Just my two cents ... some years ago I was nearly ready with such a unpacking/installing/databased archiv. It was a hobby project besides my full cash projects with similar goals. So it was done with VB5/6 and Access-MDB as base and third-party libraries for packing/unpacking (zip,rar,gz,arj,...) like also a FTP-libary not needed for this. Sadly the Poser-stuff hangs at around 70-80% ... the old damned time problem. But now I'm nearly on the way to start again (depending on time) cause all that fine freestuff and also commercial stuff is to much to install all and even keep in view.

But ... there are problems ...

1. exactly the harddisk with the project stand ready up to now is the only one not responding in any way, why ever.

2. Surely I have a rather actual backup. I only have to identify which backup software I used. With look to the readable Windows start menu I guess it was Paragon Backup. I got the newest version and have now to install and to hope that the version will read the old backup structure.

3. MS Office is no longer my first choice, specialy Access ... new version = new DB structure. So I tend to use a SQL-DB instead. Times ago I would have taken MySQL but cause this is now Oracle (no need to change MS with Oracle) I look more to SQLite 3 or MariaDB. First more simle, second full size and somewhat a fork of MySQL if I see right. At the moment I have to migrate my relatively fat video-DB from Access to some other DB. First approach was to use the Libre Office Base cause LOB can work with Access-DB via ADO/ODBC and also with SQLite -DB but up to now Libre will not work with Access-DB on Linux. So I have to install on Windows where the ADO/ODBC-stuff is up-to-date and try again. If that is done I guess a little bit GUI and reporting for the SQL is needed. That was a fine easy stuff with Access ... so what. But therefor I need a little bit more practice with Python and its libraries. Maria-DB looks for that a bit more complete than SQLite.

But in all I'm more with ADP, better programming such as stand-alone than as a Poser-inside solution. Stand-alone even Python 3 could be a advantage. But first I need my backup read to find again all my ideas and also the DB-structure for that. Was relational with some tables fully pointered with search key and such stuff. Not my first SQL-DB ... I'm traditional fan of DB's and not Excel (Schlabber-Stuff).

But one idea here regarding the updating practice ... how about CRC or such to identify the single files and their version. With first read-in of a pack these CRC's could be calculated and stored in the DB. Ok, nowadays a lot vendors are having megabyte heavy packs so calculating CRC's could last a little bit time. But its the only safe method to know if something is updated or not. That even something I deeply miss with the now permanent Poser-Updates ... only a date is a little bit less ...