Compile date

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

Is it possible to grab the compile date and use it on the installer
background footer? What I usually do is create a compiler variable called
RELEASEDATE and put something like:

Version [PRODUCTVER] - [RELEASEDATE]

on my installs and then I construct RELEASEDATE in Build Automator and pass
it in. But I need to do this inside SB now and I would like to be able to
place the date on the background. Any ideas?

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Creative, Inc.
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

> Is it possible to grab the compile date and use it on the installer
> background footer? What I usually do is create a compiler variable
> called RELEASEDATE and put something like:
>
> Version [PRODUCTVER] - [RELEASEDATE]
>
> on my installs and then I construct RELEASEDATE in Build Automator
> and pass it in. But I need to do this inside SB now and I would like
> to be able to place the date on the background. Any ideas?

What about using the "Get System Information (Installer Compile Date)"
script function. This function lets you retrieve the date of compilation of
your setup program. The function returns a Date String (yyyymmdd).

What do you think?

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder "point. click. ship"
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

> What about using the "Get System Information (Installer Compile Date)"
> script function. This function lets you retrieve the date of compilation of
> your setup program. The function returns a Date String (yyyymmdd).
>
> What do you think?

I tried doing that yesterday and then placed the variable in the footer, but
the variable came in as a literal string, i.e. I got "Version 5.0.0.x
%IT_RELEASEDATE%" instead of "Version 5.0.0.x 12/04/2008"

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Creative, Inc.
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

> I tried doing that yesterday and then placed the variable in the footer,
> but the variable came in as a literal string, i.e. I got "Version 5.0.0.x
> %IT_RELEASEDATE%" instead of "Version 5.0.0.x 12/04/2008"

Yes, you are right. I misinterpreted your original message, sorry :-( The
"old-style" blue background is only there to provide backward compatibility
to SB5 and cannot display custom variable values. So my idea does not work.

Okay, we have to find another solution. A new pre-defined [COMPILEDATE]
compiler variable should work fine. I'll add it to the next SB6 and SB7
builds.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder "point. click. ship"
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

It may be "old-style"... but some of us old people still use it <g>

Jane

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

> Yes, you are right. I misinterpreted your original message, sorry :-( The
> "old-style" blue background is only there to provide backward compatibility
> to SB5 and cannot display custom variable values. So my idea does not work.

Personally I like the "old style" because it gives me a way to immediately
identify the install by product, version number and release date. I know I
could add it to a dialog, but the background just works better for it IMO.

> Okay, we have to find another solution. A new pre-defined [COMPILEDATE]
> compiler variable should work fine. I'll add it to the next SB6 and SB7
> builds.

Awsome! Of course the irony is that when using BA with SB you don't need
it, but in this case it needs to be SB only<g>

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Creative, Inc.
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

> Is it possible to grab the compile date and use it on the installer
> background footer? What I usually do is create a compiler variable
> called RELEASEDATE and put something like:
>
> Version [PRODUCTVER] - [RELEASEDATE]
>
> on my installs and then I construct RELEASEDATE in Build Automator
> and pass it in. But I need to do this inside SB now and I would
> like to be able to place the date on the background. Any ideas?

I have added the capability to retrieve the compile date at compile time to
SetupBuilder 7. This will be available in the next SB7 beta update.

The function makes use of a new SB7 compiler feature. I'll see if it is
possible to port the SB7 code back to SB6.

Thank you for your suggestion.

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder "point. click. ship"
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

> I have added the capability to retrieve the compile date at compile time to
> SetupBuilder 7. This will be available in the next SB7 beta update.

Cool:)

One thing, while I have your eyes: At some point I had suggested to be able
to pass variables etc. via a file rather than on the command line to reduce
risk of running out of command space.

I am now doing this with Help and Manual as they allow this on the command
line. I construct a variables.txt (the name can be anything) with variable
names in the H&M project and information that I construct and pass on from
the Build Automator. Here is an example:

VERSION=2.0.100
VERSION_MAJOR=2
VERSION_MINOR=0
VERSION_BUILD=100
RELEASEDATE=December 13, 2008
AUTHOR=Arnór Baldvinsson
COPYRIGHT=Copyright ©2002-2008 Icetips Creative, Inc.

This allows me to use text variables in the H&M sources and replace them
when I do the build so the chm/pdf/html all has the same version and
copyright information as the clarion sources, dlls, exes and installs. I
construct this file in the Build Automator with a "Write text to file"
action that writes this:

VERSION=%MAJORVERSION%.%MINORVERSION%.%SUBVERSION%
VERSION_MAJOR=%MAJORVERSION%
VERSION_MINOR=%MINORVERSION%
VERSION_BUILD=%SUBVERSION%
RELEASEDATE=%LONGDATE%
AUTHOR=Arnór Baldvinsson
COPYRIGHT=Copyright ©2002-%YEAR% Icetips Creative, Inc.

When I construct the command line (I currently just use the "Run program"
action) it would look like this:

T:\HelpFiles\POToolbar\PowerToolbar.hmx
/PDF /Template="T:\HelpFiles\POToolbar\PowerToolbar.mnl"
/V="T:\HelpFiles\POToolbar\Variables.txt"
/CHM /V="T:\HelpFiles\POToolbar\Variables.txt"
/HTML /V="T:\HelpFiles\POToolbar\Variables.txt"

This compiles all the help files that I create in one go using the variables
in the Variables.txt file.

By using a text file like this, it makes it very easy to pass information to
the program without relying on the command line:)

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Creative, Inc.
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Elegant, Arnór.
I'm going to steal your idea (particularly now that I have Build Automator)
:)

Jane

[NewsArchive]

Hi Jane,

> Elegant, Arnór.
> I'm going to steal your idea (particularly now that I have Build Automator)
> :)

Welcome! I plan to do some tutorials for the BA in the new year. There is
a LOT of stuff that you can do with it and I now do all my new (clarion 3rd
party) installs so that the BA takes care of all version information
everywhere. I use it to do search/replace for tokens (new action in next
build) in my sources so that templates, classes, header files, all get the
correct version information, same as help sources, installs, exes, whatever.

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Creative, Inc.
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

> One thing, while I have your eyes: At some point I had suggested to be
> able to pass variables etc. via a file rather than on the command line
> to reduce risk of running out of command space.

Cool idea. I like it very much!!!

I think we can easily do this with a new /CVL (Compiler Variable List)
command line switch.

At the moment, we do the following to pass a value to a command line
variable:

SBUILDER.EXE /C "C:\Development\Sample.sb6" /CV MYCOMPILERVAR "1"

The new /CVL switch would allow us to do this:

SBUILDER.EXE /C "C:\Development\Sample.sb6" /CVL "c:\test\Variables.txt"

The above should be available in the soon coming new SB7 beta build.

Thanks,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder "point. click. ship"
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

> Cool idea. I like it very much!!!

No, I like your idea VERY MUCH ;-)

Thank you for your suggestion!

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

> At the moment, we do the following to pass a value to a command line
> variable:
>
> SBUILDER.EXE /C "C:\Development\Sample.sb6" /CV MYCOMPILERVAR "1"
>
> The new /CVL switch would allow us to do this:
>
> SBUILDER.EXE /C "C:\Development\Sample.sb6" /CVL "c:\test\Variables.txt"
>
> The above should be available in the soon coming new SB7 beta build.

Cool! IF you decide to port this back to SB6, please let me know the build
number so I can modify my SB class accordingly:)

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Creative, Inc.
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Not nice to be greedy at Christmas-time..... <BG>

Jane Fleming

[NewsArchive]

>> The above should be available in the soon coming new SB7 beta build.
>
> Cool! IF you decide to port this back to SB6, please let me know the
> build number so I can modify my SB class accordingly:)

I like the idea so much that I'll definitely port this back to SB6. It
will be part of the next SB6 maintenance build.

Thanks,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder "point. click. ship"
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

> I like the idea so much that I'll definitely port this back to SB6. It
> will be part of the next SB6 maintenance build.

It will still also support the /CV for passing just a variable, right?

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Creative, Inc.
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

>> I like the idea so much that I'll definitely port this back to SB6. It
>> will be part of the next SB6 maintenance build.
>
> It will still also support the /CV for passing just a variable, right?

Yes, it will support both /CV and /CVL switches.

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

>> I like the idea so much that I'll definitely port this back to SB6.
>> It will be part of the next SB6 maintenance build.
>
> It will still also support the /CV for passing just a variable, right?

Feature added to SB6 and SB7 now. Works like a charm - what a great idea!

Thanks again,
Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder "point. click. ship"
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Arnór,

I forgot to mention that multiple "compiler variable list" files with the
new /CVL command line switch are possible and allowed.

For example:

SBUILDER.EXE /C "C:\Development\Sample.sb6" /CVL "c:\test\VarList1.txt" /CVL
"c:\test\VarList2.txt"

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder "point. click. ship"
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

> I forgot to mention that multiple "compiler variable list" files with the
> new /CVL command line switch are possible and allowed.
>
> For example:
>
> SBUILDER.EXE /C "C:\Development\Sample.sb6" /CVL "c:\test\VarList1.txt" /CVL
> "c:\test\VarList2.txt"

Awsome! Can it allow BOTH variable and variable file:

SBUILDER.EXE /C "C:\Development\Sample.sb6" /CVL "c:\test\VarList1.txt" /CV
MYCOMPILERVAR "1"

Best regards,

--
Arnór Baldvinsson - Icetips Creative, Inc.
Port Angeles, Washington
www.icetips.com - www.buildautomator.com

Icetips product subscriptions at http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

> Awsome! Can it allow BOTH variable and variable file:
>
> SBUILDER.EXE /C "C:\Development\Sample.sb6" /CVL "c:\test\VarList1.txt"
> /CV MYCOMPILERVAR "1"

Yes :)

Friedrich

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder "point. click. ship"
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner