[1.8.x-1.9.x] Kerbal Changelog v1.3.0 (6.14.20)

[Benjamin Kerman]

Kerbal Changelog v1.3.0

Kerbal Changelog is a utility for modders who want their new release's notes to be seen by everyone who downloads the mod. By adding a window to the main scene, this utility puts the changelog into the eyes and brains of the mod's users. Comes with a scrollbar for large volumes of release notes and changes the title bar according to what mod's changelog is currently being displayed.

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://github.com/BenjaminCronin/KerbalChangeLog/releases     

See https://github.com/BenjaminCronin/KerbalChangeLog/blob/master/README.md for information on how to create a changelog file for your mod!

And as always, pics for clicks!

Spoiler

 

 

Licensed under the MIT license: https://github.com/BenjaminCronin/KerbalChangeLog/blob/master/LICENSE

Source on GitHub: https://github.com/BenjaminCronin/KerbalChangeLog

As always, advice or suggestions are always welcome! 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Benjamin Kerman
1.3.0

[Damon]

I will support my mod for this for sure, seems pretty useful for many players!


Edit:
I do wish the versions had a space between them to keep it clean  

Edited October 23, 2018 by damonvv

[Stone Blue]

Excellent...

I also vote vor another line break or two between versions...
However, since its on the Space Center screen, and not much else ever is, maybe make the UI, maybe twice as wide... so the wordwrap isnt as bad?

Also, I assume this only loads once, when KSP first detects a new mod? or does it display *every time* you load KSP? vOv

 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Stone Blue

[Damon]

7 minutes ago, Stone Blue said:

Also, I assume this only loads once, when KSP first detects a new mod? or does it display *every time* you load KSP? vOv

It loads only when there's a new version. Once KSP is loaded, it will put the "showChangelog" to false so next time it won't show again! Pretty neat!

[Stone Blue]

11 minutes ago, damonvv said:

It loads only when there's a new version. Once KSP is loaded, it will put the "showChangelog" to false so next time it won't show again! Pretty neat!

nice... i assumed so, but you know how "ass-u-me"-ing goes

[Benjamin Kerman]

Spaces between versions can be done! I'll make a new release when I get home, and I think I'll make the window wider as well. I just didn't want it to be _too_ big as to be annoying, ya know?

[Stone Blue]

ya... i understand... if it was in any other scene, where it competes for screen space, I totally agree... but not too many things on the main SpaceCenter screen usually, so i say, go as big as you want...

There will *always* be someone who will complain its annoying... :looks at MiniAVC:... but if it annoys people, then maybe they shouldnt havve it installed in the first place?

Oh... that brings an idea... maybe have a settings.cfg, so peoplpe could turn *off* your mod, after the first time they see it?

Since this is really meant to be a packaged dependency, and not really a stand-alone mod, some people might *not* like having this, even tho they want to have the mod it was packaged with? vOv

EDIT: Hmmmm... nevermind... that would pretty much zero out the purpose of the mod, which is to *make* people read changelogs that modders *REALLY* want them to read, when installing their mods... :thinking?:

Edited October 23, 2018 by Stone Blue

[linuxgurugamer]

Pretty neat, I'll definitely be looking at it.  What happens if it sees multiple changelogs?

[Benjamin Kerman]

@Stone Blue Well, it will only show the first time the specific mod version is installed. The next time you visit the space center, re-load the game, or restart the game it won't show up again, until a new version is released with the showChangelog field set to true. If they don't want to see the changelog at all, the recycle bin is always an option. :p

4 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

What happens if it sees multiple changelogs?

The "Previous" and "Next" buttons cycle between all the changelogs that the Kerbal Changelog has loaded to display. Multiple changelogs in the same mod shouldn't be an issue for the program, but it might be confusing to the users to have multiple changelogs for the same mod ("Didn't I already see that one...?")

I've created two new releases (1.4.x and 1.5.x), download on https://github.com/BenjaminCronin/KerbalChangeLog/releases. 

[linuxgurugamer]

A suggestion: if it loads multiple change logs, present a list of all the change logs so the user can look at a specific one without having to do a previous next

[Benjamin Kerman]

Update! v.1.1 of Kerbal Changelog has been released

Feature additions
* Added a quick view page to see which mods have new changelogs to read (Suggested by linuxgurugamer)
* Added the mod's latest version to the title bar (please see README.md for information on how to format the version string so that KCL will recognize it as a valid version and display in in the title bar) (Suggested by MrCarrot)

See https://github.com/BenjaminCronin/KerbalChangeLog/releases for the latest versions, built for KSP 1.4.x and KSP 1.5.x.

[Benjamin Kerman]

Update! v.1.1.1 of Kerbal Changelog has been released

Bug fixes
* Fixed incorrect version displayed in title bar and runtime error associated with it

See https://github.com/BenjaminCronin/KerbalChangeLog/ releases for the latest versions, built for KSP 1.4.x and KSP 1.5.x.

[DanGSun]

-

Edited November 18, 2018 by DanGSun
Already found it.

[severedsolo]

Very useful thanks. I will be using this in all my mods going forward.

[severedsolo]

Couple of questions:

1) What's the method of distribution here? Like, do I bundle it in my mod directory? Or is it like ModuleManager and "one to rule them all"?

2) Could it show the changelog on the Main Menu instead? Sometimes I like to make game-breaking changes and I'd like to make my users aware before they load their save.

[Benjamin Kerman]

15 hours ago, severedsolo said:

1) What's the method of distribution here? Like, do I bundle it in my mod directory? Or is it like ModuleManager and "one to rule them all"?

It should be distributed like ModuleManager, but I haven't implemented any versioning or multiple .dll restrictions yet. The .dll is self contained, so it can be open in the main folder as well, like Module Manager, but it would probably be better to have it in it's own folder for licence packaging and the like. 

15 hours ago, severedsolo said:

2) Could it show the changelog on the Main Menu instead? Sometimes I like to make game-breaking changes and I'd like to make my users aware before they load their save.

Sure thing. I'll have that in the next release. 

[severedsolo]

4 hours ago, Benjamin Kerman said:

Sure thing. I'll have that in the next release. 

Thanks one last thing - could you please put it on CKAN?

That is literally the ideal use case for this mod, CKAN installs updates without users having to check the forum thread. I'd like to make it a dependency, so I know people will read the changelog (I've had instances where I've bumped the major version number, and then people have come along saying I broke things because they didn't read the changelog when they updated from CKAN).

I'm happy to help you out if you don't know how to do that.

Edited November 20, 2018 by severedsolo

[Benjamin Kerman]

Kerbal Changelog has been updated to version 1.1.2

Changes:
* Moved changelog startup to Main Menu
* Removed debug statements
* Fixed bad handling of config nodes

See https://github.com/BenjaminCronin/KerbalChangeLog/releases for the latest versions.

[Benjamin Kerman]

Kerbal Changelog is now officially listed on CKAN! Thanks to @HebaruSan and @severedsolo.

[Benjamin Kerman]

Kerbal Changelog has been recompiled and released for KSP 1.6.

[BlackHat]

I really like the idea of this mod.... And hope that more mods will start using it.

 lol just get linuxgurugamer to start using it. there you have what?!? almost 200 mods covered? (maybe its only about 150?)

Hope to see it pop up more often in my games.

 

[Benjamin Kerman]

Kerbal Changelog has been rereleased as version 1.1.4 due to a botched download package on GitHub.

[severedsolo]

Me again - can I ask you another favour.

When you package your releases, would you mind just calling the folder "KerbalChangeLog" rather than "KerbalChangeLog<version number>"?

It's not a big deal, but I have an automated script for packaging my releases, and it would be really useful if I could use it to grab the latest version of your mod from my GameData directory - I can't do this at the moment because the folder name changes (or rather I can, but I have to update the script when you release)

This would also make things simpler for your manually installed users, because they can just overwrite the existing directory, rather than having to delete the old one.

Edited January 13, 2019 by severedsolo

[BlackHat]

Hmm, probably a good idea. It looked pretty strange to me when I first saw it in the GameData folder.  don't think I have ever seen another mod that named the mod folder with the version info. Thats what the .version is for.  

[Benjamin Kerman]

@severedsolo and @BlackHat Good points, but I'm not sure if they're ever going to get implemented, as the mod is stable as far as I'm concerned, and probably won't get another release in the near future…

If anyone has any features that they'd like me to add, I'm happy to attempt to do so, and will remedy the folder naming at that time