Plugins Dependency Bootstrapper

[TBD]

TBD submitted a new resource:

Dependency Bootstrapper - automate installation of scene dependencies

Bootstrap your scenes' dependencies
Intended for scene creators, this plugin will supercharge dependency installation for users when creators include it with their scenes.
That doesn't mean it's not useful to users for scenes that weren't build with it in mind.

What is it and how does it work?
The plugin comes with a proxy scene, which downloads missing dependencies and redirects to the target scene once the download completes.
All the end user needs to do is...

Read more about this resource...

 

[TBD]

TBD updated Dependency Bootstrapper with a new update entry:

CC-BY-SA

now free, enjoy

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[AlienAxeMan]

I must be missing something. What's the benefit here as opposed to using "Scan Hub For Missing Referenced Packages" to acquire all the referenced packages for all local resources?

I used to use the Package Manager, which is really slow to open and then also to Scan Hub For Missing Packages. Once I discovered the HUB has a similar scanning feature that is way faster, then that seems like a very efficient process. I simply download all the new stuff I want each day after starting up VAM, then run that scan from the HUB UI once, hit the button to download all, and every dependency that's available on the HUB is quickly downloaded.

It seems like perhaps a unique aspect here is the ability for a creator to set the "required" dependencies. I'm still not seeing much of a net win there though, as missing dependencies will still clutter up the error window and such. So, I really must still be failing to grasp something here...

 

[TBD]

As long as you're ok with downloading each and every dependency, the native "scan for missing" feature is totally sufficient. However, if you want to exclude some, there's no way to do that.

For example, you might want to keep only the latest versions of resources and delete the old ones. There might also be some you don't want to download altogether. Personally, there are many clothing items, plugins and assets, which I don't use. My AddonPackages would probably triple in size if I downloaded all of them.

You're right that you'll have to live with the error messages of missing dependencies. I don't think that's a big issue, though. In the package manager, you can disable error messages for individual vars if you want to.
I haven't looked at whether it's feasible to do the same programmatically, yet. It might be.