ModPack Hosting

[HalestormXV]

Hey there,

 

Yes I see the sticky right up at the top of the boards about good places to host modpacks but my question is slightly different. What exactly do you need to be able to host the modpack? I was always under the assumption that so long as you have a direct link to the ModPack you are golden...or so I thought....(i did it before the new platform launch)

 

I have my own website, it's actually a VPS site and I just got out of support with them and they did a number of tests and checked the mod_sec to see if Technic was blocked by a firewall or anything like that. The reason I contacted them was because I have a directory on my website that I am going or was planning on hosting my own modpacks from. The service I use offers you unlimited storage and they have unlimited traffic. So i figured alright well this is simple enough, create my directory change the permissions of the file if I have to and then edit my modpacks in my account here and just change the links of my modpacks to reflect the links that go directly to starting the download from my website.

 

hxxp://www.domain.com/directory/NameOfZip.zip  (This as many of you know automatically will begin the download of the .zip file)

 

No such luck. When doing that and applying that to my Modpack it returns an error stating that the location is invalid. So needless to say i am confused and i am overlooking something, but what is it? Are there special requirements that these links need to have? I really don't know how much more direct you can get other then pointing right to the download url. I even tried adding the ?download=1 after the .zip just to try it. 

 

So I call out to you all? What's the deal?

[plowmanplow]

Please provide the link to your modpack page, as well as the URL you are attempting to assign in the settings. There have been a few of these popping up, but without those details it is impossible to diagnose.

Edited January 15, 2015 by plowmanplow

[HalestormXV]

http://www.nerdstormproduction.com/modpacks/ModernCiv.zip - that is the direct link to the pack

 

http://www.technicpack.net/modpack/xaralias-modern-civilization.561457  - the unlisted modpack page

 

Just be careful clicking the top link as that will start a download since it is the actual direct link lol. I would also like to be clear I have tried putting both the http:// ; the www. ; just <address> (without http:// or www.) so I have tried a variety of ways to establish this link and I specifically made the file name simple to avoid any possible issues with filename.

 

Please also note, that this Modpack works (although a bit on the large side) and downloads/updates (when I make changes) just fine using the Dropbox link that my pack is currently set to use and is currently stored in and when installing it not issues come up and it runs wonderfully. In reading through some posts I see this is an issue that appears to be creeping up. I wasn't aware it was so. 

Edited January 15, 2015 by HalestormXV

[Torezu]

Two things:

 

1) The direct link file is enormous for one reason: you included the cache folder in it, which seems to contain old versions of both your modpack and another one, totaling ~500MB.  Get rid of that and the zip file shrinks dramatically.

 

2) I can't test your download because I'm at work behind a firewall, but it appears to function just fine (the pack itself downloads, but the MC stuff won't from here).  Is that because you're still using the dropbox link?  If you are, we can't really troubleshoot your platform page.  Try ?dl=1 instead of ?download=1 just for fun.

[HalestormXV]

Yes, I am still using the dropbox link because when trying to use the direct link from above the platform errors out and says The Modpack Location you entered is not a valid location.

 

Then it resets the link and goes back to my drop-box link automatically which is the last working link that I guess the platform puts in there because it was able to access it. Yes I also retested the link with the ?dl=1 and no change. The same error appears when i click update and the link resets back to the dropbox one.

 

And thanks for the cache tip. I totally forgot i had that in there.

Edited January 16, 2015 by HalestormXV

[plowmanplow]

• Your modpack should contain 4 folders: /bin/, /config/, /Flan/, /mods/.
• The /bin/ folder should only contain the modpack.jar file.
• You have a number of item ID conflicts which really need to be resolved. These tend to cause problems down the road.

All that being said, I am able to add your pack to my launcher and start it successfully.

[HalestormXV]

Thank you, and yes I know it does start properly I actually run a server off of it and my friends and I play on the server. Its just a small server for the three of us (and yeah there are some config errors I am still hunting down but am looking for a more effective way rather then NEI data dumps). So I know it runs and it does work on the launcher as that is how I download and update it. My question is about the hosting of it (the modpack). Currently I host it off of Dropbox which is great and it works just fine with copying the public download link and using that to Edit my Modpack's location from the platform and paste the link. My question, and I apologize if I wasn't being clear, or maybe am misunderstanding is why:

 

I simply just can't move that already working Zip file which is currently linked to dropbox, which is what the Launcher uses now to download my modpack, to a directory on my website (which I linked above and just copy and paste that URL) in my "Edit Modpack" section of the platform. The link in the above post that i made <mywbsite>.com/modpacks/ZIP is a direct link to the download just like the dropbox link and when I do try to do that, it says that it is an invalid location.

 

I am asking this because i plan to start releasing modpacks but want to host them off of me own website as opposed to dropbox or copy or anything like that.

 

Or maybe I am misunderstanding and you both were/are telling me that because my file structure of the current .zip is wrong, and Technic does some type of .zip check and sees that it is wrong, that is why it is spitting out the error, but it just doesn't notice that when hosting via dropbox.

 

Am i making sense?

 

EDIT: Maybe this will clear up what i am trying to say:

http://imgur.com/a/i390u

 

As you can see Screenie1 is what the current setup is and it works just fine, you can download it from the launcher, it gets updates, etc. (what you both have tested and confirmed is working)

 

Screenie2 is me trying to change the modpack location to my direct download url that I posted in this thread in the above post

 

Screenie3 is what happens when I press Update after changing that modpack location URL. As you can see, it says invalid location and defaults it back to the working dropbox one.

 

 

And yes I know my .zip file structure is wrong and I intend to fix it and at time of this post did fix it. (that is why this is not a pubic pack because the file structure contains things not needed or not allowed. This is me more playing around with different mods and modpacks, tools, etc. before starting to create and host them.) Now if however the Technic website has a some type of check that sees that this structure is wrong, perhaps that is why the errors are popping up. But what doesn't make sense to me is why this pack is working via the dropbox link (as you both have seen and tested via the launcher) but does not work via the website directory that I also own.

 

Hopefully the screenshots clear up the issue more.

Edited January 16, 2015 by HalestormXV

[Torezu]

That's odd...you have a /u in the middle of your dropbox URL.  I've only ever seen /s at that spot.  Must be secured vs unsecured.  I don't see why that would make a difference, but maybe it does for some reason.

[plowmanplow]

No, the platform will not look into the contents of a modpack archive. It is my understanding that it is only trying to retrieve the HTTP headers for that URL and if that is successful it will accept the URL. Every test I can do through a browser, using online URL checkers, and programmatically yields the expected results. You might need to follow up with GenPage or sct to figure out why the request coming from the Technic servers is failing.

[HalestormXV]

Leave it to me to get the oddball issues. Lol I guess the best way to do that is going to be through the tracker huh? Or bug reports in general?

[plowmanplow]

No, you'll want to hit up IRC. There's no "official" support for Solder so no Tracker for that. I did notice that when using your personal URL it is exceedingly slow. Something on the order of 1 megabit. Might want to look into that.

[HalestormXV]

Onward to IRC. I appreciate all the help and step by step process though. Perhaps someone will take notice of this and look into it on the development end of things since maybe it is an issue that others are having but don't know how to explain it since these things have been popping up.