Layout placeholder for extensions

[barzille]

Hi,

I have a lot of small programs which differ by extension. For example myapp1.extV1 and myapp1.extV2, myapp2.extV1 and myapp2.extV2, … and so on.
I have worked out a layout with a background image and everything works fine, except that I have overseen that I can only set up an icon position to an explicit filename.

What I want is to drag a folder with two versions of my app and have it produce a dmg where the icons are placed correctly. Therefore I need a way to tell DropDMG where to put the files in the layout:

Either: Put the first file here and the second file there
Or even better: Put the file with extension extV1 here and the file with extension extV2 there.

Using the icon name file is not a possibility as it will only work with just ONE file

Can you help me on this task?

[Michael_Tsai]

@barzille

What I want is to drag a folder with two versions of my app and have it produce a dmg where the icons are placed correctly. Therefore I need a way to tell DropDMG where to put the files in the layout:

Either: Put the first file here and the second file there
Or even better: Put the file with extension extV1 here and the file with extension extV2 there.

Currently, there’s no automated way to do this with DropDMG. I will look into whether I can enhance the placeholders to support this. When you say “first file” and “second file” do you mean alphabetically? Also, could you explain more about the extensions for your apps? Normal Mac OS X apps all have extension .app, so it’s not clear to me why yours differ.

[barzille]

@Michael_Tsai

Currently, there’s no automated way to do this with DropDMG. I will look into whether I can enhance the placeholders to support this. When you say “first file” and “second file” do you mean alphabetically? Also, could you explain more about the extensions for your apps? Normal Mac OS X apps all have extension .app, so it’s not clear to me why yours differ.

Hi Michael,
first and second would be a bad solution
Better would be a solution - as you mentioned - by file extension.
I am not really talking about apps, but folders with extensions which are used as plugins for another program.
In particular I am talking about RapidWeaver and plugins I am writing.
Currently I have to provide myfile.stacks for RapidWeaver 5 and myfile.rwaddons for RapidWeaver 6.
I am having about 50 different plugins which I want to automatically put into 50 dmg files. Each with myfile.stacks and myfile.rwaddons

Cheers Maik

[Michael_Tsai]

@barzille

I am not really talking about apps, but folders with extensions which are used as plugins for another program.
In particular I am talking about RapidWeaver and plugins I am writing.
Currently I have to provide myfile.stacks for RapidWeaver 5 and myfile.rwaddons for RapidWeaver 6.

OK, that makes sense. Thanks.

[barzille]

@Michael_Tsai

OK, that makes sense. Thanks.

Hey Michael,
can you give me a hint on when you might have time to do this (if you do it ).
Otherwise I will have to look for another solution.

Cheers Maik

[Michael_Tsai]

@barzille

can you give me a hint on when you might have time to do this (if you do it ).
Otherwise I will have to look for another solution.

It is a feature that I would like to add. I doubt that it would be completed in 2014.

[barzille]

@Michael_Tsai

It is a feature that I would like to add. I doubt that it would be completed in 2014.

Thank you Michael,
I will go and buy a license and would love to see that feature coming sooner I am also willing to test if you want me to.
In the meanwhile, do you know of another scriptable way of moving the icons in the dmg if I am not using placeholders? Currently they are positioned at the top left.

Or is there maybe some special plist entry in your App which I could modify in order to have the icons start at an exact position?

[Michael_Tsai]

@barzille

I will go and buy a license and would love to see that feature coming sooner I am also willing to test if you want me to.

Best would be if you could send me an e-mail so that I can make a note in the feature request to contact you.

@barzille

In the meanwhile, do you know of another scriptable way of moving the icons in the dmg if I am not using placeholders? Currently they are positioned at the top left.

Or is there maybe some special plist entry in your App which I could modify in order to have the icons start at an exact position?

You could export a layout to the Finder. It’s easy to change the names of the files in the plist. Then you could just pass the edited layout to the dropdmg command-line tool.