The Pack Rat

The 'Pack Rat

NOTE: work on this project is under hiatus while I wait for a native iconpack switcher in Trillian Astra. I don't want to have to do work over and over, so I'm just going to wait until Astra goes gold if the native switcher hasn't been implemented by then.

The 'Pack Rat is a Trillian SkinPack changer for Trillian versions 2.0 and above.

There are three basic modes to use it. The first is just launching it. It allows the user to make skinpack changes from there. Secondly, an installer could launch it with command line parameters (see below) to automatically select various skinpack settings to set a skin's desired skinpacks. Third a PackRat.ini file located in the same directory will start the program with desired skinpacks.

Works with Trillian 2.0 and above. (Astra support in progress.) I have no plans of supporting older versions. Win98/ME are not supported. It should work with the unicode update. I do not know and cannot test.

Download

PackRat.exe 2006.07.11 - 142.5 KB Version: 3.1.05 Date: 2005.10.11

The program... That's all.

Command Line Parameters

/silent

Saves the settings without showing a dialog. (I would NOT recommend this parameter for installers)

/random

randomizes the skinpacks

/random "esink"

specify 'packs to randomize: (Emotes, Sounds, Icons, iNterface, sKin)

/trillian "path"

Specify where Trillian is located

/emotes "name"

Set the emoticons

/sound "name"

Set the soundpack

/iconpack "name"

Set the iconpack

/interface "name"

Set the interface

/skin "name"

Select a skin

/profile "name"

Specify the user profile that gets the skin changed

/caller "name"

Customize the display -- "<Name> would like to set the skinpacks to:"

/ini "path"

specify an ini file other than PackRat.ini (like configurator.ini)

/noupdate

Disable the auto-update feature (forces THIS version of PackRat to run even if there's a newer one available)NOT A RECOMMENDED SETTING because PackRat will probably break with some future Trillian versions.

/norestart

Don't restart Trillian when done (so no prompt for it)

/noini

Bypass the packrat.ini file

PackRat.ini

Most of the command line parameters can be set via the packrat.ini file. This is probably the easiest method for a skin installer to use. Also, multi-user systems could use multiple INIs (with the 'silent' and 'profile' parameters) to quickly change user settings for the different users. The following sample will set the interface to minimal, and the soundpack and iconpack to random (the skin and emotes will remain whatever the current setting is):

[PackRat]
caller=Tom's amazing skin
interface=minimal
random=si

Permissions

The whole purpose is to have a small little app that skins can include with their installer so they don't have to reinvent the wheel to set their desired settings. With that in mind, skins have full permission to redistribute unmodified versions in their skins. (it's about 50KB compressed)

Version History

• 3.1.05 (2005.10.11)
  
  • Added a /norestart option to bypass the 'restart Trillian' dialog
    
  • Added a /noini option to bypass packrat.ini
    
  • Fixed a bug with an uninitialized HBRUSH used in the banner
    
  • Fixed a bug with auto-update giving a 'Trillian not found' message
    

• 3.1.04 (2005.10.09)
  
  • Checks for win98/ME and attempts to exit nicely
    
    • (These are not supported since I no longer have machines to test these on
      
  • Added [configure] buttons for all iconpacks
    
    • ***SOMETHING NEW*** This now allows emoticon / sound / interface configuration as well as iconpacks.
      
    • Checks for Stixe Studio to configure STIXE skins
      
  • Added preview buttons
    
  • polished up trillian locating algorithm a little
    
  • 'Pack Rat is now included in <a href="../configurator.php">The Configurator</a> and replaces the Trillian Advanced Settings dialog
    

• 3.1.03
  
  • Fixed a bug with the /ini command line parameter.
    
  • Added preview buttons. (On a skin, it launches The Configurator to do the preview. This is the only way I know to support multi-frame previews without adding all of 'that' code here.)
    
  • Added a [Config] button for iconpacks if it detects The Configurator and that the iconpack is configurator enhanced
    

• 3.1.02
  
  • Decided to bump the version numbering up to reflect the Trillian version for which it was designed, so from now on, the full versioning will be [Trillian version].release.build
    
  • Added a semi-autoupdate feature. If the user has a newer version of the program in Trillian\addons\PackRat, it will switch to using that version. If that one is older it will copy this version there. This means skinners won't have to update PackRat / their skins with every version of Trillian, as long as the user has run another more recent version.
    
  • Along with this, I added a '/noupdate' flag so a skin can force the current version to be used without searching for a newer one. (NOT RECOMMENDED, since PR will probably break with a version of Trillian in the future.)
    
  • Added a 'restart Trillian' option.
    
  • Added a some version request support for possible future updates
    
  • Added support for... well, something that will be released soon :D
    

• 0.01.00
  
  • Initial release