GameMaker Catalyst - The dependency management tool you didn't know you need

DukeSoft

Member
I've been a GameMaker user since version 4 and I'm starting to use GM more and more professionally - but one thing that I think it really lacks is a proper dependency manager. I'm always copying over files from other projects, importing resources, searching the web for GML snippets. When the Marketplace was introduced my hopes went up, but unfortunately the marketplace just imports all the resources into your project and then you can't manage them anymore.

Updating packages is horrible, and then there's the resource wasting fact of the included packages being included in my source control.

Back in the days I wrote a package manager for GMS1, but that was quickly rendered useless as GMS2 came around the corner. I've recently rewritten the package manager for GMS2, and recently refactored it - I think its ready for use now, and I'd love your feedback.

The project is called "Catalyst" - its a command line tool you can use to recursively import packages / libraries, and manage them. Uninstalling is easy, updating is easy, and the included resources get put nicely in a vendor folder in your project. It manages the .gitignore file to make sure the installed packages are not included in your git repository.

Alongside the project I've included a package repository - by default its being used by catalyst. You can browse packages online and submit your own to be included in the repository. The roadmap for Catalyst contains a feature where you can use local folders as well, if you want to keep your libraries personal.

The aim of this project is to improve collaboration, fuel open-source projects, improve reuseability and make GMS2 a bit nicer to use.

Quick-start guide: gamemakerhub.net/catalyst
Source-code: github.com/GameMakerHub/Catalyst
Pacakges and repository browser: gamemakerhub.net/browse-packages

Please let me know what you think!

PS: If there's a mod around, can you please move the topic to "Tutorials" ? I think it fits better there ^^,
 
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Tthecreator

Your Creator!
This is amazing! WOW!
I am also so fed up with this problem that I thought about making something like this myself. But it seems I don't have to.
Can I upload my own packages to my self hosted website/repository, and have that work with catalyst?
 

DukeSoft

Member
Thanks! :D I hope it helps making the GM life a bit easier for everyone.

The program Catalyst right now contains only 1 repository out of the box - a Catalyst repository type, hosted on GameMakerHub. This repository only allows public repositories that are hosted on Github. GameMakerHub indexes them from Github (after being submitted by someone) and then its available in Catalyst. So, if you have an open source project and you'd like to share - run catalyst init in the project file, commit it, and submit it to the GameMakerHub repo. In short: if its publicly on Github, it can be included in the main repository. You can browse the repository here: https://gamemakerhub.net/browse-packages and you can submit your own here: https://gamemakerhub.net/submit-package

This does however have some drawbacks (no private repositories for example), so the Catalyst software is built to support multiple types of repositories. Since this is a very early MVP release these features are not available yet, but they will soon:

- Ability to define custom repositories in the catalyst file so you can host your own repository with your own packages (for example, hidden / private organisation packages)
- Ability to include direct folders as repositories in the catalyst file, so you can use local projects

I've kept this in mind as I've developed the tool and these features should be available shortly. I've also been thinking about a "paid package" repository setup, much like the marketplace, but thats a long way down the road.
 

Tthecreator

Your Creator!
I'm really thankful this is free.
I have some use cases in mind for this to use for my own (paid) marketplace assets. For this reason, I find it unreasonable to suggest using hidden organisation packages. but well... you said it yourself...
Ability to define custom repositories in the catalyst file so you can host your own repository with your own packages (for example, hidden / private organisation packages)
When the time comes around to actually use it and it's not implemented yet I'd gladly contribute it myself.
 

DukeSoft

Member
I'm really thankful this is free.
I have some use cases in mind for this to use for my own (paid) marketplace assets. For this reason, I find it unreasonable to suggest using hidden organisation packages. but well... you said it yourself...
With hidden packages I mean for example a team (organisation) working on a project together - they all use internal packages for the team itself, which are hosted on the company's Github. The repositories there are private, only visible to team members.

For paid marketplace assets this right now is definately not the tool to use - its focussed around open source packages. The "paid package" setup would require people to register, and buy packages from the website. But thats a whole different ballpark that would require a lot of extra work (setting up payments, accounts, licensing etc.) and thats a pit I don't want to jump in right now.

Once the "local directory" feature comes around, you could ofcourse still use the marketplace to sell packages, and then users could use Catalyst with a local directory requirement to install the package, instead of through the IDE's marketplace.
 

DukeSoft

Member
I've just released 0.2.0-alpha which contains support for local directories as repositories.

You can now use locally brewed packages without having to share them on Github.

Add this to your projects' catalyst.json, and the underlaying projects of that folder are available to include as well :
Code:
"repositories": {   "../private-projects": "directory" },
 

DukeSoft

Member
Version 0.2.1-alpha is available for download: https://github.com/GameMakerHub/Cat....2.1-alpha/gmh_catalyst_setup_0.2.1-alpha.exe

This version includes 2 fixes;
Issue #21: Files added after the vendor folder in the same directory were marked for deletion
Issue #22: Exception when trying to install a repository that was freshly cloned

Happy to see that @kraifpatrik published a lot of valuable packages, and @Katipo007 added a very useful localisation package.

Browse the available packages here: https://gamemakerhub.net/browse-packages
 
R

robproctor83

Guest
The folks over at GM should buy this from you (for a nice sum) and then just include this in the baseline GM setup. There is no reason GM shouldn't have a package manager, especially considering how much content there is available for GM.
 

DukeSoft

Member
The folks over at GM should buy this from you (for a nice sum) and then just include this in the baseline GM setup. There is no reason GM shouldn't have a package manager, especially considering how much content there is available for GM.
Hehehe, I don't think they'd like the codebase (or language) very much :+)

But thanks! I hope this can help out some people.
 

samspade

Member
I've been following this for awhile, and it is pretty cool. It's certainly getting a lot of code out there that is very helpful. Is there any benefit to this over the built in marketplace?
 

DukeSoft

Member
I've been following this for awhile, and it is pretty cool. It's certainly getting a lot of code out there that is very helpful. Is there any benefit to this over the built in marketplace?
Cool! Good to hear.

Yes :) In contrast to the marketplace (which is basically just an "import assets" tool), Catalyst provides:

- Version locking (running a specific version of a package)
- Dependencies and recursive dependency resolving (one package using 2 others, each using two others)
- Efficient source control support (Catalyst ignores the installed dependency files - they don't need to be included in the sourcecontrol of your project - just a reference to the package and version is needed)
- Makes updating packages easy - it automatically updates the required files instead of you needing to manually delete all the files and re-installing a marketplace asset
- Local / private packages - easy to include one local project into other multiple projects without needing to upload it to the marketplace (or any place else)
 

DukeSoft

Member
Feature heads-up; Catalyst now supports an `ignore` field, so you can exclude certain resources from being installed into projects including your package. Usefull for exclusing test resources or examples!

Its not yet in the bundled release / installer, but its in the master branch.

https://github.com/GameMakerHub/Catalyst/blob/master/README.md#ignore-files-to-be-installed

You can use this now by checking out the source, I will build a new installable release soon.
 

kraifpatrik

(edited)
GameMaker Dev.
In my opinion THE most important GM related project, which has enabled a lot of my recent work. Thank you so much for making this. I wish Catalyst gets more spotlight from the community.
 

DukeSoft

Member
I've just released version 0.2.2-alpha! Download from here: https://github.com/GameMakerHub/Catalyst/releases

Release notes:
  • Contains support for ignorable files (see readme)
  • Increased installation speed
  • Should fix occasional "empty response from server" errors when installing more than a few packages
  • Updated vulnerable dependencies
  • Tested with latest version of GM (2.2.5.481)
  • Made sure application uses proper exit code
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
I'm feeling kinda lazy to add my extensions to the available packages as I know nothing about how to do that and have higher priorities.

Anyone who finds it more worthwhile than I do is free to add my extensions to catalyst's available packages if they want:


All I ask is use the versions from itch.io as the Marketplace copies are outdated atm.
 

DukeSoft

Member
I'm feeling kinda lazy to add my extensions to the available packages as I know nothing about how to do that and have higher priorities.

Anyone who finds it more worthwhile than I do is free to add my extensions to catalyst's available packages if they want:


All I ask is use the versions from itch.io as the Marketplace copies are outdated atm.
If I ever find the motivation to install GMS2 again I'll see if I can get these packages in :) (as well as GMS2.3 support, heh)
 
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