Avoiding directory name clashing with the ADL

[Teric neDhalir]

*Mostly a memorandum for AL and anyone building/hosting/DMing since 1.23...*

I think I've discovered an interesting "fact" about the possible clash between your build directory and the client files directory both being in MyDocuments....modules thus leading to your build directory being overwritten when logging on (see Grinning Fool's dire warnings which were further advertised here a while ago).

My belief is that the name of your build directory is completely irrelevant, and can thus be something safe that will not get overwritten. I'll tell you why..

Having been caught out by the problem mentioned above (ie a directory I'd called ALFA_011 in order to prepare a server update was overwritten when logging on to the hosted ALFA_011 I tried an experiment:

Opened my backup directory called ALFA_011_019_upload. Spent a happy hour restaging all the client content and haks. Saved the server specific files (to send to the host machine) in a new directory, not the default. Saved the build directory and shut down toolset. Renamed build directory to ALFA_011_020. Staged the files again, and nothing needed to be written, i.e. as long as the staged files referenced in the moduledownloaderresources.xml are still in the default place the mod is up to date. I then placed a new placeable in a test area and saved without baking. [Watch carefully..] I then renamed the server files directory to ALFA_011_020 (because the server building process does have a reference to the name of the creator directory) and prepared the server files again. The only modified file to be created was the .GIT file for the area with the new placeable. So far so good...

Copied the client files to the ALFA server and the new server files to the host. Put the server files in a directory called ALFA_011 (note that's the third differently named directory they've been in). The server starts, log-in fine, client file download fine, new content in mod. Hurrah.

Sorry for the indigestible post and this may well be common knowledge now but I thought I'd share.

Can I please, please get back to something more creative now??
Teric

[AcadiusLost]

It's only anecdotal, but I've had a few staging problems that seemed to be associated with preparing ADL files on a renamed directory instead of a correctly named one. So, I always work with the mod using it's proper directory name if I'm generating ADL XMLs, just to be safe.

If it's working reliably for you, no worries... but if problems crop up, might be worth trying.