The Pack Rat

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PackRat logo 96.png The 'Pack Rat



PackRat Preview.png

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.

Installation

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"        -- "<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

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

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

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