Categorii Wii

From GameBrew
Categorii
Categoriiwii02.png
General
AuthorYossi
TypeTitle Managers
Version2.0-TR
LicenseMixed
Last Updated2012/03/07
Links
2.0 + Template Download
Website
Source

Are you overwhelmed by the number of apps listed in your Homebrew Channel (HBC)? Do you find it difficult to scroll down to apps that start with "W" and rarely use them anymore? Have you ever installed an app, but forgot about it because it got lost in the clutter? Categorii can help! Categorii is a tool that organizes your apps into categories, making it easier to find and use the apps you want. Say goodbye to scrolling through a cluttered list of apps and hello to a more organized and efficient way of accessing them.

Categorii is an application that organizes your apps in the Homebrew Channel (HBC) by renaming your apps/ directory. When you run the app, it will automatically categorize your apps without any input from you and exit. When you open the HBC again, the apps will be organized in the designated categories, giving the impression that the HBC has built-in categories. This makes it easier to find and use the apps you want, without scrolling through a cluttered list.

Installation

There are several different ways you could set this up.

  • You could have each category link to the next category in a big loop (games->utilities->demos etc. back around to games) (linked list).
  • You could have the same thing but have a link back every time as well (games->utilities->demos etc. while at the same time demos->utilities->games etc.) (double linked list).
  • You could have one category (lets call it apps_root) that consists only of links to all the other categories, and all the other categories would have a link back to apps_root (tree).
  • You could have every category linked to every other category (web).
  • Or you could have random links to wherever, and end up stuck in some category you forgot to link out of, or out of some category you forgot to link in to.

How to setup:

  • Open up your SD card and create a directory in the root for each category you want to have (apps_utitlites/, apps_games/, etc.).
  • Sort your homebrew from the apps/ directory to the correct category directories.
  • Put a copy of Categorii into each category for each link out of that category (more on this later). Be sure to give each one a unique directory name (categorii_utilities, categorii_games, ect.).
  • For each link, edit some files.
    • Required - Edit meta.xml.
    • Recommended - Create an icon.png.
  • Don't forget to rename one of the categories back to apps/ so that HBC can find it.

The included meta.xml is preconfigured for a link from apps_/ to apps_/ (nowhere). You will want to change this as needed for each link. A simple icon.png with the name of the destination would be a nice finishing touch.

User guide

Configuration

If you already have an existing 1.0 setup, you don't need to worry about this <link> stuff, the new 2.0 boot.dol will take care of it for you.

The <link> tag goes after the closing </app> tag of meta.xml (the included meta.xml already has this). The format for a link is as follows:

... existing meta.xml contents ...
</app>

<link>
  <from>apps_here</from>
  <to>apps_there</to>
</link>

<from> is what to rename the current apps/ to when we leave, and <to> is where we are going to.

You may want to make the <name> of each link start with a space so the HBC lists it first.

Passcode

To add a passcode, you need to add <code> tags, like this:

<link>
  <code for="wiimote">[buttons here]</code>
  <from>apps_here</from>
  <to>apps_there</to>
</link>

Now the program will ask for the passcode. You have 30 seconds to enter it. It can not be longer than 10 keystrokes. As soon as the right combo is pressed, it continues. You can add an attribute like so

<code for="gamecube">

and it will listen on the gc controller instead (wiimote still can't get in in this case). No attribute will default to

<code for="wiimote">

The Wiimote buttons are: UDLRABMP12H and are not case-sensitive.

The GC buttons are: UDLRABXYzlrS and are case-sensitive (lowercase for the 3 triggers).

Premade Stuff

There is also a (mostly) tree setup available here, based on the work of Capple123 and PidGin128 and using Elisherer's icons. Just unrar this to the root of your SD card and your existing apps folder will be referred to as Misc, ready for you to start sorting things out into the other 6 categories.

This bundle has not yet been updated to the newest version with new wiimote support.

Homebrew Sorter

This is similar to Homebrew Sorter. Categorii is much faster than Homebrew Sorter when switching categories, and it gives you more freedom with what categories you can have, but you can't have one copy of an app be in 2 categories (Homebrew Sorter can) and categorii is MUCH harder to set up.

Homebrew Sorter has a nice GUI for setting it up while the SD card is still in the Wii, while setting up categorii requires putting the SD card in a computer and spending some time. If you don't want to take your card out, you definitely want to use Homebrew Sorter instead.

HBB

As it stands now, this will not work so well with the Homebrew Browser.

A standard naming convention for categories should be apps_[hbb category] for the apps folders, and categorii_[where it points to] for the categorii app itself. Hopefully this will make it easier to add support for it to the browser.

Screenshots

categoriiwii3.png

Known issues

After an upgrade from 1.0 to 2.0 style, the <version> tag in meta.xml is at the bottom. You can only notice this if you look in meta.xml (HBC is fine).

Changelog

v2.0

  • Recompile for new wiimotes.
  • Fixed embarrassing situation where categorii would rename apps and then fail on the second rename leaving you with NO folder named apps.
  • Removed 1/2 second pause off the end.
  • Deprecated config.xml in favor of keeping link information in meta.xml.
  • Added colored text to indicate success or failure at a glance.
  • Added password capability.
  • Automatically converts from 1.0 style configuration, to new style. (You only need to replace the old boot.dol with the new boot.dol file).

v1.0

  • Initial release.

External links

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