Authors CurseForge

Works fine in Vista but I get this error when running in Linux from the command line, since it did nothing when clicked:

[z0phi3l@z0phi3l ~/Downloads]$ java NetherPanel.jnlp
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: NetherPanel/jnlp
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: NetherPanel.jnlp
    at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:200)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
    at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:276)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:319)

Double checked and I do have Java6 installed

Heh. You can't run a JNLP file like that, you'll have to use this command:

javaws NetherPanel.jnlp

javaws is Java WebStart, it can read JNLP files (webstart files). You should probably tell your browser to handle *.jnlp files or files with the MIME type of application/x-java-jnlp-file to start with javaws.

Ok now it's working :)

So far everything is looking good, and working fine

Great to hear.

heya, looks nice although....
I tried but I cant get it to work. I start it, click on 'The Whole Works', it checks wowace for the addon list but than, in the checking for addons upgrades, it does nothing... it lists all the avaiable addons but doesnt compare them to my own :( so when I click on Show Updatable, I get only the main lists (BG/PVP, BUFFS, AUCTION...) and no, I know Im not up to date with all addons (been a couple days I last updated - with JWOWUPDATER - that now, isnt working also)

What is the status of the addons that you know you have installed?

With that I mean their color and the abbreviation: NEW, CNF, UPD or UTD.

Also, what is your World of Warcraft directory? Is it detected correctly in the NetherPanel configuration panel?

Quote from lhunath »

What is the status of the addons that you know you have installed?

With that I mean their color and the abbreviation: NEW, CNF, UPD or UTD.

Also, what is your World of Warcraft directory? Is it detected correctly in the NetherPanel configuration panel?

Most CNF, a few NEW. Directory is detected (checking under Basic Configuration it points to the correct dir).

hmmm and i cant click on the cirle to chose install addon, only able to click on the square

Appearantly, NetherPanel is not detecting any of your addons as installed. It is, however, detecting your addons as configured (their savedvariables in the WTF/ folder). This is slightly odd.

I've heard of this issue before and though I cannot reproduce it myself I am investigating it. The next version I upload will be more verbose and hopefully show some clues in the log files that will hint as to what is causing this problem for you.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

murazor: Could you do me a favor and launch the Alpha version of NetherPanel: http://netherpanel.lyndir.com/NetherPanel_alpha.jnlp

It should spit out a lot of debugging info on the log. I'd like you to save the log and upload it as an attachment to a reply. It should give me valuable information as to what is going on.

I have exactly the same problem, ran netherpanel (both current and alpha) and it's not detecting my installed addons

Thanks a lot for that! I should have fixed the issue now. Try launching NetherPanel again, WebStart should update it and let me know if it sees your addons as installed now.

I don't know what method WAU uses to determine which addon is installed but since there is no standard way for an addon to report which version it is updaters need to remember the version that they installed through their own means.

NetherPanel uses a file called .version.xml in the addon directory which contains a bit of metadata on the addon that it installed. This bit of metadata includes its version number, whether it has its dependencies embedded or externalized, whether it is a requested addon or just a dependency, etc.

.version.xml is obviously a NetherPanel file, and as such WAU doesn't use it. It may use its own file for this purpose. And if it does, then when you update addons with NetherPanel WAU's file will still contain the version of the addon before NetherPanel upgraded it. WAU won't notice the upgrade. It is even possible (if you have this option turned on in NetherPanel) that NetherPanel cleaned up this file that WAU uses to remember the addon version in the addon directory thinking it was an old addon file that is no longer in the new addon version's zip file. If NetherPanel cleaned up this file, obviously WAU's information on the addon version is completely lost and it'll need to redownload the addon too.

To summarize, if you want to be able to use different updaters, we should probably come up with a standardized method of reporting addon version so that all addon updaters use and maintain this same bit of information.

Quote from yoshimo »

WAU isnt actively developed anymore, but the idea of a common concept is still a good idea.

Syl is considdering letting NetherPanel take over the WAU userbase once it's mature enough.

Quote from yoshimo »

i have to figure out why there are so many errors ;)

Errors in NetherPanel? Could you specify? Paste the logs?

Quote from yoshimo »

addonspamFU doesnt require FUBAR to run, its just an opt-dep. Maybe configure this on first run?

Clicking FuBar_AddonSpamFu selects FuBarPlugin as a dependency for installation. Not FuBar itself because, yes, it is an opt-dep and FuBarPlugin is a normal dep. Is this not what you want? I'm having a hard time understanding what you mean to ask =)

Quote from yoshimo »

I noticed that in the addon-tab if you only show Updateable addons, in my window it says "Up to date: 1058% " more than 100% seems a bit strange ;)

Quite ;) Made a ticket for this: http://netherpanel.lyndir.com/trac/ticket/19

Yeah; I'll add a dependency browser later on, too, which'll let you browse through installed addons easily so that you can tell why certain addons are installed (who pulls them in) etc. Currently, you'll have to satisfy yourself with the dependency graph that pops out when you click the arrow at the top of the addon manager.

I tried out this thing, and considering this as a replacement for WAU these are my notes (*my* opinion). I just wrote it down as i went along, so it's not very structured, but here goes:

After looking at the front page for some time, dismayed by the overwhelming description in the "The Whole Works", i felt really discomforted by the thought of clicking on that button. So i decided not to, and went into the addon manager, read the long description, and still couldn't figure out how to get it to show a list of my addons, and spent some time trying to figure what the different buttons where for, only to get error boxes thrown in my head when i clicked them. Something like i had to update my list of addons - but no clue how to do that. I then turned to the configuration page - way too many options (but those that were filled out looked correct), and finally i decided to go to the front page and click that button, because i couldn't for the life of me figure out what else to do.

This went "well" - at least it did a lot of things - but i have no clue what exactly happened, so i just waited it out, but i didn't like it - i want to know what is going on, and i want to authorize each step. Then, finally it stopped flashing bars at the top, and nothing more happened. I then went into the addon manager again to see if something had changed, and then the list was up. Ok, we have progress now...

The addon manager seems to work ok and when you learn how to use it, its quite nice, but for some reason it identified the addons i have checked out via SVN as something that should be removed when i click the cleanup button. Like WAU it should be aware of SVN checkouts.

In my opinion, all the stuff for launching WoW and guild web pages and similar has no place in this utility.

It's nice that you can see the changelog on addons before you update them, so you know what has changed.

I really think you should simplify it. Remove everything from the front page and automatically fetch the information needed at startup so you can dive directly into the addon manager (instead of having to click that weird "The Whole Works" button on the front page). And also remove all that auto upload stuff and event scheduler (or whatever it is - what is it for anyway??).

It's very nice that it shows exactly what is being modified before you do it (at the file level).

Bless you for a detailed description of your opinion of this program; I need more of those to be able to adjust it such that it is perfectly suited for the average userbase! As a developer I often have a completely different point of view when looking at the application knowing exactly what code hides behind what button.

First, let me start by enlightening you a little as to what has been going on during your experience with the program. Then I'll considder your suggestions carefully.

When you went to the Addon Manager panel, you were supposed to have clicked the rightmost button (Next Step) to load the adddons. Granted, it is entirely my fault that this is not obvious when you go there at all. The other buttons are functions that can be performed on the addons which naturally won't work without the addons loaded.

Once you do click that rightmost button, the addon list will be loaded and your addons will be checked against the latest versions reported by the Addon Providers (currently, Ace SVN and UniAdmin) as they are added to the UI.

Clicking that rightmost button again will then bring you to the next step while downloading all checked addons which shows you exactly what will happen to each of the addons that will be changed. This includes: Which files will be updated, which will be added, which will be removed. It does this for addons that will be updated, installed, removed or cleaned. That way you have a perfect overview of what will happen to your filesystem before you click that rightmost button again to apply all the listed changes. Naturally, at any of these points, you can unselect an addon to stop the next step from taking that addon into account. Say you noticed in the addon upgrade preview that something would happen that you do not want, simply unselect the addon there and click next step to go ahead with the other addons.

Clicking 'The Whole Works' will do this all for you automatically. You don't have to look through the addons or evaluate the changes that will be made. But you can! I noticed you said you had no clue what was going on during the flickering of the bars after clicking that button - well, if you'd switched to the addon manager at that point you would've noticed it doing exactly what it would do if you'd done all the steps manually; only this time it would click 'Next Step' for you automatically right after completing each step. So you can still look at what's going on.

Several people like to have a 'one-click' feature because they really can't be bothered with the complexity of the addon manager and want it to just "update my addons already".

Alright; now that you understand what was going on, let me focus on your opinions.

Firstly, you mentioned not feeling quite at home opening this updater. The button for "The Whole Works" put you off right away and you couldn't quite find your way through the features of this program.

Sounds to me like I definately need to do an overhaul of the interface and make it far easier to use. I need to make it so that when you open it up, even if you're a first time user, you can get started right away even without having to read tooltips and explore all sides of this program first.

The program does look daunting at first; which is why I added the very simplistic-looking first page. I figured people would never really need to go to the other panels unless they wanted some more fine-grained control over the operation of the application. So long as they were fine with just "Updating Addons" and "Playing WoW", or "Checking out the Forums" the launcher panel would suit them just fine.

I can definately understand, now, that the tooltip for "The Whole Works" may make you somewhat suspicious and reluctant to click it after reading and not understanding what the f: it does. I need to work on this.

I also definately understand that the addon manager makes absolutely no sense when you first look at it. There is no list of addons like there is on pretty much all other addon updaters. And the text that is there to describe how it works is, admittedly, horribly outdated. I don't even know what it says anymore.

Several bad points for me there; I will make sure to re-evaluate the whole user-interface again ASAP. As a matter of fact; http://netherpanel.lyndir.com/trac/ticket/20. Ticketed and assigned for M2 of NetherPanel.

On a side note, the upload stuff is there for uploading addon data to online web applications such as WoWRoster, WebDKP, etc. NetherPanel is not just an updater; it's more a WoW tool.

The scheduler is there for people who run NetherPanel in the background and use it to perform certain tasks automatically, like keeping their online character information up to date (by uploading it whenever the local addon files change) -- it basically lets you schedule anything NetherPanel can do, including updating addons (every day at 3am? ;x).

Anyway; those are advanced stuff an average user shouldn't have to think about.

Let me know any and all hints, thoughts and advice you might have concearning refactoring the user interface or anything else for that matter.