Extending duplex: file management

[KMaki]

Hello. I thought I’d make a new thread, hope there’s not a similar one already.

So, If I’m not overlooking something, it seems that when updating the Duplex tool it wipes all applications, controllers, etc… except the ones distributed with the tool itself. It’s of course a limitation that comes from the current framework for renoise tools, but I was wondering if there are plans to make managing self-made-extensions more user friendly in the future? Knowing this limitation, it’s no big deal to take care of self-written control maps etc…, of course.

[danoise]

No, currently Duplex doesn’t come with an automagic backup feature - it behaves like any other tool.
Hopefully, you didn’t accidentally wipe your data?

In any case, this is a subject not just limited to Duplex, perhaps other script authors have thought about it too?
I’m pretty sure vV has done some research into this matter, but a quick search didn’t bring up any results.

Edit: Ah, found it. He’s added a “safe installer routine” to the Epic Arpeggiator which will preserve existing presets when updating.

But I would largely tend to agree with vV on the following (quoting from the tool page):

Due to the nature of how Renoise installs tools, current existing V2.0 presets would be erased if you would drag and drop the direct tool on Renoise or update it with the tool updater. For the latter reason and the fact that the naming convention of tools is very strict, V3.0 is not available on the tools page until Renoise supports preservation of user specific preset data.

Until then, it’s a matter of “manually backing up stuff” or implementing various workarounds - much like the tools that save data inside sample-names.

Actually, that discussion (how to save tool data in a song) is quite similar - implement the functionality as a shared library, or as a native solution?

[KMaki]

@danoise

Hopefully, you didn’t accidentally wipe your data?

Nah. I’m too cautious for that. I was just considering this on a grander level. Some tools (Duplex being one of the most obvious examples) do have a need to preserve files, and currently it seems no out-of-the-box solution exists. Well besides preferences.xml, which is a great addition to the api.

@danoise

… I would largely tend to agree with vV on the following (quoting from the tool page):

Due to the nature of how Renoise installs tools, current existing V2.0 presets would be erased if you would drag and drop the direct tool on Renoise or update it with the tool updater. For the latter reason and the fact that the naming convention of tools is very strict, V3.0 is not available on the tools page until Renoise supports preservation of user specific preset data.

@danoise

Until then, it’s a matter of “manually backing up stuff” or implementing various workarounds - much like the tools that save data inside sample-names.

Yep. No worries for now, for me. It’s just good to have the discussion up and going. Thanks for the quick answer! And concerning the workaround you mentioned, I’m not that fond of it. I mean, it’s a clever and proven method, but perhaps a bit too “raw”-ish, if you know what I mean… The tools-concept is rather young, and I think it’s catching on as a way to extend functionality with ease. So I’m keen to believe the framework will be polished according to the needs of tool developers in the future as well.

(BTW What on earth is going on with the smileys in the forum… I get tailing /> additions after each edit…)