Modding Discussion [Updated] WIP - MPack, Mod Developmental Environment (Very early build)

UPDATES!!!!!!! (Still no DL yet)

Added line numbers to the document viewer!
Changed the central-most layout to suit the editor better.
Added merge/add/remove/rename features to mods view.
Quick Search is now located to the top right of the form.



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Hey guys, just figured I'd show off a fairly lightweight modding environment for Starbound.

This program was developed in C#, using Visual Studio (.Net 4.0). If you, or anyone you know has experience in c# and would like to contribute, contact me via message on these forums!

Current Features:

File preview on mouse over. Allows you to see a portion of the code without opening the file!
Typed icons! Icons distinguishing from: Folder, Image, and special user-defined extensions. (More will be implemented soon)
Quick Search. From selected text in the document viewer, or from the quicksearch bar!
Doube Clicking an item in the 'Matches List' navigates your solution to the appropriate location for ease of access!
Bookmarks for storing frequently viewed documents.
(Much more)

If anyone would like to see images of the program in action, please visit: http://imgur.com/a/Pmf9t
That is my imgur, and feel free to explore!

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If anyone has any suggestion and/or improvements that can be made/added, please post below regarding them!

Thanks everyone, TreeTopSky

 

You might want to add a download link.

 

Not available for DL yet. Need to fix up a few things before i do.

 

Woo! Another tool! I love these things.

From what I can gather from the screenshots, this looks like a more like a developer environment type tool, rather than something than an automatic item maker tool type thing. Would this be accurate?

If that is accurate, five things that would make this awesome. Probably a bit of work, but would certainly add a whole lot to the tool and make it a killer application for Starbound modders who really want to get to the meat of the files.

• Syntax highlighting, a bit like here: http://jsonsh.com/
• A built in JSON validator
• Making it work with mono.
• Possibility to have split workstation for two different directories for file diff / merge functionality.
• A smart object string dictionary for the JSON files to highlight if there's an attribute that is not known; this could also be combined with "suggestions as you type".

Although all of the functionality can be achieved using various programs (such as gedit, meld, and that site for me), it'd be amazing to have everything in one handy-dandy place.

Anyways, I wish you well with the project. This will be another one I will be keeping my eye on.

 

Quite correct actually! I've seen a whole bunch of these other tools that create the item for you, etc.. But with this I'm trying to leave everything up to the modder, this is just to allow the modder to navigate quickly and make changes on the spot. Never a need to have 50+ explorer windows open at a time.

Also, the merge functionality is what i'm working on now. Syntax highlighting is going to be tough.
I've not worked much with JSON, could you enlighten me by what exactly you mean by JSON validator?
EDIT: Nevermind about the JSON. Did a bit of research, and figured it out.

 

Oh, fantastic!

That'll save people so many headaches when Starbound updates.

Validation is just checking that everything is in order and the structure is sound. For example, this is valid:

Code:

{
  "id": "apextutorial.gearup",
  "title": "^#9be3d6;On The Run.",
  "text": "The Miniknog has crushed the Apex rebellion. You have escaped with your life intact by hijacking a Miniknog ship. The ship has run out of fuel in orbit of an unknown planet. Before setting out in search of fuel, ^green;search your ship's storage for a ^pink;matter manipulator^white;. Press ^green;E ^white;to interact with objects.",
  "completionText": "Well done! The matter manipulator allows you to manipulate almost anything in the gameworld.",
  "conditions": [
    {
      "kind": "gather",
      "item": [
        "beamaxe",
        1
      ]
    }
  ],
  "moneyRange": [
    10,
    10
  ],
  "rewards": [
    [
      [
        "beamaxe",
        1
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "planetMode": "none",
  "questDungeons": [],
  "followUp": "tutorial2.gearup"
}

But this is not:

Code:

{
  "id": "apextutorial.gearup",
  "title": "^#9be3d6;On The Run.",
  "text": "The Miniknog has crushed the Apex rebellion. You have escaped with your life intact by hijacking a Miniknog ship. The ship has run out of fuel in orbit of an unknown planet. Before setting out in search of fuel, ^green;search your ship's storage for a ^pink;matter manipulator^white;. Press ^green;E ^white;to interact with objects.",
  "completionText": "Well done! The matter manipulator allows you to manipulate almost anything in the gameworld.",
  "conditions": [
    {
      "kind": "gather",
      "item": [
        "beamaxe",
        1
      ]
    }
  ],
  "moneyRange": [
    10,
    10
  ]
  "rewards": [
    [
      [
        "beamaxe",
        1
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "planetMode": "none",
  "questDungeons": [],
  "followUp": "tutorial2.gearup"
}

Can you spot the difference in three seconds? Nope? That's why a JSON validator built in would be awesome.

Copy and paste both sets of code into the link I posted earlier (it's a validator as well as pretty syntax highlighter). It'll show you immediately what's up.

Actually, that reminds me of another suggestion. Line numbering would be a huge boon to the editor as well. Especially for, say, mod collabs: "Hey, could you check out the <thing> on Line <x>". It;s a lot easier to get the message across that way than saying "You know that bit with <this thing here> that's somewhere in the file?". Additionally, with the validator a person knows exactly where to look to fix the boo-boo.

edit: Ah, you edit ninja'd me

 

Bump Updated!

 

Very nice! Are you planning on open sourcing this when it's released? I'd be interested in taking a look at the code.

 

Yes! This will be open source when it's released!