Hello everyone.
I’d like to have my game’s files in a Dropbox folder, so I can update, code etcetera from whatever terminal I’m at at the moment.
Is there a[an easy] way to do it?
It seems Inform7 makes it difficult, stating it misses some files… Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks for any help incoming.
Do you mean it seems to be missing some files when Inform7 compiles? If you have cover art, you need to bring that file over as well. And of course you may need to sync the extensions from one machine to the next.
Also, one thing I recommend is to back up your files for the first stretch while you use Dropbox. Because I had some problems with copying an earlier version to a later version when switching between two computers.
I don’t think an Inform project warrants a full source control, if you are doing everything by yourself–though I’ve seen where it can be useful for two collaborators. I also assume, if you are thinking of Dropbox anyway, that you don’t use source control much.
I just have a small script that compares the Dropbox location with the Inform location for certain files, then copies the latest version over to the earlier. I’m not sure what OS you are on–Unix seems most likely to use a shell script, but I use a Perl script to see which file to update. It also helps to have something like WinMerge in case you do forget to copy your source over locally.
I’m on a Mac with Snow Leopard and a Mac with Lion.
Thx for the help, I will try and make it work tonight. (and eventually being more specific about what’s the problem— which might help!)
I use Dropbox myself to keep up with my Inform stuff. What I do is create a folder in the Dropbox for my project. Every day when I’m done messing with my source at home or free time at work, I compress the projects and materials file from my project in the Inform folder. I name it with the date… i.e. myproject.11.17.11.zip so that I can fall back on any one days work and move that zip into Dropbox. I also keep a .txt file in the Dropbox with “release notes” for each version.
I don’t use Dropbox, but I use svn. I have a little script in my $HOME/bin directory called “pre-commit:”
[code]#!/bin/sh
cp -r $HOME/i/ $HOME/eyeballsun/i/
cp -r $HOME/Library/Inform/Extensions/Mike\ Ciul/ $HOME/eyeballsun/public_html/i/[/code]
$HOME/i/ is my Inform projects directory.
$HOME/eyeballsun/ is my svn working directory
$HOME/eyeballsun/public_html is synched to eyeballsun.org/
So I run that script before I run “svn ci ~/eyeballsun” and it commits all my work on Inform projects. It’s very inefficient, because all I really need to copy is the story.ni files, but it’s easier to do than to find all of the story.ni files in all of the Inform projects, and I don’t mind waiting for it to run.
I’m a Windows user. I also have an Ubuntu dual boot, but that doesn’t currently enter into this.
I solved this problem with an NTFS junction point. Basically, I moved my whole Inform folder (in My Documents) to the Dropbox folder, then created a junction point from the old location to the new location. The result is that Inform transparently sees the Inform folder exactly where it expects it, and Dropbox backs it up seamlessly. Of course, this also means that more than just the “Project.inform” directory gets backed up…
If you’re feeling bold you can also set up a bare git repo in dropbox and push and pull from that to your local working directories. I haven’t tried that with I7 but I’ve done it with other stuff and it seems to work.
Like this: tumblr.intranation.com/post/7662 … repository
// F
Nope, I’m not feeling bold. To be honest I get quite puzzled at system maintenances 
Thanks for the effort, anyway!
Wow, I’d never tried junction points/Windows symbolic linking til now. Glad I subscribed to this thread.
For those still curious/confused, a short tutorial…I have vista at home, XP at work.
Vista used mklink. It comes with vista. I don’t think it makes a difference which way the junctions/links point.
mklink /d (inform folder) (dropbox folder)
Sysinternals’s junction.exe worked great for XP.
junction (dropbox folder) (inform folder)
Note: I may have these backwards, but there’s enough error checking that you won’t wipe any files if there is an order the junctions/links point and you mess it up.
I use Dropbox. I just dragged the whole Inform folder over into the Dropbox folder and it works fine. Granted, I’m only adding the data folder (from Documents) not the actual Inform program folder. I’ve never had an error or a hiccup. I work directly from the Dropbox folder. As long as everything I’m calling in the game as far as extensions and whatnot are present and installed on the box I’m accessing it from, it works like a dream.