Jose BG

Create your own Custom Database for Downloader

Added 2022-08-19 22:59:44 +0000 UTC

As some of you already know, Downloader works similarly to a package manager within the MiSTer ecosystem.

There is a big distribution hosted at distribution_mister containing most of the files of the MiSTer-devel organization, but there are also other databases hosted in other places. For example, another big one is jtcores which contains all jotego files. And other developers have also been creating new databases in recent months such as wizzo.

Thanks to this design we essentially have an open plugin system for distributing content that's quite flexible. Users may select the databases they want with the Settings Screen from Update All, or add them manually by editing downloader.ini directly.

The format for building your own Custom Database is properly documented here but is mainly targeted at programmers that would like to generate a database with a custom-made script. It is a bit heavy for some use cases.

I always wanted to "democratize" the creation of new custom databases, so that not only programmers or very tech-savvy people can publish and maintain their own ones, and today's update will finally fulfill this goal.

A New Method

Today I'd like to share a method for creating a custom database that anybody could do and just takes 5 minutes. This method can be entirely done through GitHub Web UI, and just requires copy-pasting a single file.

The complete guide to do it is here: https://github.com/theypsilon/DB-Template_MiSTer

Essentially it's just a 5 step process, after which adding new files to your database is as easy as uploading files to any other modern website.

Your Custom Database can be part of Update All

If you made some really neat custom database and you would like to share it with the whole community, don't hesitate to ping me. If there is enough interest, we could add it to the Settings Screen of Update All.

And that's all for today. I'm sure some of you will create something worth sharing with this method.

In the coming weeks, I'll hopefully publish something new for Update All. Check my Twitter account to stay informed with more day-to-day updates.

See you soon!