User Configurations

Bootless Star has the ability to manage user's specific settings, which allows the user to: restore, save, or delete a preset configuration file. This article will cover the fundamental basics but also cover technical aspects of how key-chains work.

User Configurations - Basics

Bootless Star, much like every other program, allows users to customize their settings to their own unique preference. But, one problem will quickly stand out - when a user starts customizing it, the user might have to redo everything at each startup. Needless to say, this will become irritating and uninviting -- no one wants to spend the time on reconfiguring something that should have been done for them. Bootless Star allows users to restore and save their own user configurations; this guarantees that the user's settings are always remembered when set.

User Configurations - Key-Chains and Modules

When we start a module, the philosophy in Bootless Star is to require very minimal interaction, so we want to get the task done and leave. However, modules have their own settings as well that we have to also adjust. When we restart the same modules over and over again, we don't want to reconfigure it again and again. Instead, Bootless Star has a unique feature of 'Key Chains'. When the user loads their preset within the User Configuration menu, they are giving a unique ID - which can be used across every module that is using Bootless Star's environment. With this feature, when the user starts a module, their settings are already saved - and ready for them.

How it works

When a save is created, Bootless Star will generate a random key ID unique to the save configuration. This Unique ID is the model of the 'Key Chain' ideology. When modules first execute, they will access the variable 'UserConfigurationKeyChainToken' which holds the unique ID and what configuration to automatically load during startup. If the Key Chain is missing or nothing exists within the modules local directory, then the default settings are loaded instead.

Saving Presets in Modules

Typically, a configuration can be created or regenerated again by going to the modules 'Settings' and pressing the [U] key for 'Update User Configuration', atleast this has been a standard since the first iteration of the Key Chain model was introduced. When a configuration has been saved, the file will be located in the modules local directory.