The much-delayed mini-tutorial on creating LEX Dependency Tracker lists is finally here! In case you don't know what I'm talking about - it's this section of the LEX Upload and LEX Edit forms:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FkriqTLV.png&hash=b3214df7c52c87440f21b5e3c8de0de6132332b8)
Basically, it works like this:
Dependencies on the SC4D LEX:Add the LotID of the dependency to the list. The LotID is the number after ?lotGET=
XXX in a LEX url.
Add this:
LOTID$
So, for example, if you want to add Vnaoned's Saint Croix Church (
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2985 ) to your list of dependencies..
Add this:
2985$
The dollar-sign is used as a separator between each entry, much like a comma would be in a sentence.
Pretty simple, right? The LEX software will do all the hard work for you (fetching the lot name, author, upload dates, and so on).
If you do
not want the dependency tracker to
recursively add the dependencies from the file that you listed as a dependency, prefix the LEX identifier with an underscore (
_). So, it would look like this:
_2985$
If you want to
add a comment describing why this file was included as a dependency, or which files specifically need to be installed (e.g. only the .SC4Model files), you can suffix the identifier with a number sign/hash sign/hashmark (
#) and the comment to be displayed, for example:
2985#Only the .SC4Model files are required!
Dependencies that are not on the SC4D LEXThe process is a little more complicated for dependencies that are not on the LEX. Because we don't have direct access to those files, we don't know the filenames automatically, nor the actual links. So you have to add both as an entry.
LOTNAME@LINK_TO_DEPENDENCY$
Where LOTNAME is the name of the dependency, and LINK_TO_DEPENDENCY is a hyperlink to the dependency download page.
For example, if you want to add Pitt Street Apartments (which is on the STEX) as a dependency, add this to the dependency tracker line:
Pitt Street Apartments@http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/28893-pitt-street-apartments/$
If you want to
add a comment describing why this file was included as a dependency, or which files specifically need to be installed (e.g. only the .SC4Model files), you can suffix the name of the offsite file with a number sign/hash sign/hashmark (
#) and the comment to be displayed. The comment may not contain any '@' signs, as that would interfere with the link. For example:
Pitt Street Apartments#Only the .SC4Model files are required!@http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/28893-pitt-street-apartments/$
What if my lot has no dependencies at all?Then it's really simple. Either add "NONE" to the dependency list, or leave it blank.
How about a real life example?Okay, sure. Let's take the ITC Embassy (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2223). That lot has 7 dependencies, 6 on the LEX and 1 on CapitalSim.
- BSC TexturePack Cycledogg v01b (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=101) (LEX, ?lotGET=101)
- BSC MEGA Props - swi Vol 01 (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=403) (LEX, ?lotGET=403)
- BSC MEGA Props - c.p. Vol 01 (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1180) (LEX, ?lotGET=1180)
- BSC MEGA Props - SG Vol 01 (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=746) (LEX, ?lotGET=746)
- BSC MEGA Props - D66 Vol 02 (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=556) (LEX, ?lotGET=556)
- BSC Essentials (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=443) (LEX, ?lotGET=443)
- CAS Essentials (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2324) (LEX, ?lotGET=2324, Needed for queries)
- Embajada Official de Atlantis (http://descargas.capitalsim.net/?sitio=csc&descarga=925) (CapitalSim, descargas.capitalsim.net/?sitio=csc&descarga=925, You only need the .SC4Model file!)
All this condenses into the following LEX Dependency Tracker list:
101$403$1180$746$556$443$2324#Needed for queries$Embajada Official de Atlantis#You only need the .SC4Model file!@http://descargas.capitalsim.net/?sitio=csc&descarga=925
Which looks like this in the form field:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F5uWzEj6.png&hash=699c70bba5d0c803bdbcc068193b09c2b419e87b)
and like this in the Dependency Tracker:
(https://i.imgur.com/bWeYhwc.png)
I hope this tutorial has been helpful. Feel free to ask question if something is not clear enough :)
is there a reason this has to be $-separated and all on a single line? would it not be more sensible to make it a multiline field where each line is either number or text@link?
No particular reason. It just turned out to be a bit easier to explode() the list on '$' than on newlines, which could be \n, \r\n, etc. Since $ cannot appear in URLs, it seemed like a good choice at the time
Some extra functionality was added to the Dependency Tracker today, allowing you to specify that certain dependencies should not be recursively analysed (so their dependencies are not added to your list) and allowing you to add some comments as to why a certain file is included in the dependency list, or to specify what exactly is needed (e.g. only .SC4Model files or a specific .dat file).
The tutorial has been updated to add these changes.