About

LOTRO Plugin Compendium (LPC) is a utility application to assist in installing and updating lotro LUA plugins. It attempts to take some of the leg work away from user having to manually download, create folders, and unzip download.

Disclaimer
This application is an attempt to automate a manual process and help make things easier for LOTRO users. That said, if it does not work right, please report it below. I take no responsibility of it does not work on your PC or messes things up. I would, however, like to know about any problems you encounter so future versions can be fixed.

Known Issues

• If a plugin is just released on lotrointerface, there is a window of time that it needs to be reviewed by lotrointerface staff for approval. If you attempt to install the plugin while its waiting for approval, it will download a corrupt zip file. Since LPC attempts to reuse cached zip files to minimize bandwidth usage, this leads to a problem that isn't self corrected. You will need to manually delete the corrupt zip file. In LPC on the configuration panel is a Plugin Cache textbox. This is the path the zip files get downloaded to. Copy and paste that location into windows file explorer. Then find the zip file and delete. So sorry for this bug. I know it is confusing, and I will see what I can do to get this fixed.

Features

1.0.3.0

• First attempt at a remove feature for plugins
• Plugin detection first tries to match by plugin id, then name
• Detection for badly maintained plugincompendium files. Made it self correcting
• Added a configurable installation path
• Fixed a bug with the cache path getting corrupt when modifying "check for update" setting
• Fixed bug where plugin libraries weren't detected to have been installed
• Fixed bug where filehandle was left open during install. Prevented overriting some files

1.0.2.0

• Added plugin category and last update date in plugin grid
• Added ability to filter plugins by name
• Added visual indication and filter for plugins that are already installed
• Added ability to change caching location for downloaded plugins
• Added ability to replace data feed with your own
• Added ability for applications to check for updates to itself and ability to configure on/off
• Added a help menu
• Splash screen added to startup while data feeds are being loaded
• Installer will now remove old install automatically for newer version.

1.0.1.0

• Attempted fix for the 64 bit issue that was reported (verified that it worked! )

1.0.0.0

• Creates LOTRO plugin folder if it doesn't already exist
• Scan for existing plugins and tries to match them up with entries at LOTRO interface
• Update existing plugins
• Allows you to click through over 100 plugins from LOTRO Interface and read brief descriptions of each
• Link to each plugins lotro interface page
• Automatic download and install of plugins
• Basic framework for plugin dependency management

Requirements
(work in progress)

• .NET Framework Version 3.5
• Windows XP,
• Win 7 (32/64)
• Vista (need confirmation)
• Linux & Mac version (please go here)

FAQ
(work in progress)
Why does the installed plugin list shows many greyed out plugins?
This could mean

• The plugin name found in this plugin's ".plugin" file does not match the name at lotro interface
• One of the plugins you had previously installed had multiple ".plugin" files that are unknown to LPC. To fix this, reinstall the plugin from the "Add New Plugins" tab.
• Author of the plugin may have information in their ".plugincompendium" file that does not match up with what lotrointerface.com has for their plugin.

Why doesn't it know about (fill in blank) plugin?

• Plugins that appear in LPC must be approved. Post below if you would like one included.
• Not every existing plugin followed the same convention of submitting their plugin to LOTRO Interface. I may have left them off the list on purpose so it doesn't break things. Please encourage the Authors of your favourite plugins to update their plugin so it is supported.

Can I remove plugins with LPC?

Not at this time. Because of the way the plugin folder structure is laid out, multiple plugins might be installed in a common folder, and refer to eachothers files. This introduced headaches that i could not initially design around. I choose to leave this alone, and currently the app will just "Overwrite" existing plugin structure vs a true replace.

Can LPC support plugins with a list of dependencies?

Yes.. all plugin authors who wish to do so must read below section for "Plugin Compendium Configuration Files".

What do I do when I get an "Access Denied" error when installing a plugin?

First try shutting down LPC and any other plugin management application (like Minion). Start just LPC and try again. If this doesn't work, try rebooting your PC and trying again. If this still does not work, please post below

Plugin Compendium Configuration Files

(work in progress)
When LPC installs new plugins, it will look for a file with a .plugincompendium file extension in the download it uncompresses. This file helps it know a few specifics regarding an install.

• What the id, name, and version of the plugin as it is states on lotro interface for the install.
• Many authors have started including more than one ".plugin" file in a download. This links all these descriptors to one LPC install
• Dependency management.

Because no plugin with the release of LPC will have these, it will try to reconstruct this information and place a .plugincompendium file in you plugin's folder (if you install via LPC). As of the first release it will know some basic dependency information for a few of the plugins on LOTRO Interface to fasilitate the adaptation of these files (or note :P).

Here is an example of one fully filled out.

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PluginConfig xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Id>366</Id>
  <Name>Bevy o Bars</Name>
  <Version>2.321</Version>
  <Author>MrJackdaw</Author>
  <InfoUrl>http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/info366</InfoUrl>
  <DownloadUrl>http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/download366</DownloadUrl>
  <Descriptors>
    <descriptor>JackdawPlugins\BevyOBars2.plugin</descriptor>
    <descriptor>JackdawPlugins\BevyOBars2AutoLoader.plugin</descriptor>
  </Descriptors>
  <Dependencies>
    <dependency>0</dependency>
    <dependency>367</dependency>
    <dependency>575</dependency>
  </Dependencies>
</PluginConfig>

Authors can download over 80 samples for various existing plugins that I autogenerated here and include in future versions of their plugins.

Important Note to Authors:

• that values and tags are case sensative
• the name field must match what lotrointerface has as title of your addon. Otherwise you risk 2 plugins appearing in UI.
• make sure to increment version #. If you do not the row will keep showing that they need to update your addon, when they already have latest.
• the information in these needs to be kept up to date when new releases are done for it to work correctly. I have analysed the plugins and noticed many authors do not keep the ".plugin" files in sync wish each release. The name of plugin, version, and even authors have been all over the place. This configuration file is yet another way I know thinks can get out of sync.

Dependencies
The dependencies are a numberic id that you can get from a plugins url on lotro interface.. I.e. Alt Tracker --> http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/info572 has one of 572. The one plugin that is not on lotro interface is the "Turbine UI Files". If your addon requires this please include 0 (zero) for your dependency id.

Plugins Not Yet Supported
Please post below if you want me to retry or include one.

• Crafters - zip file folder structure isn't in correct format
• DPSMeter - zip file folder structure isn't in correct format
• DamageRead - zip file folder structure isn't in correct format
• MouseCirclev - zip file folder structure isn't in correct format
• fervMonitor - zip file folder structure isn't in correct format
• PartyFrame - zip file folder structure isn't in correct format
• Ability Timer - requires dependency and does not have a .plugincompendium file
• Aura - includes other addons in zip with theirs.. this will overrite potential new versions of those addons. Use a plugincompendium file to reference 2 dependencies.

Plugins That ARE Supported
Plugins that are supported are "Favorited" by the plugincompendium user of LOTRO Interface. You can view those by looking at the rss feed.

http://www.lotrointerface.com/rss.php?f=myfav&uid=5009