F.A.Q. - About WAU, Migration, CC

[Laibcoms]

WAU not working?

Read the FAQ to get updated. Then ask away if you still have burning questions. ^_^

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Last update: 2008-Oct-12; 9:37am ACT (Asean Common Time)

Q: What happened to WAU?
A: WAU has been discontinued.

Q: Why? It's the greatest updater!
A: Yes it was, and I believe everybody will agree. However, WAU connects to where Add-On Devs commit their changes, and a little change (for example language update) triggers WAU to download the whole add-on. The bandwidth it generates if you multiply it exponentially (other addons, hundreds of users, major patch update) is not justfiable anymore. WoWAce financial supporters are already paying more than what they can pull out from their pockets.

Q: But there were ads!
A: Yes, but that wasn't enough to cover all the costs alone. Count the time needed they need to keep the site and repository going, while living their own real-lives... it simply just wasn't enough.

Q: Any chance it will be back?
A: Nope, sorry.

Q: What if I sponsor it all, can we put it back?
A: Probably, but I doubt Kaelten will give any back-up of the old WoWAce. Secondly, I doubt there will be enough Add-On Devs who will go back to the old system. Third, you are only going to split the Community, and that is not very good at all IMO.

Q: How do I update my addons now?
A: First, do it manually. Download your addons from Curse-Gaming where the "release" version of WoWAce addons are available. If it isn't there or you do not like Curse, then search for it at WoWInterface.com, you can also search WoWUI. Secondly, make a back-up of all your existing add-ons as well as your WTF folder.

Q: Any updaters I can use?
A: Curse Client

Q: But I read it "sucks", why should I use it?
A: Well, maybe it does, but it is a software that is currently being actively developed.

Q: If the CC is still being developed, then we shouldn't have migrated yet! 3.0.2 patch is looming in the horizon!!
A: True, but then again, by the time the CC is done and is according to what most users want it to be, WoWAce might not be alive anymore. Again, the bandwidth generated with the old system is just too much, the financial support is not enough.

Q: BUT!! I'm sad...
A: I know, we all are. But sacrifices has to be made in order to keep the WoWAce spirit and Community to live on.

Q: Why did you not mentioned downloading from WoWAce?
A: Well, for the general population, it isn't really recommended.

Q: So that means most of us are not allowed here?
A: No, you are more than welcomed here. Just that, more than half of those downloading from WoWAce are only after the add-ons itself. These add-ons will now be available over at Curse-Gaming and wherever its authors upload it. If you want to download from WoWAce itself, by all means you are free to do so. Or if you want to participate in the Community, that's cool!

Q: Thank you very much.
A: Thank you to you too.

Q: Are "Disembbed" libs still supported?
A: I believe so, yes. I am seeing more and more add-ons providing a nolibs downloadable file, look for files with the suffix "-nolibs".

Q: Under the new curse structure is this feature still available or we are gonna have to download the whole addon package as one again?
A: If I recall, this will be supported. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Q: Now, will ace addon be available to other updaters or it will be *curse exclusive*?
A: For a good explanation, read Lykofos' answer.

Q: Curse Client is a Windows app, how about MAC and GNU/Linux users?
A: There is a Mac client in beta with talk of a linux version coming after the MAC client's release. (Answer provided by: Spennig.)

Q: Could you provide steps how we can update our Add-Ons?
A: Sure! The following steps are what I do:

• 1st: Back-up your Interface and WTF folders
• 2nd: Delete the contents of your 'Interface/AddOns/' folder (be sure you did #1 above)
• 3rd: Search for every Add-On you have on Curse and WoW Interface (note: Ignore all folders with "libs" as its prefix, IF you used disembedded libs during the WAU days.)
• 4th: Bookmark those Add-Ons so you can get back to it for updates (use the site's bookmark/favorites feature, so you get emails for updates).
• 5th: Download each Add-On and extract the contents to your 'Interface/AddOns/' folder. Your Interface/Addons/ folder should be empty if you did Step 1 and 2 above.
• 6th: If you can not find some of your "WAU" Add-Ons, then go to WoWAce's Projects Page and search your add-on there. Then repeat Steps 4 and 5.
• 7th: Fire-up your WoW (figuratively speaking, do not burn your PC), log-in, do some adjustments and configurations if needed, but it should work as if nothing has changed.
• 8th: Log-out properly (Logout > Exit WoW), wait a few seconds, then make a new back-up of your WTF folder (this is optional)

Q: Thank you, but updating manually is a pain...
A: Maybe, but Add-Ons do not update every minute, not even every hour, nor every day, most not even every week (unless the Add-On is new and is a new 'data' add-on). So, if you really think about it, you are not going to update your Add-Ons every minute, every hour, every day.

Q: But it's 3.0.2 Patch day!!
A: Just be patient. It'll take a week or two, then everything will calm down, it's not hard.

Q: Okay, how about I still want to use "disembedded" libs, how do I update manually?
A: Follow the steps outlined above, then list down the libs of each Ace Add-Ons, delete the embedded libs, then download the libs. I'm not sure if pulling the embedded libs out will work, haven't tried that.

Last update: 2008-Oct-12; 9:37am ACT (Asean Common Time)
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Reply with your questions and it will be added here. And please, no more angry responses, let's help each other here, shall we?

[Torhal]

Rather to the point.

[zodius]

Very good FAQ.
They should make it sticky or put it on the Announcement page..... 3.02 bound to have alot of incoming traffic for the dead WAU....

ok here are my questions

Q1: Are Disembbed addon still supported?

one reason I used ace addon is because of the shared libraries that can cut resource and addon loading time. To my knowledge WAU/WOWACE is the only develop community using this disembbed structure and provide the separate addons/libs to people.
Under the new curse structure is this feature still available or we are goona have to download the whole addon package as one again?

Q2: Now ace addon are still available to other updaters or it will be *curse exclusive*?

There are other updaters around that used to connect to curse/wowace sites for files. Under the new structure are they able to access curse site's addons or curse is going to block them and let the addons be *exclusive* to curse client only?

[Lykofos]

Originally Posted by zodius

Q2: Now ace addon are still available to other updaters or it will be *curse exclusive*?

There are other updaters around that used to connect to curse/wowace sites for files. Under the new structure are they able to access curse site's addons or curse is going to block them and let the addons be *exclusive* to curse client only?

"Ace" AddOns have never been "exclusive" to WoWAce. AddOn authors have been free to release to whatever AddOn site they choose, whether it be Curse, WoWInterface, or (rarely these days) ui.worldofwar.net. The mods that could only be found on WoWAce fell into one or more of the following:

- the author was too lazy to release anywhere else. Unfortunately WAU caused both authors and users to be very lazy.

- the AddOn in question was never meant for release.

- the AddOn is alpha/beta code and thus not considered a release. The vast majority of AddOns that could be downloaded via WAU were alpha/beta code. Many users downloaded the AddOn, then complained of bugs yet did not give any useful feedback/Bugsack (or Swatter) data to help the author track down the bug. Usually said user would post something like, "Its broke, fix it!".

WoWAce was never meant to be a release site, rather its a resource for developers.

Also remember that some "Ace" mods have never been hosted on WoWAce but live exlusively on other AddOn sites. Those mods hosted on other mod sites are availible via third party updater. Mods on CurseForge/WoWAce should not be avaible via a third party updater. If said third party updater can download "new" mods from CurseForge/WoWAce, then likely that updater has done some "funny business" to enable that.

[Zikko]

Nice FAQ! The only thing missing: A short sentence in large friendly letters: "Don't panic."

[DarkAudit]

Curse Client is a Windows app. Where does that leave users who don't use Windows, or have problems getting Curse Client to run with WINE?

[Spennig]

Originally Posted by DarkAudit

Curse Client is a Windows app. Where does that leave users who don't use Windows, or have problems getting Curse Client to run with WINE?

There is a Mac client in beta with talk of a linux version coming after the MAC client's release.

Edit:

http://static.curseforge.net/client/...p-2.0.0.13.dmg

There's a link I pulled from another thread, since i can't seem to find the announcements on the site at the moment.

[syrupk]

I'm not really understanding what the problem is with downloading from files.wowace.com. I fully know the things that can happen from downloading development version addons. I prefer not to use Curse, but I still do participate in community discussions here. I don't really understand why you are frowning upon that.

I wouldn't ever use the curse client for the same reasons I didn't use the wowace updater. I like to update my addons by hand, one at a time. Usually I have many backups that I need for files changed within the mod itself, and if I do them by hand it just seems easier to me. I've never been a fan of the curse site, I usually stick with wowace and wowinterface, unless it came to checking up on what Tapestry was working on etc. I can't even do that anymore there.

Edit: And also, I see you talking about "funny business" with updaters such as, dare I say it, wowmatrix. Making money off your mods is what they are doing, but they are only linking to your mods to do it. They can just as easily still link to development versions on files.wowace.com or curse just as they do for wowinterface, unless you guys do something to stop it. It's one thing to have an addon author write to them and ask to have their addons removed, its another for the community to do research into what they are doing and move against them together. i've seen so many threads on this lately and no one coming up with anything better than "write to them and have them removed". If what they are doing is really wrong, do something about it. Protect that hard work that you have done for all of us.

[MoonWitch]

Originally Posted by syrupk

I'm not really understanding what the problem is with downloading from files.wowace.com. I fully know the things that can happen from downloading development version addons. I prefer not to use Curse, but I still do participate in community discussions here. I don't really understand why you are frowning upon that.

The thing here is that while it's perfectly fine to use files.wowace.com (note: this is now dead.), it didn't compress much, and the way it was set up caused many people to think an addon has been updated while it was merely a library that was updated. It caused a lot of bandwidth to be used while it could have been done with a lot less.
Example: I have AddonA using Ace3, and run disembedded. There is an update in Ace3, every addon that uses Ace3 would have been marked as being updated. So every addon would be downloaded in the "new" version. But we have no quarrel with you using wowace, you are active in a community, seem to understand that updating straight from the svn right before a raid could horribly mess up your UI. So you won't come crying to us when something broke. But that is why you would fall under the "power-user" category. :P

I wouldn't ever use the curse client for the same reasons I didn't use the wowace updater. I like to update my addons by hand, one at a time. Usually I have many backups that I need for files changed within the mod itself, and if I do them by hand it just seems easier to me. I've never been a fan of the curse site, I usually stick with wowace and wowinterface, unless it came to checking up on what Tapestry was working on etc. I can't even do that anymore there.

Again this reads to me as "Power-user". I don't backup constantly, but surely once every 2 weeks I make a WTF and Interface backup. For files that change a lot and often, I use svn, which allows me to revert to a previous version rather easily.

Edit: And also, I see you talking about "funny business" with updaters such as, dare I say it, wowmatrix. Making money off your mods is what they are doing, but they are only linking to your mods to do it. They can just as easily still link to development versions on files.wowace.com or curse just as they do for wowinterface, unless you guys do something to stop it. It's one thing to have an addon author write to them and ask to have their addons removed, its another for the community to do research into what they are doing and move against them together. i've seen so many threads on this lately and no one coming up with anything better than "write to them and have them removed". If what they are doing is really wrong, do something about it. Protect that hard work that you have done for all of us.

Personally, my beef with wowmatrix is not that they link to addons, it allows the user to download those addons from the original hosting site, from within wowmatrix while wowmatrix gains money from ad revenue, while making users bypass the ads etc from the original hosting site, which does lose ad revenue while still providing the bandwidth for the user to download that addon. (OMG, this sentence can not possibly get any worse.)

[syrupk]

If files.wowace.com is dead, which I'm certainly not disagreeing with you on, why are the addons on the page still being updated.

Moonwitch, thankyou very much for the reply. I too would use the svn, but I don't understand it very well. Could you point me in the direction of some information as to how I could better get started with that?

Also, just to clarify, I'm not in any way knocking the decision to move to the curse site. Quite the contrary in fact, I completely understand the reasoning behind it. However, i'm just really not that impressed by the curse site period(though I know they are trying to make things better). I like the sounds of being able to use something else. I appreciate your feedback.

Edit: Oops, forgot the wowmatrix bit. If they are making money of the authors hard work without permission, isn't there something we can do to stop that?