Homebrew Browser v0.2.1a released

Homebrew Browser v0.2.1a released

July 27th, 2008, 22:19 Posted By: wraggster

News/release from teknecal

The Homebrew Browser allows you to download the latest homebrew applications and games all through your Wii. You don't need to take your SD card out. You don't even need a computer! You can also delete homebrew you no longer want.

No more dead links, no more extracting files, no more finding out that the homebrew application doesn't include an icon.png and meta.xml in the zip file!

Note: Not all applications/games are included yet. They will be added over time.

One click download and install for each homebrew application
One click deletion of homebrew applications
One click update for homebrew apps
Auto updating when your Homebrew Browser version is out of date
Run the included ELF with your favourite method to boot homebrew. Uses the Wiimote with IR.

Green Tick - You have the latest version of that homebrew application installed.

Blue Tick - You don't have the latest version of that homebrew application installed.

The Homebrew Browser (HBB) contacts the main server to receive a list of current homebrew applications. The list includes the application names, image file sizes, boot file sizes and whether it is a dol or elf file.
HBB checks to see if the user has the latest image files (stored in /temp) for all homebrew listed. If the image is out of date or missing, it downloads the image file.
Once in HBB and when selecting a game to install, it downloads the icon.png, meta.xml and boot.dol/elf files from the server.

How icons for HBB are selected
If there is no icon.png file in a homebrew application then an icon is included if one can be found.

If there is no name on the icon and if the picture doesn't represent very clearly what the application does then it is replaced with an icon that has a name.

Homebrew Application folder naming
I will stick to the folder names used when you extract each homebrew application. Folders with spaces will be replaced with underscores. If your files don't come in a folder, then a folder name will be created. If your homebrew application used a folder name before HBB and you've updated your application, the user will notice that there is an update to your application.

An example is MAsteroids. The game was developed before HBB. Lets say that the game gets updated. Since they are using a folder name, I can simple place the new boot.dol/elf on the server, change the file size and when the user loads HBB it will notice that they have an existing install of MAsteroids and then the user can update to the latest version.

To make my life easier...
Include an icon.png and a meta.xml file with your homebrew application.
Try to follow the meta.xml standard and test your meta.xml file in HBC.
Include a date and version number with your homebrew release, otherwise I will use the timestamp from the boot.dol/elf file and name it v0.1.
Put your homebrew application files into a folder and then zip up that folder. Try to keep using that folder name for the homebrew applications life.

27 July 2008 (v0.2.1a)

Fixed the issue when downloading most of the temporary images for the first time it caused HBB to exit
Added text to describe what each icon does when you move the cursor over it

Download Here and give feedback via comments.

For more information and downloads, click here!