Custom Repository

[PiddlyD]

The ability to set up the Vam Hub to point to a custom repository full of .vars and other assets would be a game changer for allowing you to customize VAM with a new instance optimized just with your favorite scenes. You could then hit the custom repository and pull over your dependencies directly from a local drive, even those that aren't on the hub.

With the way VAM gets bloated it beats going through and searching for unwanted scenes, looks, plugins, assets to delete. Lots of people are already doing this manually - but this would make it so much easier to achieve.

 

[atani]

Can you explain your idea in more detail?

 

[PiddlyD]

So, if I wanted a clean install, I'd do that, right, a side by side installation of a new copy of VAM on either the same storage or a 2nd drive. Drag over just the looks, scenes and other data from /addons that I *want* - then point the Vam Hub at the previous cluttered VAM instance /addons directory and the VARS in the new /addon directory would be scanned and necessary dependencies from the old directory would be copied over, leaving unwanted bloat, scenes, vars and other clutter in the older /addons directory. I mean, you can do it NOW by doing just this and then hitting the VAM HUB itself to download dependencies - but this would be local - and theoretically if you have vars or other addons that AREN'T on the hub, it should be able to grab those from your local older /addons directory, right?

I guess the question is, how does VAM determine what is IN your library and what dependencies they require to scan the hub and see if they're there and populate the list to download them. Will that work locally, without a network connection, independent of the VAM hub?

The *idea* is actually a great way to addressing a problem a lot of plugins have tried to resolve - things like VAR manager. But instead of being deductive, instead of REMOVING things from a cluttered instance - you ADD to a clean instance from a cluttered one.

Heck - even as a plugin or standalone program - it might be awesome. If I could code, I'd give it a crack.

 

[atani]

On a simplistic way you could symlink the new AddonsPackages to the old AddonsPackages instead of copying the files, they would be read as if it's all in the same folder. You don't really gain anything special here, but it gives you organising options file management wise I guess. A more complicated way is to go into what those various plugins like VAR Manager do. I am not familiar with the plugins, they do different things using different methods, not just removing things.

How VaM finds what is a dependency is to read the meta.json file inside each VAR. See my guide "Anatomy of a VAR" if you need more information about what VARs are.
If you have a basic knowledge of a programming language, python for example, you could make yourself a script that would read all these meta.json files, list the dependencies removing copies, check if they're in your AddonPackages folder, if not to check in your old AddonPackages folder, copy to the new one if they are in the old folder. After this execution, everything that is not already in your new AddonsPackages folder is something you don't have and needs to be taken from the Hub or other online services.

 

[PiddlyD]

I mean, I can do basic VB coding in Access - but that is about the extent of my programming capabilities.

This might give me a good practical purpose for learning python scripting, though.

I might look into this. Thank You, Atani for the conversation.

 

[atani]

I also know very little of programming, some basic stuff in python for small utilities in my system.
Projects like these are very good ways to start learning something, that's how I started at least. Python is quite accessible, and making lists is one of the first and most common things to do with it.