WowAceUpdater
From WowAce Wiki
Formerly known as WinAceUpdater
These are BETA addons you are updating and you should expect to see cutting edge features which may not be fully functional or bug-free. If this doesn't sound appealing for you, stop reading this page and update your addons through release versions from mod sites instead. Some addons are more beta than others.
This tool provides an easy way for you to keep your Ace addons up to date. When it first launches, it will download a list of available addons from http://files.wowace.com. If it can determine your local World of Warcraft installation folder, it will also compare that list with the addons you currently have installed and pre-check them.
Check the boxes of any addons you want to update/download and choose "Update Checked Addons" from the File menu (or press F12). The status of the download will be presented in the lower pane.
Download Location
If you use Firefox, the easiest thing to do is use IE to download the app. Afterwards it can update on its own. If you really don't want to use IE, you can get this addon for Firefox.
Getting Help
CHECK THESE LOCATIONS FIRST
http://www.wowace.com/forums/index.php?topic=8308.0
http://www.wowace.com/forums/index.php?topic=8298.0
http://www.wowace.com/forums/index.php?topic=8542.0
Requirements
- Operating System: MS Windows (NT/2000/XP/Vista)
- .NET 2.0 Runtime - available from MSDN
- You need to add wowace.com to trusted sites in Internet Explorer to avoid the "Cannot launch application" Error and launch IE in elevated mode.
scroll to the bottom for other platforms and updaters
1.9, Automatic Everything
You can uninstall !!!StandaloneLibraries and use these recommended settings:
1.8, Released
Version 1.8 Release on 05-21-2007. Check sourceforge link above for updates.
New Features include selectable mirrors along with various bugfixes
1.7, Packages, and !!!StandaloneLibraries
Options
By choosing Preferences from the Edit menu, you can fine-tune the behavior of WinAceUpdater. The following options are available:
- AceFilesPath
- The location of the Ace files repository. Do not change this value unless you are instructed to do so. (Default: http://files.wowace.com/)
- ConfirmSync
- Confirm before downloading and installing. (Default: True)
- DeleteBeforeExtracting
- Delete local files before installing. This can be used to clean up any old files that don't belong any more. (Default: True)
- DisplayBackupWarningAtStartup ; Displays a warning at startup reminding you to backup your addons folder. (Default: True)
- SkipSvnWorkingCopies
- If set to true, it will skip any installed addon that has a .svn folder in the root. Good for developers who don't want their working copies lost, but also useful if you want an addon to be ignored because you have private changes or custom files. (Default: True)
- SkipVersionCheck
- If set to true, all checked addons will be downloaded and installed and no version comparison will be performed. If set to false, an addon will only be downloaded and installed if there is a newer version on the server. (Default: False)
- UseRecycleBin
- When true, it will move things it deletes to the Windows Recycle Bin instead of deleting them. (Default: True)
- WowInstallDirectory
- The location of the World of Warcraft installation folder. You can also set this to another folder (it must exist) if you want to update (Default: auto-populated from the registry if available, blank otherwise)
Tips and Tricks
Dealing with Library Errors using !!!StandaloneLibs
Purge and Reinstall
WITH Externals vs. WITHOUT Externals
(based on the discussion here)
WITH Externals
AddonA uses libraryX and LibraryY, and AddonB also uses the same two libraries. If you installed both AddonA and AddonB "With Externals", you would have a folder structure as follows:
Interface\AddOns
..AddonA
....Libs
......LibraryX
......LibraryY
..AddonB
....Libs
......LibraryX
......LibraryY
When you load AddonA and AddonB, each addon instructs WoW to load the libraries contained within it's folder structure, meaning LibraryX and LibraryY both get loaded twice (once for each addon). X and Y are smart enough to know that they are the same library so only one copy remains in memory. This is also called "embedding libraries".
WITHOUT Externals
Using the example above, but installed "Without Externals", the folder structure would instead be as follows:
Interface\AddOns
..AddonA
..AddonB
..LibraryX
..LibraryY
AddonA and AddonB will have instructions in their TOC file to force WoW to load LibraryX and LibraryY first before attempting to load either addon (specifically, A and B will list LibraryX and LibraryY as dependencies). This means you only load each library once, shortening the loading time when first logging in. This is also called "disembedding libraries".
To run without externals, enable "Automatic Dependency Download" and disable "Default mode WITH externals".
Which is better?
No matter which way you install your addons, memory usage and performance is (usually) not affected, only the initial loading time. Library upgrades should always be backwards compatible within the same major version.
Of course, some people don't like seeing 40 different libraries in their addon folders as "individual addons". The main issue most people have with this is that there is no standard library naming scheme so there are heaps of libraries in your addon folder without any easy way to differentiate the libraries from the actual addons.
Library authors are moving towards naming their Libraries starting with Lib- though, so this shouldn't be too much of an issue in the future. But the future is a long way off.
If hard drive space is an issue (like if you have *every* Ace addon installed and a dinky little hard drive), you may want to update without externals. That way you don't have 974 copies of the exact same files all over your Addons folder.
Cleanup WoW Saved Variables
What does it do?
When you delete a mod from the Addons folder, it may still have files in the WTF folder. This feature removes WTF files that do not belong to any current mod in your Interface/Addons folder. It affects any WTF file, whether or not it was installed by WowAceUpdater.
Before deleting the old files, it makes a zipped backup named "account-backup.zip" in your WTF folder. To prevent this backup from being overwritten the next time you use this feature, either move or rename it.
Sample output of the Cleanup WoW Saved Variables feature:
Creating SV Backup... done. SV Cleanup Started: Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\Boulderfist Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\Moon Guard Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\SavedVariables Removing: !ImprovedErrorFrame.lua Removing: !ImprovedErrorFrame.lua.bak Removing: AdvancedTradeSkillWindow.lua Removing: AdvancedTradeSkillWindow.lua.bak Removing: Auctioneer.lua Removing: Auctioneer.lua.bak Removing: AutoBar.lua Removing: AutoBar.lua.bak Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\Moon Guard\Samplecharname Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\Moon Guard\Samplecharname\SavedVariables Removing: BeneCast.lua Removing: CT_Viewport.lua Removing: eCastingBar.lua Removing: Necrosis.lua Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\Boulderfist\Unusedaltone Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\Boulderfist\Unusedalttwo Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\Boulderfist\Unusedaltthree Checking C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\EXAMPLEACCOUNTNAME\Boulderfist\Maincharname\SavedVariables Removing: AutoBar.lua Removing: AutoBar.lua.bak Removing: Bagnon.lua Removing: Bagnon.lua.bak Removing: CT_Viewport.lua Removing: CT_Viewport.lua.bak Files Deleted: 18 Total Size: 285.9 kB The backup at: C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF\account-backup.zip will be overwritten next time cleanup is run If you want to keep it you should copy it to another location. SV Cleanup Complete
The Package System
Inclusion of a file "filelist.wau" qualifies a mod as a package.
The "packaged" components should be subdirectories of the addon, and their names should be placed into filelist.wau one per line.
Example: filelist.wau
module1 module2
Example: package directory
package/ module1 module2 filelist.wau
This would unpack to:
module1 module2 package
The filelist.wau supports namespace prefixing of the mod via the "@" char
Example: filelist.wau
@module1 @module2
would unpack as
package package_module1 package_module2
When unpacked the subaddons are queued for update, and if they are also packages themselves they are unpacked and the process contines.
Other Programs and Scripts that Update Ace Addons
In addition to WAU there are some other scripts and programs that can update addons.
Scripts and Programs that use /files/
- WoWAceUpdater Mac OS X - Mac OS X Leopard updater for Ace add-ons
- Quaiche's PowerShell Script - Supports WowAce, WowInterface, and ui.worldofwar.net!
- Kemayo's wowace.py script (forum thread)
- dafire's perl script
- Kadish's command line addon manipulator
- MacAceUpdater
- WUU - WoW UI Updater by lejordet (forum thread)
- CmdAceUpdater by lys
- gmthor's wowupdate - java based wowace updater with auto unzip; dependency check working on Windows and Mac OS X
Scripts and Programs that use SVN
Remember to read the SVN Rules.
