[Wintermute0110]

Ok, I undrestand. I took a look around Internet to find something that could be useful. The only thing that I saw is the /MIN argument in addition to /b you are already using. But I'm not sure this is the way to go...

Anyway, the "user transparent bahaviour" is perfect when a launcher to a specific .exe is created: in this case there is no MS-DOS windows (or console) opened.

OK, I will try the /MIN parameter, but I'm not sure if that will work. The console if opened by the start.exe command, not by AEL, so I don't know if I can solve that issue. Also, I'm not currently aware of an alternative way of launching LNK files apart from start.exe.

Personally I think I will go for this solution. The drawbak is that I have to create a launcher for every game/application (not a big issue btw). Going this way, I have noticed these to things:

- As per the ROM scanner, also the creation of the launcher for a game/application (.exe file) is not loading the .nfo and assets
- I have tried to create a .nfo file of an .exe application and the structure is different from the ROM one. For the ROM is the following:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<game>
  <title></title>
  <year></year>
  <genre></genre>
  <publisher></publisher>
  <rating></rating>
  <plot></plot>
</game>

while for the application is:

Code:

<launcher>
    <title></title>
    <platform></platform>
    <year></year>
    <publisher></publisher>
    <genre></genre>
    <plot></plot>
</launcher>

Do you think this would be an issue when there will be skins supporting the visualization of the information?

Launcher and ROM NFO files are different because the metadata of a Launcher and metadata for ROMs is different. Notably, "platform" is a property of the launcher, not the ROM.

The ROM scanner is only intended for ROMs, not for Launchers. Using the trick to creating LNK files from game EXE files, you are effectively converting Standalone launchers to ROMs of a special ROM LNK launcher. ROM NFO files and assets are loaded by the ROM scanner. However, Launcher NFOs/assets cannot.

The reason is that assets for Launchers are all of them stored on the same directory and the Launcher fingerprint is part of the filename (to allow 2 launchers with same name not to overwrite assets with each other). Since the fingerprint is random and not known until launcher has been created this means no NFO/assets for the Launcher can be loaded. For ROMs the situation changes: the NFO files/assets have exactly the same filename as the ROM, and there cannot be 2 ROMs with same filename on the same launcher, so the ROM scanner can load them without knowing the ROM fingerprint. Actually, if you deleted ROMs from a Launcher and rescan again, all ROMs will have completely different fingerprints. Have a look at this post for more details.

Of course this is how things work at the moment. If you have a good idea than can be implemented and most important, do not break current stuff, please share it.

In order to fully support AEL, skins have to implement at least 3 views: one view for Categories/Launchers, one view for No-Intro ROMs and one view for MAME ROMs. Categories/Launchers views will be simpler than ROM views cos the former has much less assets.

You don't have to excuse yourself Wintermute0110!!! Take your time...your work is just amazing!!! Thanks!

Thanks! I was not excusing myself, just telling everybody the current plans (which may change on the way )