walkero's projects

I am thrilled to announce that today I released a new version of Vault, with plenty of new features that, I believe, can be useful. Now, let me share a few thoughts with you.

I believe that it is necessary for those users who do not know where to start with an operating system, to have a way to find useful applications that help them experiment, and create wonderful stuff. And at the end have fun. That's why I created Vault. But a simple list of applications becomes frustrating, especially as it grows more and more.

So, from this new release I introduced the Highlighted section, that is the first showing up when Vault starts, and proposes applications that can be a good starting point. It doesn't have to do with them being the best or the worst, or anything. They are, let's say, the first page of a book, if I can say that. For example, one of the first things that someone might want to download is a good browser. There are two there, and they also have Download buttons, to get them right from Vault, save them anywhere the user likes and then extract and install them. The last parts have to be done by the user for now, as Vault just downloads the archive.

Having the new Highlighted section, required the left sidebar to change, and have the new section first in the list and all the categories grouped, sort alphabetically. But this new structure gives me plenty of space to add more stuff in the future. Maybe add options of listing websites, or online sources for documentation. I do not know yet what I would like to add, but it is good to have options, isn't it?

To help users find an application, although they might not know in which category this might be, I added a Search field at the top section of the window. Typing the name, or even a part of it, will list all the applications that match. Even I needed it sometimes, especially when I add new applications. I need to double-check if I already have one in the list, and a search field is quite useful for me.

Finally, a change that was requested by a few users, is having a way to see a bigger version of the screenshot for an application. Now that image is also a button, and when it is clicked a new dialog open with a bigger version of the image. All the images are saved under the cache drawer, inside the Vault drawer. It is recommended to delete that folder, so that new images can be downloaded, especially for the icons, since they slightly changed in size, from 32px to 46px. This will make them look better and more clear.

This new version will be available from OS4Depot, from this official website and also from AmiUpdate, since I added that feature as well, making it even easier for the users to track new versions.

Slowly, more applications will be added in the Vault list. If someone would like to help make this list bigger, please contact me. Even for proposing which applications should be added.

Hope you find these new release features useful.

Just a few days after the first release, we have the first update. I am thrilled that people loved this little application of mine, and found it useful. Of course, I got plenty of feedback, for which I am thankful. And this release is about making some feature requests and fixes come true. So let's see what we have.

The first and most impactful change is that I moved the cache drawer placement. In the first release, I used the T: drawer, which resides in the ram disk. As a result, after a reboot all the cached little icons that Vault downloads were getting deleted, making the user to download them again whenever they are needed. These icons do not change frequently, if ever, so I moved the cache drawer inside the PROGDIR:, which is the same path where Vault is started from.

The second thing a few asked for was the wrong sorting order in the software list. I admit that this was making finding an application a little bit harder. The problem with that is in Hollywood and the way a column is sorted when it has an icon. That doesn't seem to work correctly on AmigaOS 4. It does on Linux, where I am doing my initial development, though. So, I imagine there is some kind of limitation or bug. As a workaround, I put the icons in their own column and not as part of the title. Problem solved.

In this release, I added a new status bar at the bottom window. This is the place of showing some messages about when Vault retrieves data from IntuitionBase, letting the user know what is going on, as well as having a busy bar that shows activity. This was necessary so that it is clearer to the user that something is happening and Vault didn't crash.

Finally, further adjustments were done in this new release, like the new help menu, where more links for Vault's Roadmap and news website were added, some fixes in the HTML parser for a better text representation were done. Furthermore, now when an application doesn't have a screenshot, the default image is presented.

The new version will soon be available from OS4Depot .

Today I released a new application for AmigaOS4, called Vault, which is a utility that lists the most compatible and well-tested applications for our systems. Some people would call it an app store, but it doesn't have so many features. At least not for now.

Vault is a tool that could be used by anyone to find software to run on AmigaOS 4. There are nine different categories, and clicking on each one of them, a list of application is presented. Selecting an application, more information appear at the bottom half of the window, including an extensive description, the developers and distributors, a small screenshot and a list of links to follow using their browser.

Some applications are able to have a direct download button as well, but for now only IBrowse has this option. Clicking on the "Download" button, an ASL requester appears, asking the user where to save the downloaded archive. Then a progress dialog appears, showing the download progress. After that, the user can extract it and follow the installation guidelines.

So, Vault does not make automatic installations nor updates of the selected applications. Consider it more like a featured applications catalog. Actually, it retrieves that list of the applications from the "Featured software" section of IntuitionBase.com, and it has the same information. That means that the application list will grow as soon as more added in IntuitionBase.

What is the purpose of this application, I hear you asking. Well, new users that join our community, do not know which applications are available and what they should download and where. Or even how to set them up. With Vault there is a good chance to find an app to try, and using the links to find articles around it if there are any. For example, if you check the MediaVault application, under the "Audio & Video" category, there is a link for the download page on OS4Depot, but also a link to ktadd's review where users can find more information.

The list of applications is not that big right now, and a lot are missing, but more will be added in the following days. If anyone would like to help make this list bigger, please contact me.

The first release of Vault is available to be downloaded from OS4Depot. Looking forward to hearing your feedback. You are welcome to share in the comments below what would you like to see in the next releases.

Hope you find Vault useful.