[KuraFire]

Originally Posted by princeton

here are some issues relating to the htl:
In the EXPORT YOUR SETTINGS TO XML page...
Upon clicking CREATE XML FILE, the sites' style is switched to the first option on the STYLE dropdown (which in my case is not the default style).

I'm not sure what exactly you mean... Do you mean that it somehow changed the style setting for you when you went to create an XML file?

Originally Posted by princeton

On the file edit section, there should exist an option to order the edits. For example, if a permissions based hack is being created the first step introduced should be init.php. This will produce a visual flow to the edits.

File edits are currently ordered alphabetically from root perspective, and then linenumber. Adding a display order for file edits is possible, but unlikely to appear in the 1.1 version (because all 1.0 HTL hacks might become incompatible with that, then).
I think alphabetical makes the most sense, too. Changeid's are relevant, that way, and they can help you search out file edits for hacks.

Originally Posted by princeton

I would also recommend ...
Adding a dropdown with a predefined "Difficulty rating to install this Hack".

An alternative to allow hackers to create a non-htl installer (a standalone) - for users who prefer not to save this type of data in the database; and, for users who prefer not to install/use the htl. Yes, there will be people that will not want to use the htl - for some people the htl will be to complicated. Never assume anything.

A drop-down was considered, but I decided against it because I'd have to cater to too many variations. Plus, I figured that sometimes people would want to make some mini-comment in there, like "Easiest ever!" or "well, good luck!". This gives them the freedom for that.

A non-HTL installer would defeat half the purpose of the HTL, so there will never be one. Installing non-HTL hacks will make upgrading your vBulletin difficult; using HTL-hacks only will ensure that you won't have any problems upgrading to the next version of vB.
The HTL was made to bring order in the chaos of installer textfiles. Having an option to make those would be extremely counterproductive.

People who don't want to use the HTL, for whatever purposes, will just be at a loss with all of my hacks. But so far, nobody has found the HTL complicated, in fact, I've been surprised at how userfriendly people have found it. During development, I often figured that "oh damn I'll be answering a lot of questions about this part..." but so far, none of that! On top of that, there is not a single good reason not to use the HTL, and there are dozens of reasons why it's much better to use the HTL exclusively.

Originally Posted by princeton

Other than the above, the HTML is a nice piece of software.:up:

psst, HTL



The ability to view XML files is one that I'll have to look into. It would require the writing of a `stripped-down` XML parser for each of the XML types...
I'll think about it