#5 pass description string to modpacker

[cinderbdt]

I created an ERF from a folder full of UTI files.
NWHAK showed that the description was "st: created by
ModPacker". Is "st:" meaning something I do not know?
Could I please have a feature to specify a description
and a URL for the ERF created by modpacker? perhaps
command line, perhaps from a config file, or prompt
interactively? Thank you.

[Paul Speed]

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Ok, first I agree that this is needed.

Second, I'm concerned that the ERF description turns out to
be "st: created by ModPacker" since it should be "Test:
created by ModPacker".

Third, until I get around to fixing this, you might be able
to work around it by creating a hak.description text file in
the directory where your files are that you want ERFed.
It's really for HAK files since that's where I store the
description on an exploded HAK but I just looked at the code
and it should pick it up when making ERFs as well. Exploded
ERFs normally have a GFF based descriptor file (I don't
remember its name).

A fourth option would be to use the ANT based tasks since
they allow specification of descriptions for all three kinds
of ERF files (MOD, ERF, and HAK). But that may be more
steps to go through than you'd like and it's also not really
fixing the modpacker problem.

Thanks for the RFE.

[cinderbdt]

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Thank you for taking my suggestion and providing some in return.

I have done some further testing to see if I can create an
ERF I could share with you that exhibits the "st:"
situation, now that I understand it is unexpected. I'll
file a separate bug, because I have a repro I can share.

I have found a reference to hak.description in the release
notes for modpacker. I looked at the source code to see if
I could determine the structure needed for this file.
modpacker.java says:

// Check for the module.ifo resource
File ifo = new File( root, "module.ifo" );
File hakDesc = new File( root, "hak.description" );
String description = "Test: Module packed with
ModPacker.";
if( ifo.exists() )
{
description = getModuleDescription( ifo );
}
else if( hakDesc.exists() )
{
description = StringUtils.readFile( hakDesc );
}

I conclude as you suggest the hak.description file is a
plain text file with no fancy format, no delimiters, the
code figures out how to write the length of this string into
the string table without specify in hak.description file.
Further, I am not writing a MOD flavor of ERF, which
includes a module.ifo file, I can supply this
hak.description. It appears to work in my testing. I
just extracted some files out of the cep_crafting.erf, typed
a little hak.description in the same folder, and pointed
modpacker to make an ERF. My description was read in. So
thank you for the workaround.

I found ExportInfo.gff in one of the ERFs I had (same
cep_crafting.erf). I am not sure this is what you meant "a
GFF based descriptor file". Alas, nothing in this file
appears to map into the description field, and the PDF
document at http://nwn.bioware.com/developers for ERF file
format states that the description is part of the ERF file
outside the list of resources.

I have investigated the ant tasks only a little. I hope to
do more. Especially now the whole reason to create these
ERF was to use Lilac Soul's new DeImporter from nwvault to
remove old crufty resources from our MOD. Putting this in
to workflow, automating with ant, would be very nice.
DeImporter is Windows, but other reasons to make ERFs are to
delegate work among multiple developers, and this we would
for sure enjoy.

Best Regards.