As most of you probably know only too well, the game update situation on GOG is rather dismal.

Despite Judas's efforts on the "what did just update?" thread, we are often left ignorant of what changes, trivial or monumental, have been made to our game installers and our bonuses on our library shelves.

Naturally, I began thinking of a way this could be improved via MaGog. Currently MaGog scans GOG's public servers (catalogue, game pages, etc.) twice daily and collects information, which can then be queried via its search engine. However, MaGog has no access to GOG's private servers, where the game installers and bonuses are stored, and therefore cannot collect information about any changes these may have undergone.

But...

While I don't have access to GOG's private servers, I do have access to my own GOG library. Even though it does not include all of the games on GOG, it does include a sizeable portion (currently more than 800). Theoretically, I could have MaGog log to my account, scan my files, and collect information (e.g. when was a file last changed). This way we would at least have some information about those games I own (e.g. what files were changed/added/removed and when). Not perfect, but better than nothing (which is pretty much what we have now).

To do that, I needed to figure out how one logs to one's account not from a browser, but rather from a software program. I began looking into the lgogdownloader (the Linux GOG downloader) source code to figure out how it logs in, and how I could write something similar in Perl (the language the MaGog scanner is written in). However, after a few hours of experimentation, I gave up without any success.

This is where you can come in.

I need someone to write a function in Perl (5.8.8 or earlier) that, given a GOG email address and password, logs into one's GOG account. From there, I assume I should be able to have MaGog retrieve my library and scan its contents on a daily basis.

If you're up to it, contact me (either here or via PM).

I wish I could help, but I know absolutely nothing about Perl. I hope you find someone else who knows about it.

I wish I could help, but I'm not a coder. Fingers crossed someone will step forward and accept the challenge.

If you wanted to work in Python, I could probably help you out. I don't know any Perl.

I've never used lgogdownloader.
Do we know if the file information can be accessed from the account?

Neither have I, but according to the lgogdownloader documentation it should be possible.

The other solution - we pass the hat around and donate missing games to you, so you could connect to the library via browser :-)

Moreover, if you install the Firefox add-on called "Link Properties Plus" and use it to examine any download link in your library (in list non-dowloader mode), you can see the info in your browser too (e.g. file size, modification time).

Does that require to "open" its game's details?

That addon is getting that information making a direct request for the file properties to the server. Right now, I'm not getting any values because of a 403 error. (I'm at work and it might be because of that).

That way of getting the info might require opening a HTTPS session in the server. (Equivalent to emulating what the browser does, I think)

Not sure what you mean.
Attached is a screenshot of the details I get when I right click the "update (version 1.3)" link of "1954 Alcatraz" and select "Link Properties" to clarify.

Thanks, that's exactly what I meant - one has to perform the action for each game, not particularly practical or time efficient when one's games count is the the three digits.

The action could probably be simulated using JavaScript (non unlike the way BE works)

Oh poor software that puts up with our weird requests...
:-)