Soft dependency support for resources #2920

r3ps4J · 2024-11-09T21:34:20Z

Goal of this PR

This PR adds support for soft dependencies, indicated by the manifest entries soft_dependency and soft_dependencies. Soft dependencies only get started if they exist, making it possible to add optional dependencies to a resource. This is useful when a resource can work fine without a dependency, but can benefit from having access to that dependency.

See the proposal on the forum for more details: https://forum.cfx.re/t/soft-dependencies-for-resources/5281288/1

How is this PR achieving the goal

This PR implements soft dependencies by loading them the same way as normal dependencies, but if one is missing or fails to start it skips it and continues to the next one. It also still prints the same information as with regular dependencies, and only tries to load the soft dependencies after the hard dependencies have been checked and loaded to prevent starting them when the resource can't start anyway.

This PR specifically adds the const bool soft = false parameter to the loadDeps function. The paramter has a default value of false, to remain backwards compatible. When soft is set to true the following things are different as opposed to loading hard dependencies:

Constraints are not checked, as having optional constraints makes little sense.
When a soft dependency is not found, the loop continues instead of returning false early to stop the resource from loading.
The soft dependency does not get stored in resourceDependants, as stopping the soft dependency should not prevent the resource from running.
When a soft dependency fails to start, the loop continues instead of returning false early to stop the resource from loading and storing the dependency in resourceDependencies to start it later.

This PR applies to the following area(s)

This applies to the server and clients. The changes were made in citizen-resources-core.

Successfully tested on

The changes were tested on the server and FiveM client.

Game builds: b3095

Platforms: Windows

Checklist

Code compiles and has been tested successfully.
Code explains itself well and/or is documented.
My commit message explains what the changes do and what they are for.
No extra compilation warnings are added by these changes.

Fixes issues

None.

Adds support for soft dependencies, indicated by the manifest entries `soft_dependency` and `soft_dependencies`. Soft dependencies only get started if they exist, making it possible to add optional dependencies to a resource.

r3ps4J · 2024-11-11T09:02:28Z

Okay I wanted to rename the branch on my repo, but github doesn't seem to like it.

Nobelium-cfx · 2024-11-12T10:09:37Z

Thank you for the contribution!

I understand the motivation behind this PR and the code looks reasonable. But I don't have enough context to make the final call on if it's actually needed. @prikolium-cfx WDYT?

prikolium-cfx · 2024-11-12T10:24:23Z

Thank you for the contribution!

I understand the motivation behind this PR and the code looks reasonable. But I don't have enough context to make the final call on if it's actually needed. @prikolium-cfx WDYT?

Should be discussed together with team. Can't say right now pros and cons of such decision

Adds single quotes around resource names in dependency loading traces to clarify what is part of the resource name.

r3ps4J · 2024-11-12T20:25:15Z

Sounds good! I added some quotes around the resource names to clarify what is and what is not part of the resource names. This also makes it match the other traces in the dependency loader.

r3ps4J · 2024-11-28T20:53:45Z

@prikolium-cfx any updates on this?

prikolium-cfx · 2025-01-10T13:40:40Z

code/components/citizen-resources-core/src/ResourceDependencyLoader.cpp

 					if (!other.GetRef())
 					{
-						trace("Could not find dependency %s for resource %s.\n", dependency.second, resource->GetName());
+						trace("Could not find %s '%s' for resource '%s'.\n", soft ? "soft dependency" : "dependency", dependency.second, resource->GetName());


Why do we notify user about missed soft dependency?

So they know why something is not working even though they think it will. Say your resource uses ox_target and registers eye options if it's present. If it has been renamed or something users might expect it to still work but then they can see this message and investigate.

Normal depencies also log when they don't get found and then it proceeds to cancel starting the resource. This is pretty much the same except that it doesn't cancel starting the resource, but still logs that it's missing something.

prikolium-cfx · 2025-01-10T13:40:50Z

code/components/citizen-resources-core/src/ResourceDependencyLoader.cpp

 					if (!success)
 					{
-						trace("Could not start dependency %s for resource %s.\n", dependency.second, resource->GetName());
+						trace("Could not start %s '%s' for resource '%s'.\n", soft ? "soft dependency" : "dependency", dependency.second, resource->GetName());


See other comment. Here it's even more important to log. If a soft dependency is present people will expect it to work, but if it can't be started for some reason they should be informed about that.

prikolium-cfx · 2025-01-10T13:42:01Z

code/components/citizen-resources-core/src/ResourceDependencyLoader.cpp


+			// Load soft dependencies defined with `soft_dependency` or `soft_dependencies`.
+			// We ignore the result, as we don't want to cancel loading the resource if a soft dependency is missing.
+			loadDeps("soft_dependency", true) && loadDeps("soft_dependencie", true); // soft_dependencies without s


Please leave only 1 way of setting soft dependencies

This is the same way but the plural form. Just like is done for regular dependencies. You've got dependency and dependencies. Normally you use server_script and it would append an s, resulting in the correct server_scripts. But since the plural of dependency is dependencies, we need to use dependencie as well.

This same principle was applied here for soft_depenency and soft_dependencie resulting in soft_dependencies.

This is the same way but the plural form. Just like is done for regular dependencies. You've got dependency and dependencies. Normally you use server_script and it would append an s, resulting in the correct server_scripts. But since the plural of dependency is dependencies, we need to use dependencie as well.

This same principle was applied here for soft_depenency and soft_dependencie resulting in soft_dependencies.

To be honest today we discussed with team this naming and soft_dependency doesn't make much sense and possible name for that field that we found would be load_after so it's not confusing creators. Probably you can suggest better name

load_after makes very little sense to me as it just implies that the resource should load after another one. The whole point of this PR is to introduce a soft dependency as is used in many other types of software. It also starts the soft dependency if it is found while load after implies that it starts this one if and only if the other one is already started. That's not what this feature does so it makes very little sense to me to name it that.

I think load_after would create more confusion for developers. Most developers should already be familiar with how soft dependencies work as well for example from npm packages, php or minecraft plugins. But also many many other software systems.

Could you explain why it doesn't make much sense to you? As a software engineer I've seen this type of dependency used a lot.

Here is a link to how it works in magento, maybe that makes it more clear for you: https://developer.adobe.com/commerce/php/architecture/modules/dependencies/

Please also take the time to read the full proposal in the forum post, as it explains way more than what I've said here: https://forum.cfx.re/t/soft-dependencies-for-resources/5281288/1

r3ps4J · 2025-06-18T18:49:03Z

Hey @prikolium-cfx @Nobelium-cfx and the rest of the team! Just checking in since it's been a while. Is this ever going to get merged?

prikolium-cfx · 2025-06-19T12:35:04Z

Hey @prikolium-cfx @Nobelium-cfx and the rest of the team! Just checking in since it's been a while. Is this ever going to get merged?

Current manifest system is already overcomplicated and such change will make it more confusing. Thanks for your efforts, but we won't accept such change.

r3ps4J · 2025-06-19T12:37:23Z

Hey @prikolium-cfx @Nobelium-cfx and the rest of the team! Just checking in since it's been a while. Is this ever going to get merged?

Current manifest system is already overcomplicated and such change will make it more confusing. Thanks for your efforts, but we won't accept such change.

That's a shame, I feel like it would make it a lot easier for developers. Why do you think adding this would make it more confusing?

feat(resources): soft dependencies

f24995b

Adds support for soft dependencies, indicated by the manifest entries `soft_dependency` and `soft_dependencies`. Soft dependencies only get started if they exist, making it possible to add optional dependencies to a resource.

github-actions bot added the triage Needs a preliminary assessment to determine the urgency and required action label Nov 9, 2024

r3ps4J marked this pull request as ready for review November 9, 2024 21:36

github-actions bot added invalid Requires changes before it's considered valid and can be (re)triaged and removed triage Needs a preliminary assessment to determine the urgency and required action labels Nov 9, 2024

r3ps4J deleted the branch citizenfx:master November 11, 2024 09:00

r3ps4J closed this Nov 11, 2024

r3ps4J deleted the master branch November 11, 2024 09:00

r3ps4J restored the master branch November 11, 2024 09:01

r3ps4J reopened this Nov 11, 2024

r3ps4J deleted the branch citizenfx:master November 11, 2024 09:04

r3ps4J closed this Nov 11, 2024

r3ps4J deleted the master branch November 11, 2024 09:04

r3ps4J restored the master branch November 11, 2024 09:05

r3ps4J reopened this Nov 11, 2024

prikolium-cfx added manual-review PRs that need manual review and work before merging. and removed invalid Requires changes before it's considered valid and can be (re)triaged labels Nov 12, 2024

tweak(resources): quote resource names in dependency loading traces

f03da01

Adds single quotes around resource names in dependency loading traces to clarify what is part of the resource name.

github-actions bot added the invalid Requires changes before it's considered valid and can be (re)triaged label Nov 12, 2024

prikolium-cfx reviewed Jan 10, 2025

View reviewed changes

prikolium-cfx closed this Jun 19, 2025

prikolium-cfx removed the manual-review PRs that need manual review and work before merging. label Jun 19, 2025

Soft dependency support for resources #2920

Soft dependency support for resources #2920

Uh oh!

Conversation

r3ps4J commented Nov 9, 2024 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Goal of this PR

How is this PR achieving the goal

This PR applies to the following area(s)

Successfully tested on

Checklist

Fixes issues

Uh oh!

r3ps4J commented Nov 11, 2024

Uh oh!

Nobelium-cfx commented Nov 12, 2024

Uh oh!

prikolium-cfx commented Nov 12, 2024

Uh oh!

r3ps4J commented Nov 12, 2024

Uh oh!

r3ps4J commented Nov 28, 2024

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

r3ps4J commented Jun 18, 2025

Uh oh!

prikolium-cfx commented Jun 19, 2025

Uh oh!

r3ps4J commented Jun 19, 2025

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

r3ps4J commented Nov 9, 2024 •

edited

Loading