Resources for beginners II : Using dropbox and H2HH

[raz_atoth]

As the name says it's PBEM.Play by email. While exchanging turns by email worked just fine back in the old days of CMx1 you'll quickly find out that-despite the name- it's easier to send and receive your turns using alternative methods.
Why? Because the file sizes are huge. It isn't unusual to see ,even in medium battles, files as large as 15-20 MB. Some email service providers limit the size of the files you are allowed to attach. And even if they don't, having to email such big files is in itself a pain.

One alternative to email is dropbox. Dropbox is a free service [in the limit of 2 GB] that allows you to share your files. It's quite popular in the cmbn community so i suggest you familiarize with it if you're planning to do any serious business with cmbn ;) Especially since it's integrated with another tool called H2HH which will automate the process of sending and receiving turns.

Dropbox can be downloaded from here: https://www.dropbox.com/install

The first screen that you'll see when trying to install dropbox is the one below. Most likely you don't already have a dropbox account so select 'I don't have a dropbox account' and click Next. You will be prompted to input your email/password associated with the account.



The second screen will let you choose how much space you need. Unless you have a very good reason,the 2GB dropbox offers for free should be more than plenty for your cmbn games.



On the third screen you can decide how the dropbox settings should be handled. If you're fine with the default settings you can go with 'Typical'. For this tutorial i chosed 'Advanced' because i want to be able to specify the folder dropbox should use for storing the files rather than use the default one.





That's pretty much it. If everything went smooth you should see the dropbox icon in the system's tray.

[raz_atoth]

There are two ways in which dropbox can be used to send your turns to your opponents.Either using the 'Public' folder or setting up a shared folder.

By default,after dropbox's installation-in the folder you chose during setup- you should be able to see a folder labeled 'Public'. Everyone can download files from this folder,assuming they received the link of that file.In any case,it's not the folder in which you'd want to store any sensitive info. You can share files from the dropbox public folder with everyone, including people who don't use dropbox.



To send a turn to your opponent using the Public folder,simply copy or move that turn from CMBN->Game Files->Outgoing Email to Dropbox->Public ,then right-click on that file and choose Dropbox->Copy public link . The third step is to paste the link in an email sent your opponent,who will be able to download the file once he gets it.



The second option for sharing files is by creating a 'shared folder'.
This is the preferred method of sending turns.Or,at least the easiest method. Both you and your opponent must use dropbox to be able to 'share folders'.

Create a new folder in the dropbox folder ( and not in the dropbox->Public folder),right-click on it and select Dropbox->Share this folder from the menu.
You will be redirected to the dropbox site where you'll be able to specify the email of the opponent with whom you want to share that folder(You might need to login to dropbox first). He will receive an email informing him he was invited to share the folder. After he approves,the folder is officially shared and any files you copy in there will automatically show up on your opponent's shared folder. Likewise,any files he copies in his shared folder will automatically appear on your shared folder.

A small tip. It will be easier to keep track of incoming/outgoing files if you create two subfolders in the shared folder.One in which you'll copy your turns and the other one in which your opponent will copy his files.

[raz_atoth]

Ok,now that you are familiar with dropbox and with it's features let's go ahead with H2HH. H2HH is a pbem manager which will spare you the trouble of having to manually copy the incoming/outgoing turns.

You can grab it from here: (v 1.62)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvh9sx2zla2k0eq/S6LZaVAw_7

After you download and install it,the first thing you'll need to do is configure it.

First of all, set the dropbox root folder H2HH will use, from the File->Settings menu.



Next, we're going to setup the CMx2 installations H2H will keep track of. In the 'Your CM Installations tab' you should see listed all the released CMx2 games to date. If H2HH doesn't by default detect the right paths, you can manually do it by clicking on the name of the game and choosing Installs->Edit Installs from the menu.



In the resulting modal, you must let H2HH where the game can actually be found on the disk. The 'Installation Executable' is the path to the game's exe file. For example: c:\Games\CMBN\CM Normandy.exe . The 'Installation Root Directory' is NOT the path where the game is installed, but the path where the "Game Files" folder can be found. For CMFI and newer it's located in c:\Users\<Your Name>\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Red Thunder for example. For CMBN - the Games Files is in the folder where the game is installed.



If everything goes well,you should see listed the on going games. Right click on the name of a turn and choose 'Edit Game' from the popup menu.



Doing so will display a dialog box from where you'll be able to specify the dropbox shared folder where your opponent will copy the turns corresponding to that game. If there are any new turns for you,the files will be automatically be copied to your 'Incoming Email' folder.
Likewise,you can specify a second folder (optional) where your outgoing turns will be copied. If you don't specify the second folder the same dropbox folder is used for both incoming and outgoing turns.



Another feature you should be aware of is the ability to send messages to your opponent via h2hh. Be advised,this works only if your opponent uses dropbox and H2HH too!
Double click on a game in the list and send your message...

[Fubar]

I followed the above link and downloaded H2HH 1.5.3, is that the latest version and does it support CM:CW and CM:FI?

TTFN

[Millie5]

According to me its not new and updated version. I do not agree with its using speed as well... That is why there is error in downloading and speed as well.


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[Feddar]

Is H2HH available for mac OSX?

[raz_atoth]

In the dropbox folder where the creators of H2HH make it available,there is a file named 'h2h-helper-Mac-2.5.2.dmg' . I think this might be the MAC version of the app?

[Feddar]

Yup. Thanks!

[brand33]

Thank you..........

[Weasel]

Hi all: I want to update my H2HH (2.51 to 2.9) but I am not sure how to do so and I cannot find any instructions. Do I just install into the current 2.5 directory overwriting the files, or do I do a fresh install and reset all my games? If I overwrite, does it pick up my current games?

Thanks.