Pidgin Utilities

Pidgin Portable Commandr

Since PortableApps version adds an unnecesary .exe to your RAM, I followed some steps… and totally went overboard. I made an extensively tested and commented (!) .cmd file that manages upgrades and everything in a pretty good fashion. I’ll try to keep the script updated to latest Pidgin versions.

Download

Portable Pidgin Commandr v1.0

Compatibility

Windows only. I used Windows 7 64 bits. Let me know if this doesn’t work on other Windows versions.

Installation

• Download Pidgin zipped binaries and GTK+ zipped binaries.
• Download Portable Pidgin Commandr.
• Move everything to a folder of your choice, like Pidgin Rocks/.
• Extract the Portable Pidgin Commandr only.
• Move all the plugins you are going to use to the myplugins/ folder that was just created.
• Execute the ppc-1.0.cmd file.

And that’s it. I tried to make this utility the most user-friendly possible, but to make it better I have to know some coding stuff to automatically download the most updated binaries, and that’s beyond my reach.

Upgrading

• Download latest Pidgin zipped binaries.
• Move the file to your previously created folder, like /Pidgin Rocks/.
• Execute ppc-1.0.cmd file.

And magic happens.

Script Description

The biggest problem was to make a feasible upgrade install. First I thought to make a myplugins/ folder inside the Pidgin’s plugins/ folder, but then the damn Pidgin doesn’t read that one. I was planning to run some exclude commands… Oh, well. So I had to make a backup-kinda install, and copying the plugins seemed like the best solution.
I know this utility is not perfect, but it’s the best I could do. The biggest downside is having to copy one plugin to the plugins/ folder and another to the myplugins/ folder. Hope that someone can gave me a tip with that.
Also, this utiliy has been tested against user errors: if by mistake a user executes ppc-1.0 file by mistake, he/she only has to download the Pidgin binaries, execute the script, and everything will be working again.

Let me know your opinions.