SRM Manifest Generator

• TLDR: Transform YAML files describing your executables into JSON manifests which are compatible with Steam ROM Manager's manual parsers. Easily turn your manually-installed games into Non-Steam Game shortcuts found in the Steam client.
• A tool for managing your Steam ROM Manager manifest files, including generating unwieldy absolute-pathed JSON documents from simple YAML syntax.

Why?

Sometimes you have locally-installed game titles (Example: Fan-made PC ports) which you want to bulk-add to Steam ROM Manager, but they require creating a manual parser which relies on Manifests, or JSON files describing your desired executable files.

SRM Manifest Generator reduces the tedium of manually editing manifest JSON files. Issues when writing your manifests in JSON: Having to write shared parent directories over and over again, as well as getting the JSON syntax just right, including all of the quotations, commas, and brackets. Instead, SRM Manifest Generator relies on a YAML-driven configuration syntax which is human-readable and easy-to-learn.

Game files which are stored in similar paths (say a folder at D:\Games\Ports) can greatly benefit from having their manifests managed by SRM Manifest Generator, allowing you to turn long and tedious JSON files into easily-edited, human-readable YAML files.

Project example YAML files

Learn YAML basics

Read YAML reference

Example

Input File: Epic Games.example.manifest.yml

View the full example, including comments here

name: Epic Games
baseDir: G:/Libraries/Epic Games
outputPath: G:/_Metadata/Epic Games.manifest.json
shortcuts:
    - name: Fortnite
      exec: Fortnite/FortniteGame/Binaries/Win64/FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe
    - name: Rocket League
      exec: Rocket League/Whatever/The/Path/To/Exe/Is.exe

Output File: Epic Games.manifest.json (minify off)

[
	{
		"title": "Fortnite",
		"target": "G:\\Libraries\\Epic Games\\Fortnite\\FortniteGame\\Binaries\\Win64\\FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe"
	},
	{
		"title": "Rocket League",
		"target": "G:\\Libraries\\Epic Games\\Rocket League\\Whatever\\The\\Path\\To\\Exe\\Is.exe"
	}
]

• Notice you don't have to repeat absolute paths for executables located within common directories, you simply give the common directory (base directory), then give a relative path to the executable as well as an appropriate title

TODO Show smallest example, as in only required attributes and the corresponding JSON

Usage

Requirements

• Steam
• Steam ROM Manager
• Some non-Steam game or program you want to add to Steam with Steam ROM Manager (i.e. an executable on your filesystem you want in Steam)
• Node.js
• A tiny bit of YAML knowledge

File Installation

Quick Install (requires Git)

1. Open Terminal and navigate to directory you wish to install this project to.
2. Execute the script below AND don't forget to follow the Configuration section below after!
3. If you don't want to use pnpm make sure to change it to npm. It should work all the same.

git clone [email protected]:tsgrissom/srm-manifest-generator.git && cd srm-manifest-generator && pnpm install

Manual Install

1. Clone this repository (you can use the clone button in the top right) or download + extract the .zip
2. Using your Terminal, navigate to the project's root directory
3. Execute npm install to install project dependencies
4. MAKE SURE to read the Configuration section below in order to use this tool

CLI Installation

The experimental CLI can be installed by taking the following steps after file installation:

1. Make sure your terminal's working directory is at the project's root
2. Ensure you ran npm install or pnpm install, whichever you are using
3. Run npm link to create the relevant binaries/shims
4. If you want to uninstall the CLI, run npm unlink
5. To test the CLI, run the command srmg which should greet you with help text

Configuration

A bit of light configuration is required to use this tool. Minimum requirements are outlined below, along with example files to look at as needed.

Example App-Wide Configuration

1. You must have a tool config located at the tool's root folder named config.yml
2. Using the example above, this config must have at least: An attribute named manifests containing a list of file paths, each path pointing to a manifest .yml file to be transformed

Example Manifest File

1. For each game source you want (say PC Ports as an example), make a YOUR-SOURCE-NAME.manifest.yml file
2. You can base this file on the example.manifest.yml if needed
3. To be valid, each manifest file must have at least: An attribute output pointing to the output path of the generated .json, as well as an attribute entries which is outlined below

Example: entries Attribute

name: Example Source
directory: E:\Games
output: ./out/example-source.json
entries:
    - title: Generic Game Launcher
      target: Some\Relative\Path\GameLauncher.exe
    - title: A Game
      target: Some\Path\To\Game.exe

For each entry, the tool will take the manifest's directory attribute and append the entry's target to it, so the expected path of GameLauncher.exe in this example would be E:\Games\Some\Relative\Path\GameLauncher.exe

Recommended Steam ROM Manager Setup

File Structure + Organization

• Organize your games and other desired executables into folders which group them by their origin
  • This origin is called the Source, and each Source needs a Manifest file to map out the contents of your file structure
  • Normally, one would write these Steam ROM Manager manifests in JSON, but with SRM Manifest Generator you can write them in YAML
  • SRM Manifest Generator also offers extra time-saving features such as setting a Base Directory so you don't have to write out the full path to your executable dozens of times

Create Your Steam ROM Manager Parser

1. In Steam ROM Manager, go to Create Parser and set Parser Type to "Manual"

• Optionally, you can use the Steam Collections field to have Steam ROM Manager automatically add/remove your titles in Steam collections

2. In the Manifests Directory field, point to the folder where you will store .json Manifest Files

• Ideally, this should be the same folder you tell SRM Manifest Generator to output generated Manifest Files to via the "output" property of each Manifest File

3. Click Save then check the Parsers list (in the sidebar) and ensure your new Parser is enabled
4. After ensuring your Parser is enabled, click Add Games in the sidebar and read the useful instructions on the splash page

• IMPORTANT: In order for Steam ROM Manager to work properly, Steam must be fully closed each and every time you try to save parsed titles to Steam

5. Once you are ready to Parse your titles, creating Steam shortcuts out of your Manifests, click the Parse button on the Add Games page

• Wait for all artwork to be fully loaded, using the arrow buttons on each title to swap out any undesirable artwork
• Optionally, you can manually set the artwork if you can't find one you like. I recommended using SteamGridDB but other sources such as IGDB could work as well.
• Caution: Steam ROM Manager will not save your alterations to Steam until you click Save to Steam
• Once you click Save to Steam, keep an eye out for a green alert in the upper right-hand corner informing you that SRM is done adding/removing entries

Credits

Steam ROM Manager and all its contributors for their excellent tool

yaml on NPM for this extremely handy and full-featured package