File Library

FlorianR · March 6, 2011

Hey, just wondering if X-Pilot will have a file library where people can upload their freeware files to? I remember reading about one some time ago, but I can't remember for sure.

Cheers,

--Florian

Ben Russell · March 7, 2011

It's at the very end of the list. We know it would be good, but the choice comes down to more product with systems, or yet another file sharing library.

File lib loses every time.

dainja556 · March 7, 2011

I think that's the one thing that really lacks over here. Desirable, <b>exclusive</b> freeware. Not just aircraft, but utilities, scenery, scripts, etc. I'm not crazy about the software that Rhe Org download manager is based off of (or perhaps just the way it's implemented). I'd like something more structured and organized. I don't mind paying for high quality payware, I really don't. I just think a good file library would give people a reason to stop by. Anything that attracts more users will most definitely result in more payware sales.

X-Pilot is already way ahead of the game though. The Org Store wouldn't exist today if it weren't for the forums. The Org's success, in my opinion, is almost entirely a result of the very talented and dedicated folks that VISIT the Org, not the folks that host it. X-Pilot hit the ground running, and I really feel like it has a much brighter future than The Org does.

Instead of a true file library, how about a BitTorrent tracker? Ben, I'm really not trying to push your buttons I'd love to see another legal, legitimate use of the very powerful technology. It'd save X-Pilot a lot of bandwidth and (if it didn't host the files as well) hard drive space.

Simmo W · March 7, 2011

Bittorrent and Ben in one post:

Ben Russell · March 7, 2011

Work that I've done thus far on the file library leverages Googles App Engine. (Again)

This means Google servers are serving up the files, and we can scale endlessly for 0 effort and NO server moves.

Category/content management is based on free form tagging, like Flickr, etc.

I'll see about putting the alpha-version online so you can see where it's at and give some feedback about its direction.

Bit-torrent is not the solution here. (Love the protocol, hate the hassle and the 90% use case.)

dainja556 · March 7, 2011

Work that I've done thus far on the file library leverages Googles App Engine. (Again)
This means Google servers are serving up the files, and we can scale endlessly for 0 effort and NO server moves.
Category/content management is based on free form tagging, like Flickr, etc.
I'll see about putting the alpha-version online so you can see where it's at and give some feedback about its direction.
Bit-torrent is not the solution here. (Love the protocol, hate the hassle and the 90% use case.)

Well dammit. I'll have to start my own damn BT-based file library.

Sounds cool. Is the bandwidth and storage space cheap? I'm looking at the Google Apps site and don't see pricing. Just the number $50/year, which includes 10GB of storage.

Ben Russell · March 7, 2011

http://x-pilot.appspot.com/lib/

...as with most X-Plane stuff I'm working on, it needs funding. _sighs_

Ben Russell · March 28, 2011

I had a play around with this after I put it up and while it is admittedly hard to do anything useful with it, leaving no feedback for three weeks isn't helping.

Does anyone at least like the GUI?

Do you all hate it?

Come on... speak up or stop telling us this is what we need to do in the other threads.

Goran_M · March 28, 2011

I had a play around with this after I put it up and while it is admittedly hard to do anything useful with it, leaving no feedback for three weeks isn't helping.
Does anyone at least like the GUI?
Do you all hate it?
Come on... speak up or stop telling us this is what we need to do in the other threads.

I kinda prefer horizontal menus. But that's just a personal preference.

Other than that, looks fine.

Ben Russell · March 28, 2011

File managers on all operating systems work in vertical column format.

A vertical scan for alphabetised items is far far quicker and easier on the eye than a horizontal scan.

dainja556 · March 28, 2011

I had a play around with this after I put it up and while it is admittedly hard to do anything useful with it, leaving no feedback for three weeks isn't helping.
Does anyone at least like the GUI?
Do you all hate it?
Come on... speak up or stop telling us this is what we need to do in the other threads.

Hmm.. lacks Bittorrent. I ran across http://burnbit.com/ the other day. Creates a .torrent that includes the HTTP source as a seed, so supporting clients will be able to supplement the download with peers if they exist, but won't be dead in the water if they don't. Makes nice little download buttons too.

Hehehe

The interface is nice, but personally I'd like it to use however much screen there is available instead of being limited in width. That's just personal preference.

It seems like the interface lends itself well sub-categories and sub-items. I'd like to see liveries fall underneath the aircraft they are for, instead of being a separate category all lumped together. It'll make it a lot easier to browse through them. It's better than searching for them, and hoping your keywords are formatted the same as the livery author. I put "Dreamfoil 206", he puts "B206".

I don't know how this would work in to what you have--it's not a critique as much as it is an idea--but I'd like to be able to rely on text searches as little as possible. It'd be neat if the structure allowed for a section/group/whatever for each model, and if there are different uploads for it they'll all be together. I don't know how many times someone's mentioned a freeware whatever, and I downloaded it only to find out months later that there was a newer, nicer one available from some other author.

So the structure would be

Aircraft

--G/A

--Cessna

--172

o 172N by ThisGuy

o 172RG by OTherGuy

--Piper

--PA38

This kind of structure has issues, though. You can't possibly deploy this with everything make/model/trim built in. Users would have to be able to create ones that don't exist. Users suck at putting in nice data, so there would probably need to be some level of moderation/cleanup.

It seems like things on the web are moving away from this strictly structured stuff, and more towards (as you mentioned) tagging and things of that nature. That's probably for good reason (where do you put a Schweizer 300, under Hughes, Schweizer, or Sikorsky?) So I don't know if this would work with what you have visualized for the download manager. I just know it'd be really nice to have similar aircraft together, instead of all dropped into one 50 page long heap. Text searches work, but minor differences in spelling and syntax can throw them off.

Maybe tagging should be the process by which users describe their aircraft, but the aircraft are displayed in a structured manner. For instance, the user tags his Schweizer with "Schweizer", "Hughes", AND "Sikorsky". When the list is displayed for browsing, the aircraft shows up under all three.

In the end, I think that having a neat and organized file library is going to require some light moderation. One way to help would be to (passively) encourage users to look for tags that already exists. A lot of tagging interfaces give you a textbox to type whatever in. If an identical tag matches, it adds the tag, otherwise it creates a new one. Creating new tags should take a few steps. We don't need a "Piper" tag and a "Piper Aircraft" tag.

Just some ideas. I don't really know what I'm talking about.

Ben Russell · March 28, 2011

Do us all a favour and stop trolling about BitTorrent. It's not happening, ever.

Ben Russell · March 28, 2011

Thanks for the rest of the feedback, pretty much the direction I'm heading in... acknowledge all the issues you pointed to.

The best "I wanna be like that" example I can think of is Flickr... it uses structured tagging extensively and works great.

Personally, I have having to climb content trees from the root Node. I have No Idea what Schweizer build.

But I know I like flying nice Helicopters...

It's not an easy problem to solve on any front.

Nicola_M · March 28, 2011

I like it. It seems usable enough and clear. Probably make more sense once there's content in, but as a GUI it's user-friendly.

Kesomir · March 28, 2011

Looked alright when I had a play and the menus worked fine.

UH-60 Blackhawk · April 5, 2011

I don't know what happened, and I have only checked it out on my 10.5.8 machine because that's my X-Plane machine, but something is seriously wrong. Click on New Content, then Falco, and get 9.22|Sport|Homebuild, titled Foo, this:

Custom Sounds No

Aircraft Year 1966 to 1999