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OAWire is a Firefox addon for launching OpenArena with server connections.

OAWire Google Code page (http://code.google.com/p/oawire/)
OWire Mozilla Addons page (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/oawire/)

Latest version: 0.1.3 (http://code.google.com/p/oawire/downloads/detail?name=oawire-0.1.3.xpi&can=2&q=)
Supports: Firefox 3.5-10.0a1

Changelog (http://code.google.com/p/oawire/wiki/Changelog)

Short list of features:

• Only supports Firefox for now
• Creates launcher buttons on the dpmaster site and converts every OACON link
• Possibility of additional launching arguments
• Full localization support (currently supported: English, Hungarian, Italian (thanks Gig))
• Licensed under GPLv2

(http://udionline.hu/kepek/openarena/oawire/oawire-0.1.2.jpg)

Version 0.1 is rather a proof of concept release, it basically does the same as the OACON protocol (http://ioclan.site11.com/) with slight differences (no password support, dpmaster can be used for browsing and launching, only Firefox is supported but at least it's OS independent). There are two ways of improving it: add more browser support and add more features. If every browser allows access to the local files, managing packages and configs over the web is possible, we can start making an optional service like QL. If we succeed and stay fully open source other projects could also benefit from it. But that's a distant dream.

You can help by testing the addon, translate it to your language (see Wiki on project site), join development or give me some feedback of what can or should be improved.

Interesting. I should try. Does it subdivide the servers depending from the mod and gametype used?

A big problem in the server browser integrated inside OpenArena is that it does not show you the mod in use (I hope they will implement this useful function)...

UPDATE: Tested, it adds a button to launch OpenArena in the "classic" page http://dpmaster.deathmask.net/?game=openarena
Nice, but I thought it was something more similar to the old good ''The All-Seeing Eye" (why its developers discontinued it, why?????????), something that also pinged the servers...

I often find that these plugins are rather demanding to setup (anything that doesn't work out of the box is in that category)

OpenArena should every time it starts add or update itself in a file called ~/.openarena/oacon_start that contains something like this:

If openarena was started from /somedisk/openarena-0.8.1/openarena.i386 it should automatically update oacon_start to use the right path.

Links on the web could look something like: "oacon:(oa0.8.1)82.211.202.16:27590" and the oa-launcher should see that it can simply run "openarena +connect ...".

Another file (like oacon_args) could contain version specific launch commands. Like
This would of course need to be created manually.

This would make keeping multiple versions easier. For example during version transitions. No new version of the launcher required. It could even be extended to other games without adding a lot of plugins.

Unfortunately it could be hard making this plugin multi platform because of the different paths used.

Yahoo buyouts always spell death.

I'm going to check it out later today :)

A generic extensible file with a light syntax (not XML) is a good idea. It can contain the binary paths and the versions also and any other information which might come up.


The addon so far is an experimental thing, when (or if) it matures it will have a site dedicated to it either with it's own QStat list or mirroring the list from dpmaster. Since the different browsers have different APIs for drawing buttons etc., HTML is the best choice for a GUI (just like QL, you can't use the addon only through the QL site). It's a long and a little expensive development so maybe it's the wrong path to take.

The mod infos you want are already on dpmaster, when you look at the details of a single server there are two variables: game and gamename which vary accordingly (baseoa, insta, defrag etc.) So basically you just need a software which gets the dpmaster XML file (http://dpmaster.deathmask.net/?game=openarena&xml=1), parses it, and draws a pretty GUI displaying all the info. So developing a desktop server browser with some multiplatform technology (Qt or Python+GTK like the RN|Launcher (http://rainbow.furver.se/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1174&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0)) could be faster.

Well, I linked it DO NOT LINK[/b]) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Servers#Tools]here (http://([b)...

hm just tested it (little late ye) and works quite nice. Though imo the logo style it too much in the foreground and odd color pallette in combination with dpmaster. Also it tried to connect to IP:PORT&showplayers=1 :P It worked, but just a note.

Must say i really like this and fine it very handy  ;D

Just a little thing (OAwire 0.1): if you first apply some filter on dpmaster server, this filter is shown in the URL. When you use OAwire to start a match, you can see the "filter" part of the url inside the address OpenArena tries to connect to (or example, 127.0.0.1:27960&hide=both). It seems to work anyway, but I wanted to tell you.

Thanks Gig, RMF already posted it. I will apply a proper regexp for the next version (don't know when).

Oh well as long as it works :)
I like it for how easy i can switch between the launched oa version with just a few clicks and changing one number in the past. For oacon i could write a simple batch to do the job but i'm too lazy lol

Hello everybody. I just updated to the new FireFox 4, and OAWire 0.1 does not work anymore. Could you please update it? Thank you!

Yes, I guess. Probably for next weekend.

Hi Udi.
Did you have some time to take a look to the tool?

I've checked, there are 3 things I need to change:

• change the maximum version number, so it installs under FF4 (already done)
• move the icon from the bottom statusbar to the upper toolbar
• recheck the dpmaster markup, it seems to be broken, only the first entry has a play button

I should be able to fix it in a couple of days.

[removed]

It could be nice to make an option to let the user select if he wants the icon on the lower plugin bar or on the upper bar (and maybe even the choice to do not show the icon at all) ...

Udi, how's going with FF4?

I've even tried to "hack" it to allow OAWire to run on it.

If one goes to about:config in FireFox 4, and adds a new boolean value called extensions.checkCompatibility.4.0, setting it to "false", then he is allowed to run extensions that are not certified for firefox 4 and then were previously disabled. Firefox still warns you about what of your extensions are not certified for FF4, allowing you to enabling and disabling each one at will.

But, unfortunatley, at least on my machine, OAWire 0.1 does not work correctly with this hack. The server listing page shows me only the first "Play!" button (however, I could enter the page of each server before clicking on play)... and when I click on it, it launches the game like but without trying to connect to any server...

Well, at least it seems I can get the useful Aardwark extension (nothing to share with OpenArena, but useful for printing web pages removing useless stuff!) work, using this hack!

That's one way to go. But you can hack individual addons aswell, you download the xpi files to your harddrive, you extract them (they're JAR files), open the install.rdf file, and look for the maxVersion value, and you change that to "4.*". That will probably work, since there are no API changes in the new XUL. But QStat changed it's HTML output, so the current OAWire won't work, not even in 3.6 or older FireFox versions.

I'll quickly fix the dpmaster error, and make a release, and I'll later add the other features we discussed earlier.

Update: I've uploaded a fixed version (http://oawire.googlecode.com/files/oawire-v0.1.1a.xpi). It seems that the QStat output did not change, but Firefox 4 has some changes. The dpmaster and FF4 fix is the only change, plus there's an italian translation thanks to Gig. Please test it, more features will come later.

Where can I sign up for translation into Dutch :)

Edit: Nevermind, I've found it (http://code.google.com/p/oawire/wiki/Localization). Will do this tonight, gonna run for the bus now x(

Thank you, man!  :)
I will test it in the next days, I'm extremely busy with real life now!

Does this 0.1.1a version work with both FF3 and 4?

No, it seems that it's broken for FF3.6, a recent nightly build works though (FF6). I will check if I can manage to make it backward compatible.

Tested... it works.
Thank you, man! :)
.. but the "about" link does not work.

Just a curiosity... what should you do to make it available directly form the addon search function of Firefox, instead of manually downloading the xpi file from your site? To register as a developer at Mozilla? It's a shame that many useful firefox (and thunderbird) extensions are not comfortable to find and to keep updated for the average user.

Yes, I think it only requires a free registration. I should do it in the upcoming weeks.

If someone wants to know... tested, it works with FF5, too.

Hi, Udi.
Mozilla released FireFox 7... OAWire should be updated again.

[trollish burnout]If so, Firefox sucks balls for breaking plugin API and they should put efforts in this rather than make silly things like blindly following Google's versionning strategies. While it may be better if they spent time implementing SSL 1.1+. What'll save us from Mozilla & Google ?[/trollish burnout]

I think that Mozilla release policy, from some months, is meaningless. Changing major version (after few weeks!) just because you scheduled them, even if you don't have really implemented major new features, is useless.

Business customers and extensions developers aren't happy with it... so I red that Mozilla is thinking about doing something like a "business-oriented fork" of its programs, to be updated less frequently.... and about changing the extensions system default behavior, making extensions "compatible by default" with new versions of the program, unless their programmer (or user feedback) specifies differently. But I don't know how's the current situation with these ideas.

Idk how much work it would be to do that but what do you think about the idea of a Vista/Win7-Gadget (on Desktop) for OA where you can see the servers (+information) and where you can easily join to the server with one click?
Well that's just an idea... ::)

A server browser in a widget?
Could be interesting, even if I don't know what would be the "plus" than using a "standard" stand-alone server browser like Qtracker... anyway we would need someone capable of writing it.

(DO NOT LINK) h t t p s : / / openarena . wikia . com/wiki/Servers#Server_browsers

OAWire is my favorite server browser, being lightweight. And it is multiplatform, I think.

Well, just forget what I said. It was a bad idea. -.-
But thank you very much for your attention!
I am sorry.

What? You haven't anything to be sorry about...

I think that projects which are on the addons.mozilla.org repository are updated automatically so that developers don't have to release at every new FireFox version. I'll check that out before friday. Even if not, it's worth putting it there, since you get autoupdate, as Gig mentioned earlier.

I don't think it is this way it worked, at least up to a while ago (if you update Firefox/Thunderbird the same day the update comes out, you find many extensions not complatible yet), anyway you can try to check. As I mentioned, I red that they are planning to change the system, to indicate extensions "compatible by default", unless differently specified (something like switching from whitelist to blacklist-based system), but I don't know if and when they will do it (and I don't know if a such change would affect only those in their repository or all of them). What I know is that many devs at the moment are "faking" it, manually setting compatibility up to version 9 (when the current one was 5) or similar, to make less frequent updates.

Of course, being in their repository would be much comfortable for the user anyway!

Added to the Mozilla database. Every new addon has to undergo some review, I asked for a preliminary review which should have taken 3 days, but OAWire is still the 163th in the queue. Hopefully after the examination I get some expert advice, and I'll be able to update the module to be future proof.

Good. But will you continue to update the http://code.google.com/p/oawire/ page, too?

PS: Any idea about adding those additional features we talked some months ago? One was allowing to select if to show OAWire icon in the upper extension bar, in the lower extension bar, or to hide it all. Another one was allowing the user to manually select a different language.

PPS: I've seen some Thunderbird extensions (Smart P7M Support and ShowFolderSize) that I wasn't able to find in their extension repository (and so I had to download and install them manually), but after installed, they get automatic updates anyway.

Udi, any news?

I think I can make a release on sunday with FF7 support, maybe I can do the other features aswell.

OAWire 0.1.2 released, see first post.

The only change it has that it supports Firefox 7, so you can still use it while I work on the other features. Added to the Mozilla Addons repository (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/oawire/), it was put on the addons review queue, until that is finished you can only access the addon page with the direct link (searching for it will give no results). The Google Code page is still working, and the SVN repo was properly updated and tagged.

Okay, thank you!  :)

I will try ASAP...

I works now again. Thanks!

Hi, Udi.
Just a few things...
- Starting from which FF version should the current OAWire version Work? Mozilla addons page says 3.0 - 9.*  - I tried it on a machine with an old FF 3.6.23, and it got installed, but in the dpmaster listings page, only the first server gets the "play" button...
- http://code.google.com/p/oawire/wiki/Changelog is not updated
- http://code.google.com/p/oawire/wiki/Localization is not updated (I know Italian is already supported)
- Screenshot used (shown on the official Mozilla repository, too) shows a server with the name containing something that seems a swearword...

... while it works correctly with Firefox 7. I cannot try with FF4, 5 and 6.

Thanks Gig for reporting errors. Updated the pages (the FF compatibility was properly checked with different portable editions on Windows (http://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/Mozilla%20Firefox%2C%20Portable%20Ed./)). Another maintainer update is coming soon (tonight or tomorrow), because version 0.1.2 was rejected from the Mozilla repo, I have to fix a security issue ASAP, and I want to fix the backward compatibility issue aswell.

This is what i get on the mozilla repo:
https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/oawire/

and if i try to search for the addon "oawire" i get no results.
What am i doing wrong?

Up to yesterday, the web page of oawire on mozilla repository was there, even if with a note that said that it was not approved yet (and thus, NOT findable using a search). Now, instead, the page seems to not exist at all.

I suppose the reason is in the post above yours: oawire has been rejected by Mozilla due to a security hole. Udi will have to publish it again after fixing the problem.

Yes, that's the case.

Udi, seeing that you are working on the tool... what about making the "settings" window larger, to show longer paths without having to scroll the field?

I've increased the initial width of the window, but also made it resizable, so you can resize it however you want: picture (http://ubuntuone.com/7ZwY4gztM0BpJOX9ER8gJl).

Very good!

0.1.3 released. Backported to FF 3.5, I cannot support 3.0 because I use querySelectorAll to avoid an infinite loop and it's only available since 3.5. I also tested it on the latest nightly: 10.0a1. IPv6 support added, it's supposed to work, but I couldn't test it, since I could only find IPv4 addresses on dpmaster.deathmask.net, and dpmaster.version6.ru doesn't seem to have a web interface.

Good.

A little OT: about IPv6 server listings (they are not recognized by master server, because they incorrectly identify themselves as "Quake3Arena" instead of "OpenArena", or something similar), I don't know how Sago and Fromhell plan to manage the problem (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=4243.0).

Maybe they should talk with Mathieu Olivier (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1886) (the Dpmaster guy is registered on this forum (http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=2260.msg18138#msg18138), but he has not been active here from years).

Willis runs the dpmaster on deathmask.

From what I understood from his post, I thought that Mathieu is the one that wrote the program. A program that can be used by others, like the deathmask admin, I suppose.

Anyway, I never searched for a dpmaster web site, with program downloads or user feedback...

Udi, just a thing... maybe the "play" icon could be one or two pixel lower (a bit shorter, smaller, I can't find the right word). Buttons of different lines "overlap" a bit... (tested on FF 3.6).

Mozilla Firefox 8.0 is out.
OAWire working.  :)

Anyway, it has not been checked by Mozilla staff yet: https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/oawire/

PS: Icon size (very little) "problem" I mentioned in the post above, applies to FF8, too.

Reviewed, it will take some time since all the caches are rebuilt at Mozilla, but after that it should appear in the gallery. It will still have the experimental flag until fully reviewed, but I have to wait 10 days before I can add it to the queue, and after that it will probably take another 5 weeks before somebody reviews is. Until that I will probably release another version with bug fixes and new features.

Okay. I didn't thought it was so complicated. Maybe now I guess why many extremely useful extensions are not on the repository... the path to follow is long... so probably many developers may give up!

Anyway, I think there should be some way to enable updates also for extensions not downloaded from the repository (sometimes I got some extensions -that I downloaded from author's site because they were not found by mozilla search- updated like if they were from Mozilla repository: I don't know if such updates were downloaded from "hidden" pages in the repository or from external sites...)

Yes, the review process takes a lot of time. There is a way of updating the addons from an external source (https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Install_Manifests#updateURL), so it's not necessary to upload it to the Mozilla repo.

It looks like Firefox will drop support of "legacy" add-ons starting from the next version, 57, which will be released next month.

Add-ons have to be migrated to (probably, re-written for) the new standard.
Considering the utility of OAWire, could you please adapt it for the new Firefox standards? Pppplllleeeeeeaaaasssseeee.....

See also: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/02/16/the-road-to-firefox-57-compatibility-milestones/