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**MrSinatra** · 18 February 2010, 22:03

hey, that looks great. some ideas:

isn't zip supported by windows? (maybe only extraction, not compression, idk, but thought i'd mention it)

will your plugin operate automatically and silently in the background? will the devs be able to include it as a "core" plugin if convinced its worthy? what all will be included as "configuration files?"

looking forward to trying it out.

**Koopa** · 18 February 2010, 22:57

I write a standalone program, no plugin - similar to MozBackup, if you know that. The aim is it to save all configurations files (Winamp.ini, library settings, ratings, playlists, bookmarks etc)

I want all saved backup files in 1 compressed file only, so users can save it on a usb stick or whatever.

The problem is zipping it up, decompression is no big thing. Not sure, if the Windows zip function supports command line actions.

**MrSinatra** · 18 February 2010, 23:52

i see. well, very worthwhile of course, but since its a separate and manual operation i fear it won't stem the angry posts. i find backups need to be automatic and silent for most lazy users. but i'll certainly enjoy using it esp for reproducing my install on other machines.

will it have some kind of version check, to see if the zip backup corresponds to the ver of winamp its attempting to be restored to?

**Koopa** · 19 February 2010, 00:04

Well, sorry, but all I can do is a separate program, if you need a plugin, you have to find someone else, who makes it.

Winamp Version check would be easily possible.

Implementing command line support should be possible too, so you could add it to a Windows task, which will be automatically proceeded every x days.

But I better don't promise too much now, since I'm involved in too many other Winamp projects.

My goal is it to provide a solid backup tool similar to MozBackup, and I'm sure a lot of people would be happy to see something like this.

[Edit]Updated screenshots, which should show, what concept I'll use.

**MrSinatra** · 19 February 2010, 06:15

i think its more the winamp devs/forums that need the auto feature via plugin, to save themselves grief, but what you're doing looks great and will be useful to many people, including me.

**DrO** · 19 February 2010, 07:35

this has been talked about a few times with the whole backup as a plug-in thing and it can't work as Winamp needs to be completely shutdown for all settings to be copied without the risk of loosing those settings due to files still being in use. some aspects can be backed up at the time but the media library i think is the one aspect (which most people gripe about) which wouldn't be able to be done reliably whilst Winamp is running.

and what Koopa is trying to do is pretty much what has been discussed to implement by a few of us behind the scenes as it's the safest means of doing a backup and provides the best flexibility which a plug-in will not provide in this situation without modifications to the core.

you could also automate some other things, like onefornunz plugin listings and so on.

automate in what manner?

if i were a dev, avoiding angry users would be #1 on my priority list

and if everything was as simple to do as comments like that then anything and everything would be able to be implemented. as you know it's not like that however and there are so many other factors affecting what is or isn't done with the available developer resources that what you (or anyone else thinks is important) isn't necessarily deemed so by people higher up the chain.

The problem is zipping it up

koopa: there's a zip plug-in for nsis which will handle all of that (though i've not used it, heh it should be reasonably well documented to use on the nsis wiki. and i'm glad you're doing this tool

-daz

**MrSinatra** · 19 February 2010, 08:53

i don't think anything i've said should be taken as anything other than constructive. i fully understand your points but if outlook can do it, and it does do it, i would hope winamp could also do it. a plugin could initiate a totally and wholly separate (non-plugin) process that would wait to detect for winamp to be totally closed when it senses winamp has been been initiated to close. i believe thats how the outlook add-in works to backup pst files that otherwise would be in use.

this isn't big on my wishlist, tho it would be very nice to have. its just that in my observation, the angriest posts could be avoided by this, and so i would think the devs would be into it. if i'm wrong, fine, no skin off my nose.

as for onefornunz, the hope is the plugin could automate the txt file listing of all installed plugins. that way if someone had install failures the txt file would have the most recent plugins listed to help troubleshoot.

**DrO** · 19 February 2010, 11:59

i'm just throwing out an alternative view (from something i briefly tried to implement myself a few years back) which is why koopa is going with the approach he is at the moment but there's nothing stopping a further level of communication like you say to have the process scheduled/initiated from within Winamp to the external handler.

as for onefornunz, we've already implemented an automatic generation for the external version but the plug-in version suffers from a few design/client limitations which means i'd need to do some hackery to get an automatic report generated on start-up but i'll keep it in mind for the next full release of the plug-in (as it has been talked about before hence the start of making the report generate with a ctrl+click on the plug-in's config action).

-daz

**Koopa** · 19 February 2010, 15:41

Thanks, Dro.

Hopefully the zip plugin is Unicode friendly. Talked with Egg last night and I guess, we save the files in a fixed dir for first public release. But implementing the zip thing, will definitly make it in the 1.0 release.

Switched to MUI2, because I need more space, especially for the sections. These small installers are good for single Winamp plugins, but for more complex stuff, you quickly run out of space.

**ujay** · 19 February 2010, 19:10

I guess it's the 'automatic' part that people really want, so they don't need to remember, and are always current.

You can make a restore point(not quite the same thing) of Winamp settings and zip it up any time you like nowadays, in the same way as you would with Firefox or Thunderbird.

Perhaps it would be a good first step to implement Koopa's prog from the uninstaller by adding a backup option to the keep settings option coming in 5.58.

UJ

**MrSinatra** · 20 February 2010, 00:24

maybe i'm reading this wrong but i think its confusing to use the term "automatic" to mean "what files to pick for backup" as opposed to "make backups automatically" which is more about when then what.

perhaps the term "Default" would be better to use when indicating the backup tool chooses what to backup?

**Koopa** · 20 February 2010, 00:28

Originally posted by MrSinatra
"what files to pick for backup"

Is for Custom mode only.

Automatic means automatic and will let the user just choose between backup or restore - nothing else.

You should take a look at this: http://meggamusic.co.uk/shup/1266610221/eu.png

**MrSinatra** · 20 February 2010, 00:33

you misunderstand what i am saying.

i know picking custom means the user can pick what files to back up.

but what i am saying is that it is confusing to use the term "automatic" when that means the user wants the app to pick the files to backup. i think "default" is a better term for that, b/c "automatic" to me and i think many users would connote a meaning that the function of backing up will now happen at regular intervals, even though that is not the case.

jmho.

**Koopa** · 20 February 2010, 00:38

You lost me. If the user has no ability to set any component, what else is it?

In that mode the installer automatically decides, which files will be backed up/restored.

The text doesn't say anything about automatically, periodly created backups, so I fail to see your point.

Announcement

Winamp Backup Tool (v3.6.4 available, released on 19-12-2022)

Winamp Backup Tool (v3.6.4 available, released on 19-12-2022)

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