[OLD] Arduboy Manager

Development
1

READ THIS

This is the thread for the old Arduboy Manager. CLICK HERE to go to the new Arduboy Manager discussion!

17 Likes
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Oh boy yesss!
This is exactly what i ment.
Plan to make it open source?

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Very nice.
Would it be at all possible to have an offline mode, where we add our own hex files for quick loading, with server acting like a repository for downloading more games?
Having a button to download the games source files (if available) would also be a handy feature.

1 Like
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Feel free to upload my game, Stellar Impact.

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Im thinking www.arduboy.com may end up with a public api that can pull a hex from a database and send it to a client upon request. And then meta information done in a json return, that sort of thing. This way anyone can use any client they choose to pull hex files from a source maintained by Arduboy, or hook into another server.

Preference being with ruby on rails :smiley:

example

A possible implementation, reflecting no actual design choice to date.

Send a request to the API.

curl www.arduboy.com/apps?id=Dfh564GH

Returned on API request,

{"LOOT": {
  "id": "Dfh564GH",
  "name": "LOOT: A dungeon crawler.",
  ...
  }
}
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[quote=“Botisaurus, post:2, topic:1569”]
This is exactly what i ment.[/quote]
:slight_smile:

No plans to make it open source, but I will allow people to change the repo location to pull from an outside location.

Hmmmm
 I have already started to include a feature that lets you browse for a .hex file to transfer, but instead, I could perhaps allow a user to browse for a .hex file, then add info into text boxes so that it can be added to a little area on your computer and then grabbed locally. I could then make the system grab all games from the repo and put them in that location, giving you offline access.

Great idea!! This will probably be near the end of the list of features, but it would surely come in handy!

I would absolutely love if we get something like this running at some point!

Awesome! I’d love to! But before I can, I’d need the following from you
 (Feel free to private message me this info if you want.)

Title: The title of your game you’d like to show.
Version: The current version number of your game.
Author: Either your name or online identity that you’d like to associate with the game as the author.
Website: Either your personal website or the GitHub URL you’d like to associate the game with.
Description: A short description that you’d like to include to describe what your game/program is. (Somewhere around 200 characters, please!)
Screenshot: A simple 128x64 image that you’d like to display that represents the game.
Compiled Program: My program uploads .hex files to the system, so you’d have to get me a stable version already compiled into .hex format.

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For those who don’t know:
It’s easy to get the .hex file for your sketch.

  • Compile your sketch as usual and make sure you can upload and run it on your Arduboy.
  • In the IDE use the menus:
    Sketch > Export compiled Binary
  • The .hex file will be placed in your sketch’s folder, which can be opened using:
    Sketch > Show Sketch Folder
  • You want the .hex file without .with_bootloader in the name.
4 Likes
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@crait,
It would be nice if your program supported both the production Arduboy and the DevKit. You could have a menu or buttons or something to select the target.

You would have to have two .hex files for each sketch, one compiled for the production Arduboy and one for the DevKit (if the sketch will run on both).

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So what about Linux?

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Haha. I’ve never really used Linux for anything other than a UNIX shell. I would say that if someone knows their way around Linux, they’re probably already tech savvy enough to upload stuff. I’ll still have a web-front for the repo so anyone can download .hex files from the repo manually.

I figured there’d have to be two separate versions, so I was thinking about displaying if the application was compatible in the version field. (I.e. Version 5.2 DevKit) But then again, this application is built for people who aren’t tech savvy, so they probably won’t have a DevKit version, so I didn’t think of including this. However, I could host an alternate repo for devkit-specific games/applications. Someone wanting it could just switch to the devkit repo to add access to those files
 Now that I’m typing it out, I think I’m going to do that. It will prevent people from forcing the wrong data to their devices if they don’t know what they’re doing.

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That doesn’t mean they would want to go to the trouble of downloading and installing the sketch (if it’s the first time), opening the IDE, finding and opening the sketch, selecting the proper board type and port then compiling and uploading, if a simpler way were available.

Did you consider that someone might give away their DevKit or sell it on eBay to someone who isn’t very tech savvy?

1 Like
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@MLXXXp - You’re right. There should be a Linux port, but unfortunately, I’ve never programmed anything this complex for Linux, so it would be near the end of list of things I’d do. However, if someone’s up for it, they could make a Linux version. :smiley: I’d even give them my server’s API end-points to use.

You’re right about this, too. Luckily, switching the repo to the devkit repo would be a simple button click in the preferences window.

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Hey, ya’ll! Based on your feedback, I went ahead and implemented a few things on the OSX version, which can quickly be added to the Windows version in the next hour or so:

  1. Added offline mode, as @noel_abercrombie suggested, with the ability to clear all downloaded data.
  2. Auto-updating out-dated applications.
  3. Started working on a way to upload your own .hex file into the application, along with filling in the info so you can have all your games in one place.
  4. Differentiation between a DevKit version of an application and a production version, as @MLXXXp suggested.
  5. Random major bug fixes
 This things runs really nicely!
4 Likes
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Sounds great to me, but I can’t see anywhere where this a link to your software.

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Downloads aren’t available just yet. I want to make sure that transferring works properly. It’s the last thing I have to do, but unfortunately, I’m running into a few issues here and there. Without receiving my Arduboy, yet, I can’t really test anything. :’(

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Looks like a great project, will deff use on OS X when it’s out!!

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My suggestion would be to use SDL. It runs on Windows, Linux and Mac and provides the functionality to do all the typical window-opening and drawing stuff. It’s what Valve uses to port their Windows games to Linux. There’s wrappers for other languages as well (although some are lacking/out of date).

If you get used to using SDL then you can write once and compile for (nearly) everything.

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I’d be happier if it were open source/github based so other people can help with adding features (like linux support and those other things further down your list). Maybe not now, but some day in the future.

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Well, the repo will be formatted in a nice JSON file that will be available to anyone else that wants to use it in their own projects. I know that there is someone else on the forum making a version for Android that will also use my repo.

Also, I know this is kinda irrelevant, but I really, really, really hate GitHub. :stuck_out_tongue:

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So you won’t mind if someone publishes an open source alternative to your sketch manager?

Because of the ugly UI or because you prefer closed source?