WFUT
WFUT: WorldForge Update Tool
WFUT is a Java based tool to download updated files from a web server. It is primary aim is to provide a mechanism to download updates to the media used in the clients. It is designed to have minimal requirements and the use of XML files to store version information does not prohibit other implementations in other languages. A collection of files is called a channel and multiple channels can be defined. The GUI component of WFUT can read another XML file which lists the different channels available on a server.
WFUT is written to be Java 1.4 compatible, allowing it to run under both Sun and GNU Java implementations. It contains both the client and server side implementation. The server side component scans a channel directory and creates or updates the channel XML file. The client side read the channel XML file and downloads updated files. It has a command line mode and a GUI mode.
How it works
WFUT uses a simple XML file to list all the files within a channel. On the server WFUT scans the channel directory and compares all the files them against those listed in the XML file. Missing files are removed from the list, new files are added to the list, and files with a different CRC32 checksum have their version number incremented.
On the client side, WFUT downloads the XML file and compares it to a similar XML for the local channel directory. Files with a lower version number are updated with files from the webserver. WFUT also checks for missing files and automatically downloads them too. The CRC32 checksum is calculated and compared to the value stored in the server XML file before replacing any existing files.
How to get it
WFUT can be obtained through Java Web Start. Please note however that WFUT downloads to the current directory and when running WFUT from Java Web Start within a browser, the current directory is often that of the web browser. Alternatively, the jar file can be downloaded directly. Finally, WFUT can bo obtained from CVS under the forge/tools/WFUT module.
Building WFUT
WFUT can be build under a variety of methods. WFUT contains autotools build files allowing a native compile of WFUT using GNU Java. There is also a file called Makefile-jdk for compiling WFUT using Sun's java. Alternatively, there are also Maven 1 and 2 build files.
