SMAPI/docs/technical-docs.md

← README

This file provides more technical documentation about SMAPI. If you only want to use or create mods, this section isn't relevant to you; see the main README to use or create mods.

Contents

• SMAPI
  • Development
    • Compiling from source
    • Debugging a local build
    • Preparing a release
  • Customisation
    • Configuration file
    • Command-line arguments
    • Compile flags
• SMAPI web services
  • Overview
    • Log parser
    • Mods API
  • Development
    • Local development
    • Deploying to Amazon Beanstalk
• Mod build config package

SMAPI

Development

Compiling from source

Using an official SMAPI release is recommended for most users.

SMAPI uses some C# 7 code, so you'll need at least Visual Studio 2017 on Windows, MonoDevelop 7.0 on Linux, Visual Studio 2017 for Mac, or an equivalent IDE to compile it. It uses build configuration derived from the crossplatform mod config to detect your current OS automatically and load the correct references. Compile output will be placed in a bin folder at the root of the git repository.

Debugging a local build

Rebuilding the solution in debug mode will copy the SMAPI files into your game folder. Starting the StardewModdingAPI project with debugging from Visual Studio (on Mac or Windows) will launch SMAPI with the debugger attached, so you can intercept errors and step through the code being executed. This doesn't work in MonoDevelop on Linux, unfortunately.

Preparing a release

To prepare a crossplatform SMAPI release, you'll need to compile it on two platforms. See crossplatforming info on the wiki for the first-time setup.

1. Update the version number in GlobalAssemblyInfo.cs and Constants::Version. Make sure you use a semantic version. Recommended format:

   build type	format	example
   dev build	<version>-alpha.<timestamp>	2.0-alpha.20171230
   prerelease	<version>-prerelease.<ID>	2.0-prerelease.2
   release	<version>	2.0

2. In Windows:

   1. Rebuild the solution in Release mode.
   2. Rename bin/Packaged to SMAPI <version> (e.g. SMAPI 2.0).
   3. Transfer the SMAPI <version> folder to Linux or Mac.
      This adds the installer executable and Windows files. We'll do the rest in Linux or Mac, since we need to set Unix file permissions that Windows won't save.

3. In Linux or Mac:

   1. Rebuild the solution in Release mode.

   2. Copy bin/internal/Packaged/Mono into the SMAPI <version> folder.

   3. If you did everything right so far, you should have a folder like this:

      SMAPI-2.x/
         install.exe
         readme.txt
         internal/
            Mono/
               Mods/*
               Mono.Cecil.dll
               Newtonsoft.Json.dll
               StardewModdingAPI
               StardewModdingAPI.AssemblyRewriters.dll
               StardewModdingAPI.config.json
               StardewModdingAPI.exe
               StardewModdingAPI.pdb
               StardewModdingAPI.xml
               steam_appid.txt
               System.Numerics.dll
               System.Runtime.Caching.dll
               System.ValueTuple.dll
            Windows/
               Mods/*
               Mono.Cecil.dll
               Newtonsoft.Json.dll
               StardewModdingAPI.AssemblyRewriters.dll
               StardewModdingAPI.config.json
               StardewModdingAPI.exe
               StardewModdingAPI.pdb
               StardewModdingAPI.xml
               System.ValueTuple.dll
               steam_appid.txt
      

   4. Open a terminal in the SMAPI <version> folder and run chmod 755 internal/Mono/StardewModdingAPI.

   5. Copy & paste the SMAPI <version> folder as SMAPI <version> for developers.

   6. In the SMAPI <version> folder...

      • edit internal/Mono/StardewModdingAPI.config.json and internal/Windows/StardewModdingAPI.config.json to disable developer mode;
      • delete internal/Windows/StardewModdingAPI.xml.

   7. Compress the two folders into SMAPI <version>.zip and SMAPI <version> for developers.zip.

Customisation

Configuration file

You can customise the SMAPI behaviour by editing the StardewModdingAPI.config.json file in your game folder.

Basic fields:

field	purpose
DeveloperMode	Default false (except in SMAPI for developers releases). Whether to enable features intended for mod developers (mainly more detailed console logging).
CheckForUpdates	Default true. Whether SMAPI should check for a newer version when you load the game. If a new version is available, a small message will appear in the console. This doesn't affect the load time even if your connection is offline or slow, because it happens in the background.
VerboseLogging	Default false. Whether SMAPI should log more information about the game context.
ModData	Internal metadata about SMAPI mods. Changing this isn't recommended and may destabilise your game. See documentation in the file.

Command-line arguments

The SMAPI installer recognises three command-line arguments:

argument	purpose
--install	Preselects the install action, skipping the prompt asking what the user wants to do.
--uninstall	Preselects the uninstall action, skipping the prompt asking what the user wants to do.
--game-path "path"	Specifies the full path to the folder containing the Stardew Valley executable, skipping automatic detection and any prompt to choose a path. If the path is not valid, the installer displays an error.

SMAPI itself recognises two arguments, but these are intended for internal use or testing and may change without warning.

argument	purpose
--log-path "path"	The relative or absolute path of the log file SMAPI should write.
--no-terminal	SMAPI won't write anything to the console window. (Messages will still be written to the log file.)

Compile flags

SMAPI uses a small number of conditional compilation constants, which you can set by editing the <DefineConstants> element in StardewModdingAPI.csproj. Supported constants:

flag	purpose
SMAPI_FOR_WINDOWS	Indicates that SMAPI is being compiled on Windows for players on Windows. Set automatically in crossplatform.targets.

SMAPI web services

Overview

The StardewModdingAPI.Web project provides an API and web UI hosted at *.smapi.io.

Log parser

The log parser provides a web UI for uploading, parsing, and sharing SMAPI logs. The logs are persisted in a compressed form to Pastebin.

The log parser lives at https://log.smapi.io.

Mods API

The mods API provides version info for mods hosted by Chucklefish, GitHub, or Nexus Mods. It's used by SMAPI to perform update checks. The {version} URL token is the version of SMAPI making the request; it doesn't do anything currently, but lets us version breaking changes if needed.

Each mod is identified by a repository key and unique identifier (like nexus:541). The following repositories are supported:

key	repository
chucklefish	A mod page on the Chucklefish mod site, identified by the mod ID in the page URL.
github	A repository on GitHub, identified by its owner and repository name (like Zoryn4163/SMAPI-Mods). This checks the version of the latest repository release.
nexus	A mod page on Nexus Mods, identified by the mod ID in the page URL.

The API accepts either GET or POST for convenience:

GET https://api.smapi.io/v2.0/mods?modKeys=nexus:541,chucklefish:4228

POST https://api.smapi.io/v2.0/mods
{
  "ModKeys": [ "nexus:541", "chucklefish:4228" ]
}

It returns a response like this:

{
 "chucklefish:4228": {
   "name": "Entoarox Framework",
   "version": "1.8.0",
   "url": "https://community.playstarbound.com/resources/4228"
 },
 "nexus:541": {
   "name": "Lookup Anything",
   "version": "1.16",
   "url": "http://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/541"
 }
}

Development

Local development

StardewModdingAPI.Web is a regular ASP.NET MVC Core app, so you can just launch it from within Visual Studio to run a local version.

There are two differences when it's run locally: all endpoints use HTTP instead of HTTPS, and the subdomain portion becomes a route (e.g. log.smapi.io → localhost:59482/log).

Before running it locally, you need to enter your credentials in the appsettings.Development.json file. See the next section for a description of each setting. This file is listed in .gitignore to prevent accidentally committing credentials.

Deploying to Amazon Beanstalk

The app can be deployed to a standard Amazon Beanstalk IIS environment. When creating the environment, make sure to specify the following environment properties:

property name	description
LogParser:PastebinDevKey	The Pastebin developer key used to authenticate with the Pastebin API.
LogParser:PastebinUserKey	The Pastebin user key used to authenticate with the Pastebin API. Can be left blank to post anonymously.
LogParser:SectionUrl	The root URL of the log page, like https://log.smapi.io/.
ModUpdateCheck:GitHubPassword	The password with which to authenticate to GitHub when fetching release info.
ModUpdateCheck:GitHubUsername	The username with which to authenticate to GitHub when fetching release info.

Mod build config package

Overview

The mod build config package is a NuGet package that mods reference to automatically set up references, configure the build, and add analyzers specific to Stardew Valley mods.

This involves three projects:

project	purpose
StardewModdingAPI.ModBuildConfig	Configures the build (references, deploying the mod files, setting up debugging, etc).
StardewModdingAPI.ModBuildConfig.Analyzer	Adds C# analyzers which show code warnings in Visual Studio.
StardewModdingAPI.ModBuildConfig.Analyzer.Tests	Unit tests for the C# analyzers.

When the projects are built, the relevant files are copied into bin/Pathoschild.Stardew.ModBuildConfig.

Preparing a build

To prepare a build of the NuGet package:

1. Install the NuGet CLI.
2. Change the version and release notes in package.nuspec.
3. Rebuild the solution in Release mode.
4. Open a terminal in the bin/Pathoschild.Stardew.ModBuildConfig package and run this command:

   nuget.exe pack
   

That will create a Pathoschild.Stardew.ModBuildConfig-<version>.nupkg file in the same directory which can be uploaded to NuGet or referenced directly.