Readme File for Developers

Purpose

PackBSP is a utilty program for games based on Valve Inc's "Source" game engine. It allows map-makers to easily package dependencies and media into their map for redistribution. It is intended as a successor to the aging PakRat utility.

Building

1. Install Maven if you haven't already.
2. Download (or use git fetch) the PackBSP source files into a project directory.
3. Download the jhllib DLLs and extract the files in it to the PackBSP root directory, so that the .dll files are adjacent to the pom.xml file. (Having them there makes it easier to do debugging and unit tests.)
4. (Optional) If you need to create a new .exe launcher, download Launch4J ans open the launcher_conf.xml file with it. Then generate a new launcher that replaces packbsp.exe.

Modifying GUI components

GUI forms are managed using the GUI tools in Netbeans 6.8 or above, and any .java file with a corresponding .form file should not be modified through any other tool, or risk inconsistencies.

When using Netbeans to edit GUI components, it helps to compile the project once before opening any forms so that compositional dependencies can be seamlessly displayed. Netbeans may present an error popup otherwise.

Creating a distributable copy

Switch to the packbsp folder and run mvn clean install assembly:assembly. This should create a redistributable set of files in the target/packbsp-{VERSION}-dist.dir/ directory.

When releasing a new version

1. Update the changelog and readme files
2. Edit pom.xml and update version numbers
3. Edit launcher_conf.xml and update version numbers
4. Use Launch4J to create a new packbsp.exe file.
5. Clean, build, and assemble a new distributable.

When using a new version of jhllib

1. Update the DLLs and license to match the JAR, as detailed in the "general build" section.