Can DAT-o-MATIC issue separate Wii U update versions?

[TheManuel]

Hello.

Since recently, the Wii U Digital CDN dat file now includes all updates merged into a single entry.
Is there a way in DAT-o-MATIC to make them separate again when I generate the dat file?

[Hiccup]

Hi. Thanks for the suggestion - this is something I've been planning to look at actually, but your message prompted me to have a go at it again. I've made a script to extract version info from CDN contents. I'm going to send the script to someone with a set of the CDN data. When they've finished running the script, I'll submit that info to be batch-imported into the database, and then in the near future hopefully we can get the ability to download DATs with specific versions.

[TheManuel]

That is great news!!!

I thought asking about it would be a long shot, as I'm sure you had good reasons to restructure the database the way you did, which makes perfect sense from an archive efficiency point of view. However, making the version breakdown available would provide the additional benefit of knowing what files went with what update, which also helps enrich the archiving effort.

Thank you very much.

[Hiccup]

Yeah exactly, it makes sense from the database point-of-view, and also because that's how the actual CDN is laid out. But having extra metadata and extra DAT export options is a good thing.

You're welcome.

[xuom2]

Hi. Thanks for the suggestion - this is something I've been planning to look at actually, but your message prompted me to have a go at it again. I've made a script to extract version info from CDN contents. I'm going to send the script to someone with a set of the CDN data. When they've finished running the script, I'll submit that info to be batch-imported into the database, and then in the near future hopefully we can get the ability to download DATs with specific versions.

what's the sense of all this, when we simply could have added the separated versions, like every other system on db, and only via option merge everything in datfile?

[Hiccup]

Well its because the versions are intrinsically joined together. Its not like carts where you have separate ROMs for revisions. A lot of files are shared between CDN versions, and they are all stored in one "folder" on the CDN, and often people will download all the versions at once from the CDN. Just seemed simpler to do it this way.

[xuom2]

Dunno, I'm curious to see if the splitting solution is easier than having "double" files between archives.

[Hiccup]

This solution doesn't require having double files between archives.

[xuom2]

but it will add new fields and rules? I don't know if it's better...