Web file server for game manuals different way

[3Draco]

I made something that builds on the idea of ​​ecto from this topic. https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/28705/web-file-server-for-game-manuals-scummvm-dosbox?_=1696687971245

I decided to take a different approach and copy the instructions that are in the ROM/media folder. If there are no instructions, a standard PDF is used, just like in the Retropie menu. I'm always open to suggestions. I'm not a professional and only built this for myself, so use it at your own risk. I just thought maybe someone here could use it.

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You can find it at: https://github.com/3Draco/retropieshowmanual

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The game manual should be in the ROM directory \media\manuals and have the same name as the game. Only PDFs are supported

After installation, you can reach the web server that displays the game instructions under the Retropie IP.

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1 - Install webfs and Configure Web Server: Install the webfs web server by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install webfs

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2 - Change the Web Server settings: Edit the webfsd.conf file. You can use a text editor of your choice, e.g., nano:

sudo nano /etc/webfs/webfsd.conf

port="80"

web_root="/home/pi/RetroPie/manual/www/"

web_index="index.html"

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3 - Create Folders and Copy Files: Create the necessary folders if they don't already exist:

mkdir -p /home/pi/RetroPie/manual/www/
mkdir -p /home/pi/RetroPie/manual/manual/

Copy index.html to the www folder.

Copy nomanual.pdf and retropie.pdf to the manual folder.

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4 - Insert the following in to runcommand-onstart.sh

# Enable debug mode (set DEBUG to true to see debug outputs)
DEBUG=false

# Path to the directory where the manuals (PDFs) are located
manuals_directory="/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/$1/media/manuals"

# Path to the target directory where the manual should be copied
target_directory="/home/pi/RetroPie/manual/www"

# Extract the game name from the full path to the ROM file
game_name=$(basename "$3" | sed 's/\.[^.]*$//')

# Set the path to the source file (manual)
source_file="$manuals_directory/$game_name.pdf"

# Check if the source file (manual) exists
if [ -e "$source_file" ]; then
	# Set the target directory and filename for the copied manual
	target_file="$target_directory/manual.pdf"

	# Copy the source file (manual) to the target directory and save it as "manual.pdf" (overwrite if already exists)
	cp "$source_file" "$target_file"

	if [ "$DEBUG" = true ]; then
		# Display debug output
		echo "DEBUG: Manual found"
		echo "DEBUG: The manual $source_file was successfully copied and saved as manual.pdf to $target_file."
		echo "DEBUG: Game name: $3"
		sleep 30s
	fi

	else
	# If the source file (manual) was not found, copy and rename a PDF with the name "nomanual.pdf" from another directory
	nomanual_source="/home/pi/RetroPie/manual/nomanual.pdf"
	nomanual_target="$target_directory/manual.pdf"

	# Copy the replacement PDF (nomanual.pdf) to the target directory and save it as "manual.pdf" (overwrite if already exists)
	cp "$nomanual_source" "$nomanual_target"

	if [ "$DEBUG" = true ]; then
		# Display debug output
		echo "DEBUG: No manual found"
		echo "DEBUG: A default manual $nomanual_source was saved as manual.pdf to $nomanual_target."
		echo "DEBUG: Game name: $3"
		sleep 30s
	fi

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5 - Insert the following line in to runcommand-onend.sh

cp /home/pi/RetroPie/manual/retropie.pdf /home/pi/RetroPie/manual/www/manual.pdf > /dev/null 2>&1

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7 - Make the "runcommand-onend.sh" and "runcommand-onstart.sh" file executable using the chmod command:

chmod +x runcommand-onend.sh
chmod +x runcommand-onstart.sh