Release Upcoming Application : BGS (Backup Game Saves)

[Rockthesmurf]

For a lot of cases I would have thought backing up the entire appdata sub-directory (for said PND) would be the correct thing to do. Based on this I wonder if your application might find benefit in automatically backing up any appdata sub-directory which is less than X bytes in total size (where X is something coming from the config file, set to something you feel sensible, for example 128 KiB). This could be an option which can be turned on/off. I believe with this option you might catch a lot of applications at once, and not require explicit cases for hundreds of PNDs.


EDIT: And the idea of being able to back things up like you suggest is a good one, something just about everything would probably appreciate.

Not a good idea to backup all appdata for dsaid pnd. Some emulators ask for the roms to be in the appdata folde and this can be very big in the end.

As I said (quoted above) the suggestion was to only back up if the entire directory size is less than a configurable limit (I suggested 128KiB). So any directories with big stuff (like ROMs in) wouldn't be included, but any directory that only has little things in (less than the configurable limit) would automatically get backed up. I would have thought this suggestion would actually handle nearly all cases automatically...

EDIT: Right now I wonder whether the above suggestion plus (maybe) a list of excludes would actually cover everything. Hard to tell as I haven't carefully studied what every single PND uses for save data (of course) but off the top of my head it seems pretty sensible.

 

[KickAss]

certainly a lot less tedious than working out which files need to be backed up for each possible application separately.

 

[ekianjo]

certainly a lot less tedious than working out which files need to be backed up for each possible application separately.

Yeah but speed matters and backing up unnecessary files is going to cost a lot folder after folder. Targetting only the needed files should prove faster and smaller in size.

 

[KickAss]

your call, bro

another option would be to provide general functionality with your program and letting the user provide the info about which files specifically should be backed up. the user could add filenames and paths to a config file. that way the program would work for everyone AND the effort for you would still be reasonable.

 

[ekianjo]

your call, bro another option would be to provide general functionality with your program and letting the user provide the info about which files specifically should be backed up. the user could add filenames and paths to a config file. that way the program would work for everyone AND the effort for you would still be reasonable.

Haha did you read the conversation on the first page? this was already discussed

 

[KickAss]

i did. but to be honest i forgot about it

SO the process, for anyone who want to add more features to the config files: - use github to edit the config files - I will test the modifications and see if they work. - I will integrate the config to the main source once tested, - I will compile and release the new PND to the repo

now this is a whole lotta work! especially if the only outcome is getting a single file copied.

in my opinion it's total overkill.

i'd rather apply changes to some config file locally how and whenever i want, instead of having to wait for your approval (no offence here, it's just a matter of usability).

but that's just me!

also i might make use of your program's functionality on files that are not game save related (just because i can) and i'd like to do that in any fashion i see fit.

on a second note:

wouldnt that kind of functionality work best in a program like pandafe? maybe you could team up with nuhrin?

again, these are just my thoughts. it's a great idea for a yet missing feature on the pandora and im eagerly awaiting your first release

 

[milkshake]

Have an online account for this where u add file paths then the app can download this config and it shouldn't get lost (unless the online server gets fubarred)

 

[fusion_power]

Pandora indeed could need something like "Robocopy", a very nice tool, and it's from Microsoft, unbelievable.  I just recently discovered it, makes backups pretty simple, at least with an GUI. ^^"

 

[Kumaki]

i did. but to be honest i forgot about it

SO the process, for anyone who want to add more features to the config files: - use github to edit the config files - I will test the modifications and see if they work. - I will integrate the config to the main source once tested, - I will compile and release the new PND to the repo

now this is a whole lotta work! especially if the only outcome is getting a single file copied.

in my opinion it's total overkill.

i'd rather apply changes to some config file locally how and whenever i want, instead of having to wait for your approval (no offence here, it's just a matter of usability).

but that's just me!

also i might make use of your program's functionality on files that are not game save related (just because i can) and i'd like to do that in any fashion i see fit.

on a second note:

wouldnt that kind of functionality work best in a program like pandafe? maybe you could team up with nuhrin?

again, these are just my thoughts. it's a great idea for a yet missing feature on the pandora and im eagerly awaiting your first release

I already suggested a "major" overhaul of PanDafe.  To make it more user-customizeable.

Maybe, if those ideas get implemented, this could, too.

 

[ekianjo]

on a second note:


wouldnt that kind of functionality work best in a program like pandafe? maybe you could team up with nuhrin?

Already mentioned this to nuhrin, but as you may know he cannot work very often and I doubt he would implement it any time soon. I am not waiting. He can anyway reuse my code.

 

[Kumaki]

Already mentioned this to nuhrin, but as you may know he cannot work very often and I doubt he would implement it any time soon. I am not waiting.

Must be nice to have that option. Folks like me who can't code have no choice but to wait.I've considered putting out a bounty on a few items, but I have no idea what a fair bounty would be..that is to say, fair to all parties....seeing as how it takes time to program things...yet, I feel bad if I pay a full bounty for something everyone else then gets for free.

That in mind, I do not wish bounties to be very high - I'm sure folks could understand that...yet at the same time, I understand it takes time and talent to code. So...devs...what would be a reasonable bounty...given that one person is going to pay that whole bounty and everyone else will get the thing for free when it goes to the Repo?

I DID get some custom stuff programmed for me...which my company paid for, as it was customized for my business. THAT, however, was not put on the Repo, and no one else can have it, so the price was not an issue...and it was, I thought, a very reasonable price, given that I got what I wanted...and no one else got it free on the back end.

Anyway...I've considered offering a bounty on someone, anyone, finishing up and re-styling PanDafe to be more user-customizable - so that you can have it launch many more things...simply by providing a program path.

 

[ekianjo]

I cant speak for nuhrin but i know that in my case and some others there is no additional motivation to get a bounty.


Most of people who can code for a living can get way more money for the time they spend on customizing or creating an application for the Pandora elsewhere. So a bounty will not speed up things for these people.


Most of the time the motivation is intellectual.

 

[Kumaki]

So what DOES it take to get someone motivated to do something with PanDafe?

Seriously.

Because there is so much I envision could be done with it.

Again, I am not a coder, so I do not know if it really can be done, there's more to it that wishing it into existence, I know...but it seems like something should be able to be done like I'm talking about...

Something which will let you specify a path to a specific ROM and launch the appropriate emu for it.

I mean, we have games that do launch off the C4A hub, so a launcher is possible...and we have programs that soecify a program path to things, for example, Audacious knows where to find my music files...and if I give the SD Card a different LABEL NAME...it won't find them, even though it it is the same slot...

So, by adding things to a playlist in Audacious, you are specifying a file path...which it then retains for later.

Now, if PanDafe...or something like it...could evolve...into a thing where you can create a menu item, and then provide a file path by browsing...and then have it retain that file path...there's that part right there.

And PanDafe DOES auto-launch the correct emu for the files it DOES handle...so that part can be done...hopefully with even more emu's than it currently handles.

See where I'm going with this?

I do not know it CAN be done...but it seems as though it should be able to be done...at least from the perspective of one who knows zilch about coding.

Could anyone confirm if my reasoning is right and such a thing COULD be done...and if so, who would be motivated to do it and what would it take?

 

[ekianjo]

of course it can be done. Besides Nuhrin shares his source code on GitHub so anyone with enough motivation could go and do it themselves. But it's probably unlikely. Its more probable Nuhrin will think about doing it at some point but he is very busy, see the article about Pandafe on Pandoralive - he can only work on it a few hours a month it seems, and what you are asking for is not really in Pandafe's scope in the first place. So be patient or learn how to code

 

[KickAss]

@kumaki:
you could open a thread in the "software" part of the forum, give it a [Request] tag, describe what exactly it is that you want and see how that goes.

are your roms or files so exotic that pandafe wont recognize them automaticaly?

 

[Rockthesmurf]

@kumaki Generally people work on stuff they care about. Either because they want it themselves, or because they feel there is a big community desire for it. I have no idea how well your features/suggestions fit into the authors desires or the desires off other users of the software. I don't know if you have already started a discussion about this in an appropriate thread? Perhaps if enough people all wanted the same feature the author maybe more tempted to find time to work on it (or perhaps even someone else might fork the code and do it themselves). If it is just you that requires the features you'd certainly need to make a compelling case to the author!

 

[ekianjo]

I have been away from this project for a while but I have a prototype now. 

If it works as expected (i need to do some testing) I should have something to release in a couple of days stay tuned!

 

[ekianjo]

Ok I have a working version. It saves all saved games and states for the following:

- drastic

- pcsx rearmed

- gpfce

- gpsp

- uae4all

- return to castle wolfenstein

- darkplaces

- scummvm

- dune dynasty

- ppsspp

- fba

- gngeo

- apkenv

- gambatte

- picodrive

You can expect a release on sunday.