Mixxx portable version instead of installer

[Frank Breitling]

It would be very nice to have a portable version of Mixxx especially for Windows.

Here is an example that this is easily possible:
https://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/mixxx-portable

So Mixxx is basically already portable and only a portable package is needed.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

What is the issue with the portable version you have linked?

[Frank Breitling (frank-breitling)]

There is no issue for me, because I have PortableApps installed.

However I can imagine that other users would prefer a portable version of Mixxx independent of PortableApps.
Moreover in this report people question the integrity of the PortableApps version and see difficulties in debugging:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/mixxx/+bug/1897446

Therefore I see the need for an officially approved portable version from the Mixxx developers.

[Daniel Schürmann (daschuer)]

I can imagine a Version where Mixxx.exe is together with all audio files on a jump drive.

[Frank Breitling (frank-breitling)]

I'm glad to hear.
There might not be a need for an installer at all and Mixxx could be generally released as a portable app to reduce the work of providing two versions.

[Frank Breitling (frank-breitling)]

I just heard from https://bugs.launchpad.net/mixxx/+bug/1897446/comments/27
that the lack of Windows developers delays the release of Mixxx 2.3 because fixes on the installer is needed. Therefore I changed the title of this bug to reflect that the installer should be abandoned and the code packed in a folder instead.
This will reduce the workload and improve the flexibility of Mixxx.
I don't see any reason for a Windows installer. It seems useless to me.

[Jan Holthuis (holthuis-jan)]

I doubt a portable version can replace an installer, because unexperienced user will expect a start menu and/or desktop shortcut.

Also, before we start shipping a portable version ourselves, we should make it actually portable. For me, this includes:
- Do not use store user data in %APPDATA%/%LOCALAPPDATA%, store it alongside the binary in a separate directory ("userdata"?)
- use relative paths for tracks on the same drive in the library
- maybe somehow use partition UUIDs (does this exist on windows?) instead of drive letters and warn the user if a drive containing library tracks is not attached when starting mixxx

[Frank Breitling (frank-breitling)]

Don't worry, there is no such user that can DJ with Mixxx but doesn't know how to open a Zip file. Zip is integrated in all modern operating systems and unzipping a folder with a double click is even easier than running an installer.

The other points sound very good to me!

UUIDs exist in Windows. It think it is used by VirtualBox for example.
However it might be better to start with drive letters.
Otherwise using copies of drives could become difficult.
But if later it turns out that UUIDs are necessary, this could be changed.

[Swiftb0y (swiftb0y)]

Mixxx now uses GitHub for bug tracking. This bug has been migrated to:
https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/issues/10134