The service will be down for a bit, im just doing some updates. Ill post when its back up.

[Guest JamminJ]

way to look ahead Stubborn!!

I only had the program crash once today saying I had a 'Search exception' I had it start again(leaving the app running) and it scanned and then finished with no more problems. At the Time I was getting everything for "GoodN64 v3.11 GoodMerged" I had only made it to the 3rd group of downloads when this happened. BUT I also found I was running the 0.2 version, not sure if any fixes happened before v0.3

My PC specs=What information is helpful to you devs? Thanks for such an awesome utility!

[tspeirs]

way to look ahead Stubborn!!

I only had the program crash once today saying I had a 'Search exception' I had it start again(leaving the app running) and it scanned and then finished with no more problems. At the Time I was getting everything for "GoodN64 v3.11 GoodMerged" I had only made it to the 3rd group of downloads when this happened. BUT I also found I was running the 0.2 version, not sure if any fixes happened before v0.3

My PC specs=What information is helpful to you devs? Thanks for such an awesome utility!

I think that was just because I was doing some work on the server. Just part of the Beta process.

Thanks for the report though.

[tspeirs]

Back up now.

Thanks.

[Guest JamminJ]

Thanks Tom, but I'll ask this again " My PC specs=What information is helpful to you devs? Thanks for such an awesome utility!" do you need just OS? cpu? RAM qty? video card? just want to know when reporting a problem what info you may need. thanks again

JamminJ

[B2K24]

0.2 worked flawless for me, I have had no problems and no crashes at all.

Have not had the chance to give 0.3 a run yet.

A few things I would love to see added are the ability to see download speed in real time and speed limit feature in kB/s

perhaps also a pause feature if download process needed to be interrupted.

[Koolbrez67]

I love the new downloader. O.2 I had no issues and put it through 29 hrs of downloading. I would like to see a feature added. If your downloading and it stopped for some reason or crashed you could restart the download from the last file so you wouldn't have to re download the whole thing. I haven't had any issues but it would have sucked if in the last 5 or 6 hours of downloading it crashed and had to start over again. Great work very solid with wndows Xp .

[tspeirs]

I love the new downloader. O.2 I had no issues and put it through 29 hrs of downloading. I would like to see a feature added. If your downloading and it stopped for some reason or crashed you could restart the download from the last file so you wouldn't have to re download the whole thing. I haven't had any issues but it would have sucked if in the last 5 or 6 hours of downloading it crashed and had to start over again. Great work very solid with wndows Xp .

It should pretty much already do that.

[tspeirs]

Thanks Tom, but I'll ask this again " My PC specs=What information is helpful to you devs? Thanks for such an awesome utility!" do you need just OS? cpu? RAM qty? video card? just want to know when reporting a problem what info you may need. thanks again

JamminJ

Probably only software based info is relevant for now eg os.. It really does not do that much on the client end.

[celly]

So far, it works great! I had no idea how much MAME artwork I was missing (marquees and pcbs). I initially had a login problem but I think it was when Tom was tinkering with it a few hours ago.

[Koolbrez67]

It should pretty much already do that.

Sweet , Thank you again Mr. Speirs . It is a very solid Down loader and I am happy to have this option it's a nice time saver.

[tspeirs]

Your most welcome. Its great to get such nice feedback

[Stubborn]

I am thinking that the download meter is misleading for most people. ( See Circo's video for an example )

I understand what it is doing. It starts a scan of existing roms, local media, and server media to create a download list. Asynchronously, in a second thread, it begins downloading files queued for download. The meter counts through the scan and when the scan is complete it resets with the number of files marked for download minus the completed files. This double count is confusing in itself and in addition the confusion is reflected in the Time Remaining calculation before the scan is complete.

I recommend two progress meters, one for Scan one for Download. Have separate est. times for each, and either don't calculate the download ETA until the scan process is complete or have it recalculate upward every time a file is queued for download.

[Circo]

Just added to the downloader

Nintendo GameBoy - 586 Box Scans, 218 Cart Scans, 585 Titles