5.8 Dev Environments

This screen is used to view information about environments which have been previously created using Nintendo Dev Interface (NDI). In addition, new environments may be created and existing environments may be altered.

The New Environment button in the upper left corner of the screen begins the process of creating a new environment.

The environment list on the left displays all environments currently installed to the system. Select an environment and information about that environment is displayed on the right. The key details of an environment are as follows.

  • Name: The name of the environment used by NDI.
  • Foundation: The foundation that is installed for the environment, including the currently installed version.
  • Location: The location of the environment in the file system. Select the blue folder icon to open the file location for the selected environment.
  • Installed Releases List:  A list of all software packages installed to the environment and their current version. 

Updates

After an environment is created, new versions of the packages that were initially installed will become available. When this occurs, the following icon is displayed, adjacent to the name of the environment.

For more information about updating environments, refer to the Update section below.

Dashboard Groups and Favorites

Dashboard Groups are installed with specific packages and enable quick access to particular functions, such as updating hardware, opening specific programs, or installing additional packages.

Dashboard functions that you might regularly use can be selected as favorites, adding them to the Welcome screen for ease of access. To favorite a dashboard function, click the star icon to the right of the desired selection. 

After a favorite has been added, it is displayed in a new tool on the Welcome screen. To remove a favorite, click the star icon next to it.

Manage Menu

Manage Details

This option will open the Configure Environment screen. This screen allows modifications to be made to the the installed packages in the environment or the installation of additional packages. For more information, see the following sections.

Configure Environment

This screen functions similarly to the package management when installing new environments, but has additional features. It is separated into three sections.

  • Tag List: Located on the left side of the screen, this list contains defined tags that can filter the package list. If there are no tags associated with any packages, this section is not displayed.
  • Package List: Located in the center of the screen, this list contains packages that can be installed.
  • Installation Summary: This list displays all packages that are currently selected to be modified.

The Tag List and Installation Summary sections can be opened and closed by clicking the arrow buttons in the upper left and right corners of the window.

Tag List


If any packages in the main package list have tags associated with them, the tag list is displayed. Selecting options from the list filters the package list so that it displays only packages that have the indicated tag. Selecting more than one tag displays only package that have all the selected tags. To remove a selected tag, click the selection again. To show or hide all tags in a particular category (such as Occupation), click the header.


Package List


The package list displays all packages that can be installed or modified, based on the selection of foundation and foundation version for the environment. In addition, it contains several features to assist in package selection.

  • Search Bar: Entering text into the search bar displays packages where the title, description, or tags contain the specified text. To filter, enter the desired text and press ENTER. You may enter text multiple times, in which case the list will display only packages that contain all entered terms. You may remove the last search term by using the DELETE key or remove any search term by clicking the blue "x" icon next to the term.
  • Select All: Set each package, currently in the package list, to install the latest available version.
  • Clear All: Deselect all packages that are currently in the package list.
  • Update All:  Sets all packages in the current package list, that are not at their latest version, to install the latest version of the package.  This is only available for existing environments.
  • Compatibility Options: Allows the user to enable unsafe package selection.  


A number of packages are displayed at the bottom of the package list, based on the applied filters. An individual package has the following properties.

  • Name: The indicated name for the package.
  • Action Selection: A drop-down list box that contains actions that may be performed on the package. Click the button to cycle through all available actions. An icon displayed next to the action indicates what action is being taken. For more information about specific icons, see the Action Icons table below.
      • Not Included: The package will not be installed.
      • Version Selection: The specified version of the package will be installed, replacing any previously installed version.
      • Reinstall: The currently installed version of the package will be reinstallled.
      • Rollback: The currently installed version will be reverted to the most recent previously installed version. Rollback actions may be executed in sequence to revert through individual package changes.
      • Uninstall: The currently installed version of the package will be removed from the environment. If the package is global, it will be completely removed from the system.
  • Add-On List (If applicable): Add-ons selected from this list are installed for this package. Selected add-ons are added to the Installation Summary. An add-on package requires the package it is included with to be installed, or selected for installation to be selected. 
  • Description: A general description of the package contents. If the description is large, Show More is displayed. Selecting Show More opens a window with the full text of the description.
  • Tags: Tags that the package belongs to (if any) are displayed in the lower left. Selecting a tag functions in the same way as selecting a tag in the tag list.

Installation Summary List


The Installation Summary displays all packages to be installed when continuing the installation process. Additional icons indicate what actions are being performed on individual packages. For more information about these icons, see the following table.


Action Icons

Icon
Name
Description

Install The indicated package will be installed with the indicated version.
Required The indicated package must be installed because it is a dependency of another selected package.
Reinstall The current version of the indicated package will be reinstalled.
Rollback

The indicated package will apply an "undo" to the most recent installation, and be reverted to its previous state.

Uninstall The indicated package will be uninstalled from the system.

Installation Summary

This screen displays all packages to be installed when continuing the update process. The name, version to be installed, and size of each package is displayed. The total space required for the installation is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen.

Open in Explorer

This option opens a new Windows Explorer window at the system location for the environment.

Export

This option allows you to create a MegaZarf file from the selected environment. An exported MegaZarf file contains all of the information required for any instance of NDI to create the environment again.

Info

The approximate file size of the of the MegaZarf is displayed at the top of the screen. Ensure that you have sufficient space to create the file.

To create a MegaZarf, the following information must be entered.

  • Export File Name: The name for the MegaZarf file.
  • Export Path: The location on the file system that the MegaZarf is saved to.
  • Description:  A text description that is included with the MegaZarf file.
  • Include all software binaries in the exported file: If selected, the MegaZarf will contain all files to build the contained environment while offline. This will greatly increase the file size of the MegaZarf, based on the number and size of packages in the environment. If cleared, only the metadata required to create the environment is exported. In this case, NDI may prompt consumers of the MegaZarf to connect to Nintendo to download files required for installation. 
  • Environment Name (Unmodifiable): The name of the environment that is being exported.
  • Allow overriding name: If selected, a user that creates an environment from the MegaZarf is able to choose another name for the environment than the one specified.
  • Environment Location (Unmodifiable): The directory location of the environment that is being exported.
  • Allow overriding path location: If checked, a user that creates an environment from this MegaZarf is able to choose another directory location to install the environment than the one specified.

Update

This option attempts to update all packages in the selected environment to the latest available patch version of SDK software it contains (in example, version 3.5.1 would update to version 3.5.2, but not to version 3.6.0) and to the latest available version for all other software. It opens a window that lists all available updates for installed packages and the total file size of the packages that will be downloaded and installed.

Note

If updates are available for an environment, all indicated software packages will be installed. When updating in this manner, you cannot choose individual updates to perform. It is possible to perform updates on individual packages using the Manage Details feature and making selections there.

Click the Update button to begin the update proccess for the environment. This may take several minutes, depending on the size and number of updates required.

Rename / Move

This option changes the system location or name of the selected environment. The combination of the the environment name and location must be unique when moving or renaming (in example, two environments named "Project" could be located in the folders "Environments" and "Projects", but one environment could not be moved into the other folder without also changing the name of the environment). 

The Rename / Move screen has the following fields.

  • Location: The directory location where the environment will be moved.
  • Name: The new name for the selected environment.

Uninstall

This option removes the selected environment from the system. After the environment is uninstalled, if there are no other environments on the system, a prompt to remove all remaining global packages from the system will be displayed.

Info

Global Packages are software packages that are only installed one time, but can be used by all environments on the system.

Remove From List

This option removes the selected environment from NDI without removing it from the system. After removal it is not displayed on the Dev Environments screen and is not tracked by NDI for any purpose. An environment removed in this way may be restored to NDI at a later point, using the 5.11 Link to Existing Environment feature.

Set as Default

This option displays differently depending on which platforms the foundation in the environment supports. If an environment supports multiple platforms, an individual Set as Default option is displayed for each platform.

Selecting this option for an environment causes it to be the default environment for software that interacts with the indicated platform. Additionally, selecting this option for an environment makes it the default SDK path to use in the NDI Command-line interface. For more information, see the NDI Command-line documentation.

This default setting may be removed by selecting the Clear as Default option, which replaces Set as Default in the menu for default environments. Only a single environment can be set as default for a given platform.

Environment Information

This option displays all information about the environment in a format that may be selected for copy and paste operations. This is the same information available in other parts of the application, collected in one location for easy access.

Installation Recovery

When an installation fails, the environment will be in an invalid state. In this case, the Manage menu becomes the Fix menu. Actions from the Manage menu cannot be performed until the issue is resolved. NDI can resolve the installation failure in several ways, which are detailed below.

  • Retry Failed Installs: When selected, NDI will attempt to restart the previous failed installation. Only packages that failed to install are installed with this option.
  • Dismiss Failed Install: When selected, NDI will ignore the packages that failed to install correctly. No packages are installed or removed with this option.
  • Remove From List: When selected, NDI will remove the environment from NDI, but will not uninstall packages. In rare cases of environment incompatibility, packages may be uninstalled instead.

Environment Recovery

When an environment is moved or deleted without using NDI, the environment enters an invalid state. In this case, the Manage menu becomes the Fix menu. Actions from the Manage menu cannot be performed until the issue is resolved. NDI can resolve this issue in two ways.

  • Recover Missing Environment: When selected, NDI opens the Recover Missing Environment screen. From this screen, NDI can search the development system for a moved environment or rebuild a deleted from the last stored software configuration.
  • Remove From List: When selected, NDI will remove the environment from NDI, but will not uninstall packages. In rare cases of environment incompatibility, packages may be uninstalled instead.

 


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