I have now (finally) got the integration between the TINT website and Mantis Bug Tracker working the same way as with phpBB.

Whilst with phpBB it was almost a pleasure, as they have created the ability to add authentication method plugins, with Mantis it’s a complete bitch as no equivalent exists. If you want to access another db for authentication details, just make sure you reset the db connection to point to the Mantis db afterwards else all hell breaks lose. The designers basically thought they would be the only database connection in the code thus put all the state tracking in a global context, and as a result do not specify resource identifiers on anything. Thus as all calls to mysql_* in PHP use the last seen identifier if one isn’t specified, if the last one seen was somewhere in your auth code… well you get the picture. That’s an OK assumption I suppose if you consider crowbarring in another auth method is technically unsupported, but still… Argh!

I’m off on holiday now, so there won’t be any more updates until 2nd week of August

qbnut Coding for the Desktop, Coding for the Web, Project TINT

Well, this evening I got the integration between the TINT website and the new Forums that go with it working, allowing users that have registered with the site to log into phpBB with the same credentials, and create a phpBB profile if one does not already exist. Now I just have to get the same working for Mantis…

qbnut Coding for the Desktop, Coding for the Web, Project TINT

Right, that’s the build of BETA A5 done, just got to finish off the bits of the website, and then it’s over to the testers…

qbnut Coding for the Desktop, Project TINT

Right, I now have the code that brands each download with the users details working, both server and application side

That’s another step forward…

qbnut Coding for the Desktop, Project TINT

I’ve just updated the website for my side project. It’s still not finished and it may completely change before it’s done, but take a look:

Project TINT

qbnut Coding for the Desktop, Coding for the Web, Project TINT

I want something other than Sunburst or Goldtop…

qbnut Music, Musicianship

After deciding to get off my ass and actually do something towards my side project, I actually got a few things done. I rewrote the download system using newer database access libraries (rather than hand-coded SQL), got a Bug Tracker working, and worked around an issue that stopped the app compiling due to conflicting libraries, albeit at a cost of now needing runtimes installed, but most people will probably have them anyway if they have installed any recent game. It will also make the download smaller

Only a few more bits to go and we can have another private BETA rolled out (i.e. not general public, not just yet) albeit just really for testing the distribution method.

That’s probably the big push for this month over though!

qbnut Coding for the Desktop, Project TINT, Ramblings

So, I have this side project on the go, called TINT, which is a bit of Windows software to display text in-game over the top of a games display (most useful in MMOs such as World Of Warcraft or EVE, but works in just about anything else as well). It was originally intended to take data from Teamspeak (a popular Voice Comms application), list whos speaking at any given time, and show you their name so you know who it is. It has somewhat grown from there to display any text or image you like, so you can use it for FPS counters, graphs, etc.

The problem I have with it is that it’s so near to completion I can taste it, but there’s so many little things to do. These things include everything from packaging an installer including DirectX runtimes for those that don’t have it, rewriting parts of the website I’m not happy with, and getting a proper system together to notify users of new versions.

Then there’s the new stuff like Windows 7. It’s supposed to be out in October ’09 but there’s no code to specifically deal with this so TINT just assumes it’s running on Vista and provides a warning.

To be honest I just need to get on with it, but the list just seems to grow, and when you code for a living there’s little motivation to actually do more of it when you get home. That coupled with the recent hot weather here in the UK (it’s too damn hot to sit at a desk) and you get the jist of why I lack the motivation to work on it and thus it’s at a stalemate point.

I would love to actually get it finished though, so will just have to get off my ass and get on with it!

qbnut Coding for the Desktop, Ramblings