Meta Files

Read Everything comes from somewhere first, as that section explains the basic concept of meta files. This section focuses more on advanced uses, like using mods not hosted on Nexus mods.

Introduction

You already know how .meta files should look for mods that come from Nexus Mods:

[General]
gameName=Skyrim
modID=3863
fileID=1000172397

This is the basic configuration for an archive that came from Nexus Mods. You can get these types of .meta files through MO2 by using the Query Info option in the Downloads tab.

Mods can also be hosted somewhere else, eg on other modding sites like LoversLab, ModDB or normal file hosting services like GDrive and MEGA. Below is a table for all supported sites that Wabbajack can download from.

Non Nexus Meta Files

• Every .meta file, no matter the site, has to start with [General]
• .meta files are case sensitive
• The "Whitelist" Wabbajack uses to manage non Nexus sources is available on GitHub and you might have to create a Pull Request if you want to add a link to a file we haven't checked and whitelisted yet.

directURL

A .meta file for sites that don't require logins is handled via the directURL=link tag inside of the meta file. Files will be automatically downloaded.

[General]
directURL=https://skse.silverlock.org/beta/skse64_2_00_20.7z
installed=true

manualURL

A .meta files for sites that require the user to manually navigate and download the file and in some cases login. This option is recommended for LoversLab due to frequent outages and other issues with their automated api downloads.

manualURL=https://foo.bar.bz/someFile.zip
prompt=Please download the second file on this page

Note Using manualURL makes it impossible for the WJ list validator to check those files in regards to their uptime, so it falls on you to listen to user reports and to verify regularly that the correct file still exists at the source you have linked.

IPS4 sites

In order to configure a .meta file for a IPS4 site, use the following format:

Let's say we're making a meta for a file found at https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/11116-test-file-for-wabbajack-integration

Start by downloading the file and noting the name once it's downloaded. If you've downloaded the file more than once, Windows may include (1) on the end of the filename, so you'll need to remove that part from the filename.

Now create a .meta file in this format:

[General]
ips4Site=<Site Name>
ips4Mod=<modID>
ips4File=<filename>

• ips4Site - is the site name for this download, currently this can be Vector Plexus or Lovers Lab
• ips4Mod - the number part of the URL, in this case its 11116
• ips4File - the name of the file after it's downloaded (removing any extra text added by windows)

So for the example file above, our .meta would be:

[General]
ips4Site=Lovers Lab
ips4Mod=11116
ips4File=WABBAJACK_TEST_FILE.zip

Note This still uses LoversLab as the example but because LoversLab has a tendency to break it's api we highly recommend not using this meta option for Loverslab and using manualURL instead, same goes for attachment files on those sites.

Note Due to some issues of domain registration for VectorPlexus (url was moved to www.vectorplexis.com) and unexpected downtimes we advise to use mirrors provided by the mod authors instead for maximum uptime of the modlist.

Reference Table