TechnicSolder is an API that sits between a modpack repository and the launcher. It allows you to easily manage multiple modpacks in one single location. It's the same API we use to distribute our modpacks!
Using Solder also means your packs will download each mod individually. This means the launcher can check MD5's against each version of a mod and if it hasn't changed, use the cached version of the mod instead. What does this mean? Small incremental updates to your modpack doesn't mean redownloading the whole thing every time!
Solder also interfaces with the Technic Platform using an API key you can generate through your account there. When Solder has this key it can directly interact with your Platform account. When creating new modpacks you will be able to import any packs you have registered in your Solder install. It will also create detailed mod lists on your Platform page! (assuming you have the respective data filled out in Solder) Neat huh?
- PHP >=5.3.0 and < 5.5.0 (Will not work on older versions due to usage of new features in PHP 5.3.0, It will not work on version 5.5 or higher due to an incompatibility with Laravel 3)
- PHP MCrypt Extension
- PHP Curl Extension
First thing is first, clone Solder into a directory on your web box. You will want to setup Apache, Nginx, or whatever you are using to use the "public" folder as the document root. This way the main Solder operating files are not publically available through the web.
Next, copy application/config-sample to application/config and public/.htaccess-sample to public/.htaccess. Edit the files in the config directory to your liking. The only two files that currently require editing are database.php and solder.php. You will also want to give your box permissions to write to the storage folder. You can do this with a chmod or whatever you prefer.
Solder.php has 3 values that need to be filled in:
- repo_location: This points to the location of your repo files either locally or remotely. If your Solder install is on the same box as your mod repository, you can fill in the absolute path to those files. This will greatly increase the speed in which md5's are calculated for your database. If your mod repository is hosted elsewhere, you can simply put the web accessible URL in for this value. Make sure to include a trailing slash in both cases.
- mirror_url: The mirror url is the web accessible url to your mod repository. If you are using a URL for repo_location you can just fill in the same value here.
- platform_key: This is the API key given to you through the "Configure Solder API" option on the Platform. When this key is validated by the Platform, it will allow you to directly import your Solder packs to the Platform.
Once you have everything filled in for your configuration, you will need to migrate your database. Doing this is really easy, just run the following two commands in order from the root Solder folder.
- php artisan migrate:install
- php artisan migrate
This will configure your database and get it ready to handle your first import.
Solder is now fully interfaced! You no longer need to use the cache/update method. In fact, it's been completely removed. Once you have Solder configured, just access it at the url you set it up on and log in.
The default user information is:
Email: [email protected] Password: admin
Change this information as soon as you log in!
Are you updating from an old version of Solder before we had the UI? You will need to make sure to move over all of the configuration files again. There have been several changes to the configuration that you must bring over. This shouldn't happen again.
Solder waits for no one! If you use Solder you need to make sure it's up to date. Issues you may be having may have already been resolved in a recent commit. Who knows! Updating is simple.
- Pull in changes from your origin (git pull origin)
- Check if any config files were changed (usually not the case) and make adjustments if necessary
- Run your migrations again (You don't need to do migrate:install, only migrate)
That's it. Your API is now on the latest version.
If you are having an issue, chances are it's something wrong with your YAML files in your repository. The easiest way to check is by looking in your log files found in storage/logs/.
If you are still having issues and can't seem to figure out what's going on, come ask in irc @ irc.synirc.net #technic or open an issue here on Github.
Now that Solder no longer requires YAML files or any sort, the next major goal is having Solder handle all file interaction on its own. This will reduce user error even more. (Hopefully eliminating it almost entirely)