wd wrote:

Maybe that file could contain some version numbering in the filename
so it doesn't get overwritten. Dunno if that makes sense.

Hmm, didn't think of that, may indeed be a good idea to at least give the empty database a special name.. thanks wd!

The root cause of this is that the database is located in the program folder.

On Windows, it should go somewhere like X:\Documents and Settings\Your Login Name\Application Data\DOSBox Game Launcher (but please use the environment variable %AppData% - it will always(?) point to the users AppData area).

Alternatively it could go inX:\Documents and Settings\Your Login Name\Local Settings\Application Data\DOSBox Game Launcher.

Now exactly what goes where, and why there are these 2 seemingly interchangeable folders, I don't know. Somewhere on the Microsoft site I am sure you can find an explanation.

A couple of quick suggestions for DBGL (unrelated to the last few posts):

- It'd be nice if we had a way to pass parameters to the dosbox.exe call. This is specifically when using Ykhwong's cvs builds, as he added a couple of command line options (-showcycles, -nomenu). Maybe a generic "additional parameters" field, set on each DosBox version?

- Better sorting: When sorting profiles by anything but the Title column, it would be ideal if it would do a secondary sort for Titles. Right now if I sort by Genre, while all the genres are sorted together, within each genre all the entries are mixed up. So if I have a lot in the "RPG" genre, chances are all the Ultima games will be all over the place. Doing a secondary sort on the Title column would keep things much neater, and it'd be a lot easier to find things.

Hi all,

Version 0.51 (jar update only) is up:

* When sorting profiles by anything but the Title column, a secondary sort for Titles is performed (Folken).
* Implemented additional parameters support per dosbox version (Folken).
* Improved database exception handling so that problems are correctly fowarded to the GUI (Minimax).
* Fixed crash bug when right-clicking on an empty profiles-list (thank you Jeff).
* Fixed saving sblaster oplrate setting for both profiles and templates (thank you Don).

Regards,
Ronald

rcblanke wrote:

* When sorting profiles by anything but the Title column, a secondary sort for Titles is performed (Folken).

Why not generalise this?

Keep a stack, say 3 levels deep, of the sorting criterias used, and sort the profiles using all 3 criterias?

Example:

I click on Title, and the sort-stack becomes: Title, none, none.

Then I click on Developer, and the sort-stack becomes: Developer, Title. none.

I can click on Year, and get Year, Developer, Title.
I can click on Title, then Genre, and get Genre, Title, Year.

..Because my solution was just a one-liner?! 😈

But seriously, I'll consider your suggestion MiniMax!

Thanks for the update!

However...

* Implemented additional parameters support per dosbox version (Folken)

... does not seem to work. Well, it works if I just run the Dosbox version, but it doesn't use the parameters when running a profile.

Folken wrote:

* Implemented additional parameters support per dosbox version (Folken)

... does not seem to work. Well, it works if I just run the Dosbox version, but it doesn't use the parameters when running a profile.

Ouch, now, how on earth did I miss that?

Anywayz, went straight to 0.52 in which this issue is fixed, and column sorting is implemented as suggested by MiniMax.

Hmm - maybe I am oldfashioned, but I would like to see the drive letters being in uppercase and not lowercase 😒

Two things: why isn't there a Windows version yet for 0.52? And 0.50 crashes when I try to add a game. No matter what I try, it always crashes.

red_avatar wrote:

Two things: why isn't there a Windows version yet for 0.52? And 0.50 crashes when I try to add a game. No matter what I try, it always crashes.

Hello red avatar,

There is; just download jar052.zip and extract the jar in this zipfile to your full DBGL installation. Please note that it is recommended to make a backup first, since the updated jar will update the internal profile database.

If - after updating - DBGL still crashes when adding a profile, please try to start it via dbglcons.bat and post the results of the crashreport (stacktrace) here.

Regards,
Ronald

Okay it no longer crashes after I put 0.52 on top of the old version.

Can I give a few remarks though?

- I miss a "duplicate" feature. I have quite a few games that are very similar and it's a chore having to enter all the same, or nearly the same, data over and over again. I'll give you an example: I have all Lemmings games, including the Hollidays and Christmas editions, which mount to about 10 games. It's the same publisher and developer each time, same genre, and most are the same settings too. Maybe you could add that?

- It would be nice to be able to pick which column values you can see. For example, I don't need the ID column nor the Setup Column. Dragging them until there's only a tiny bit remaining is a temporary solution though - not really vital, but useful.

Otherwise, it's exactly what I want. One question though: is there a risk of a future version not being compatible with the existing database?

Another thing I discovered:

Some games need a CD mounted to run, but have files on the hard drive for saves etc. Your program doesn't allow me to mount an image and run any file off that image - it has to be an existing file on the hard drive which is a bit limiting. Any way of solving this?

Hello again,

Good idea, the duplicate functionality will certainly be implemented soon, might be very handy indeed! I'll think about the column hiding functionality too, although it is already possible to hide them by setting column2width=0 and column9width=0 in settings.conf

There is no risk of a future database not being compatible with the current one; I've already built a basic framework for incremental database updates and will keep supporting older instantiations. For example, a DBGL 0.2 database should be automatically upgraded to version 0.52 on the first run.

About the images: running executables inside zipfiles or images can be done using the following syntax:

archive.zip\mygame.exe
or
image.iso\mygame.exe

I have specifically added the grab buttons for this, for comfort. Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to navigate inside those files in a cross-platform way in order to select the game/setup executable. I'm planning to at least build this for zipfiles, since Java has support for zipfile 'browsing' out-of-the-box.

I'll mostly need it for ISO files myself - I use RAR file and not zip files for compressed games (RAR is easily +15% more efficient).

Otherwise, great to hear. I like how you can link to a setup file too.

Maybe one small thing: when you add a new game, it ends up at the bottom of the list. Would it not be possible to automatically place it in the list at the right place? For example, if the list was last sorted on names, sort it according to name.

Oh, and come to think of it - you can enter developer and publisher, or select from the list. Could you not make it so that it autocompletes according to the first publisher it finds that shares those letters? For example, typing Luc would bring up Lucas Arts. Considering I'll have hundereds of developers and publishers if I complete the database, it would make my life a lot easier 😜

red_avatar wrote:

I'll mostly need it for ISO files myself - I use RAR file and not zip files for compressed games (RAR is easily +15% more efficient).

Please note that archives other than zip are not supported, and that you need a special build (with PhysFS support http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func … 551&atid=467234) to use zips. I believe that D.O.G. does support other types of archives because that front-end extracts the archive beforehand, while DBGL in combination with physFS allows for native zip mounting.

red_avatar wrote:

Maybe one small thing: when you add a new game, it ends up at the bottom of the list. Would it not be possible to automatically place it in the list at the right place? For example, if the list was last sorted on names, sort it according to name.

Oh, and come to think of it - you can enter developer and publisher, or select from the list. Could you not make it so that it autocompletes according to the first publisher it finds that shares those letters? For example, typing Luc would bring up Lucas Arts. Considering I'll have hundereds of developers and publishers if I complete the database, it would make my life a lot easier 😜

I'll consider your suggestions! The autocomplete feature would certainly be nice, but i have to see if it can be done in SWT. You can already press the down-arrow to autocomplete, but it is not perfect.

@red_avatar - have a look at the file database.script in the db folder. It is the DBGL database in the sense that the SQL-commands listed in database.script creates the in-memory database that DBGL is using while it runs.

Some of the things you ask for (copying of game setups) can be done by simple shutting down DBGL, edit the db-script file (but watch out for table constraints like unique game ID's)

rcblanke wrote:

Please note that archives other than zip are not supported, and that you need a special build (with PhysFS support http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func … 551&atid=467234) to use zips. I believe that D.O.G. does support other types of archives because that front-end extracts the archive beforehand, while DBGL in combination with physFS allows for native zip mounting.

I'll consider your suggestions! The autocomplete feature would certainly be nice, but i have to see if it can be done in SWT. You can already press the down-arrow to autocomplete, but it is not perfect.

Well, I don't really need rar support - it would be dangerous as well, since it could possibly damage the archives if the game/plugin did anything wrong while writing savegames etc. Same with zips really - a lot of the games I have are hard to find these days since ESA started to clamp down on sites and others are original versions which you won't find on abandonware sites, so I'd rather not risk losing them.

The autocomplete feature is something I got used to while using a program that resembles it in some ways - I use it to keep track of the games I own and those I have lent out. The sorting thing would be helpful though, since I always have to sort it manually - it's a small thing but it's a bit annoying 😜

MiniMax wrote:

@red_avatar - have a look at the file database.script in the db folder. It is the DBGL database in the sense that the SQL-commands listed in database.script creates the in-memory database that DBGL is using while it runs.

Some of the things you ask for (copying of game setups) can be done by simple shutting down DBGL, edit the db-script file (but watch out for table constraints like unique game ID's)

I actually discovered this too, but I thought it would be safer and easier to have an option to do it inside the program which wouldn't potentially harm the database. I have no idea what accidentally breaking the right composition of entries might do, and considering that it will take many hours of work to get anywhere near a complete database, I would definately need to make back ups before doing any of this.

Okay I have another proposition:

There's one field called "status" which I use to show whether a game works completely, partially, or is broken in some way. But it would be a good idea to add custom fields which can then be shown in the list too. For example, a custom field which shows how well it performs on your computer under DOSBOX, a field which gives the game a rating (how good it is), a field to show whether the game has been completed yet or not, etc. So you see, plenty of stuff that people could want - so adding a few custom fields would be nice.