SetupBuilder 6.5 Information

[NewsArchive]

All,

I am sorry for the silence. Vista and quite a few feature request from an
increasing user base of SetupBuilder 6 made it necessary to implement
important new features. We even have experimental built-in support for
Windows "Longhorn" (alpha).

We decided to skip the release of version 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 altogether. We
have implemented all planned 6.1/6.2/6.3 features into SetupBuilder 6.5.

The new version 6.5 is code complete now and we are working on the updated
documentation. We'll try to make SetupBuilder 6.5 available within the next
3-5 days.

This is the new change log:

Change log for release of SetupBuilder 6.5 Build 1817 (March 27, 2007)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Features/Improvements/Fixes/Workarounds/Changes/Notes/Runtimes:

FEATURE : Add "Releases" Visualizer. (Developer Edition only).

FEATURE : Add experimental built-in support for Windows "Longhorn"
(alpha).

FEATURE : Add support for ACL. Set access control lists on a variety of
system objects. Add, edit and remove permissions for files,
folders, registry keys and values. (Developer Edition only).

FEATURE : Add support for "Microsoft Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0
Redistributable (6.0.97.82)". (Developer Edition only).

FEATURE : Add "#ifcompvar..." compiler directive. (Developer Edition
only).

FEATURE : Add "Run Command Line..." script function.

FEATURE : Add "Move Local File(s)" script function.

FEATURE : Add "Move Folder Tree" script function.

FEATURE : Add "Contains" and "Does Not Contain" If Conditions.

FEATURE : New /CV command line switch to set compiler variable values
from the sbuilder.exe command line.

FEATURE : CSIDLs are available in the "Files and Folders" Visualizer.

FEATURE : Add on-the-fly "Uninstall Code-Sign Replication" feature to
code-sign your uninstall application at runtime on the
target machine. (Developer Edition only).

FEATURE : Add "Reboot Status" option to the "Get System Information"
script function to determine whether the system should be
restarted.

IMPROVEMENT: Add "Clarion 7" detection.

IMPROVEMENT: Enhanced code-signing password fill-in method. The PKEY.EXE
file itself is code-signed now. (Developer Edition only).

IMPROVEMENT: "Edit Service..." script function supports Pause and Resume.
(Developer Edition only).

IMPROVEMENT: Add "Append to Selected Folder" to Select Install Folder ->
Browse Dialog.

IMPROVEMENT: Create Include Scripts from within the Script Editor.

IMPROVEMENT: Add CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA, CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON,
CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES, CSIDL_COMMON_DOCUMENTS,
CSIDL_COMMON_FAVORITES and CSIDL_RESOURCES CSIDL values to
the "Get Special Folder Path" script function.

IMPROVEMENT: "Shortcut" Visualizer supports copy and paste now.

IMPROVEMENT: "INI File" Visualizer supports copy and paste now.

IMPROVEMENT: "Services" Visualizer supports copy and paste now.

IMPROVEMENT: "ODBC Driver" Visualizer supports copy and paste now.

IMPROVEMENT: "Run Programs" Visualizer supports copy and paste now.

IMPROVEMENT: "File Extensions" Visualizer supports copy and paste now.

IMPROVEMENT: [SB#702281] Compiler Report lists the "Source Folder" now.

IMPROVEMENT: [SB#703031] Add "Do not Show Current Settings" option to the
"Ready to Install" dialog.

IMPROVEMENT: [SB#703041] Add "Split Source String at First Occurrence of
Search String" Handle string Function.

IMPROVEMENT: [SB#703041] Add "Split Source String at Last Occurrence of
Search String" Handle string Function.

IMPROVEMENT: [SB#703041] Add "Split Source String at Position from Left"
Handle string Function.

IMPROVEMENT: [SB#703041] Add "Split Source String at Position from Right"
Handle string Function.

IMPROVEMENT: The "Get System Information" function Physical Memory function
supports $MEM_MEMORYLOAD$, $MEM_TOTALPHYS$, $MEM_AVAILPHYS$,
$MEM_TOTALPAGEFILE$, $MEM_AVAILPAGEFILE$, $MEM_TOTALVIRTUAL$,
and $MEM_AVAILVIRTUAL$ flags now. The default flag is
$MEM_TOTALPHYS$.

IMPROVEMENT: The Wizard can maintain button state/configuration when going
< Back without any work on your part.

FIX : [SB#701241] local:// macro in the License Agreement and Readme
dialog was not working as expected.

FIX : [SB#701242] Clicking the Print button on the Readme and License
Agreement Dialogs and selecting a print to PDF always primed
the filename as license.pdf

FIX : [SB#701261] Target Files list in the "Files and Folders"
Visualizer was case-sensitive.

FIX : [SB#701271] Under certain circumstances, the "Handle Text File
Operations" script function returned an incorrect errorcode in
%_SB_ERRORCODE%.

FIX : [SB#701272] Minor translation fix in the French language
module.

FIX : [SB#701301] When using the New project Wizard, it offered
[SB5]... Eula.rtf instead of [SB]... Eula.rtf.

FIX : [SB#702061] Zip and Unzip script functions caused a "load
library error".

FIX : [SB#702161] It was not possible to resize a column in the
Files and Folder view without the listings automatically
sorting.

FIX : [SB#702162] File installation problem if the file is OS
dependant and Vista and one or more other OSs were ticked
(e.g. Vista and XP).

FIX : "Play WAV File..." item could not be deleted from within the
Script Editor.

FIX : Uninstall did not register in-use files for deletion on next
reboot.

FIX : Possible save project file (.sb6) problem.

FIX : It was not possible to unckeck the Web Deployment "Enable Web
Update" option.

FIX : Possible conditional flow execution installer problem.

FIX : File Properties: Disable Version Patching option was not
working as expected.

FIX : Possible "Check File (Version then Date/Time)" and "Check File
(Date Time)" file replacement installer problem.

FIX : Possible <Alt>-<B> hotkey installer wizard problem.

FIX : Worardound for SHBrowseForFolder Windows bug on 64-bit Vista
and 64-bit Longhorn.

FIX : Several Script Editor fixes.

CHANGE : The install image for SetupBuilder 6 itself does not provide
the per-user installation option any longer.

CHANGE : "If Folder is not writable" control statement checks if a
folder is read-only and writable now.

CHANGE : Run VBScript (.vbs) can handle VBScripts up to 128 KB.

CHANGE : Run Program does not execute applications in installer TEST
mode any longer.

CHANGE : Minor modification in the MDAC version detection function.

CHANGE : [SB#702271] Add "Enable 'Extensions to Delete on Clean'" Tools
option (disabled by default).

CHANGE : Increased background text size to 1024 bytes.

CHANGE : The "Count" Handle String Function is case-insensitive now.

CHANGE : Version comparison can support AAAAAA.BBBBBB.CCCCCC.DDDDDD now.

CHANGE : New standard variable initialization.

CHANGE : Rename "Get System Information" function "Physical Memory" to
"Memory Status".

CHANGE : Compiler does not code-sign multiple-volume installation images
any longer.

CHANGE : Installer SetFileDate modification.

CHANGE : The installer does not overwrite an existing uninstall .log any
longer. It opens and appends entries to an existing uninstall
.log.

CHANGE : Updated online help.

CHANGE : Updated PDF manual.

REGRESSION : [SB#702282] "Map/Disconnect Network Drive" script function was
not working as expected.

REGRESSION : "Add/Remove Shared Resource" script function was not working as
expected.

RUNTIME : Update "Microsoft DirectX 9.0c February 2007 Redistributable
(9.17.892.0)".

RUNTIME : Add "Microsoft Service Pack 6 for Visual Basic 6.0
Redistributable (6.0.97.82) runtime to the Lindersoft runtime
web server.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Regards,

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

>FEATURE : Add "Releases" Visualizer. (Developer Edition only).

Do you have any more info on this - this looks interesting! I'm all
for anything that has the word "Visual" in it<g>

Best regards,

Arnór Baldvinsson
Icetips Creative, Inc.
San Antonio, Texas, USA
www.icetips.com


Subscribe to information from Icetips.com:
http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

> IMPROVEMENT: Enhanced code-signing password fill-in method. The PKEY.EXE
> file itself is code-signed now. (Developer Edition only).

Does this still uses a simulated keyboard typing?
Have you thought about adding an option to use signtool.exe and a .PFX
file?

Carlos Gutierrez

[NewsArchive]

Hi Arnór,

<G>

I am still working on the updated documentation. But in short, you can now
define multiple "Releases" for one project script in the Releases
Visualizer. Each "Release" can have its own set of compiler variable
values.

For example, you have a project script for your product. You can now define
"Releases" for, say, a "full", "full without source code", "trial", "trial
without help file", etc. With one mouse-click and you can now compile the
required release. Multiple-project files are not required any longer.

You can even compile a "Release" from the command line:

1) Set Release via command line. This compiles the Trial version:

sbuilder.exe /C "c:\demo\test.sb6" /R "Trial"

Or compile a "Release" and set compiler variables:

2) Set Release and compiler variable via command line

sbuilder.exe /C "c:\demo\test.sb6" /R "Trial" /CV compvar value

The new "#ifcompvar..." compiler directive is very handy.

Of course, you can now set the output folder, the executable name, the
Product GUID, etc. from the command line and/or from a Release.

BTW, you can even have one project script for several different products
now.

Friedrich

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Yes. But we are already working on support for signtool.exe.

Friedrich

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

>Of course, you can now set the output folder, the executable name, the
>Product GUID, etc. from the command line and/or from a Release.
>
>BTW, you can even have one project script for several different products
>now.

This is very cool!!!

Best regards,

Arnór Baldvinsson
Icetips Creative, Inc.
San Antonio, Texas, USA
www.icetips.com


Subscribe to information from Icetips.com:
http://www.icetips.com/subscribe.php

[NewsArchive]

Its amazing how many new features you are making for this exellent product!

In one of your answers for me in this NG, you wrote:
"SetupBuilder 6.5 Developer Edition will provide a MSI feature."

Most of my customers are using Citrix, and in a Citrix enviroment I
understand that MSI is the only way to go, which means that they have to
repack my setups using other products.

Is MSI still on the ToDo list, and what is the time schedule?

Best regards

Edvard Korsbæk

[NewsArchive]

Correction. SetupBuilder 6.5 provides built-in support for Windows
"Longhorn" (beta), not alpha!

Jean-Pierre GUTSATZ brought this to my attention. Thank you, JP :)

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

We are still watching and waiting for this too (MSI)

Cheers

--
Best Regards

John Verbeeten
Tracker Software Products
PDF-XChange & SDK, PDF-XChange Viewer;
PDF-Tools & SDK, Image-XChange SDK,
TIFF-XChange & SDK, Raster-XChange.
Support: http://www.docu-track.com/forum/index.php
Web site : http://www.docu-track.com

[NewsArchive]

Edvard,

Thank you for your kind words :)

We already have an experimental .MSI compiler for SetupBuilder available.

But of course, you'll lose all the cool SetupBuilder installer advantages
when compiling a .MSI. Per definition, .MSI does not support a scripting
language. That means, all the nice if..then..else..elseif..etc. conditional
statements are not supported. To make it even worse, about 90% of the
native SetupBuilder installer functionality is not supported in .MSI.

..MSI is a perfect example of a giant solution in search of a problem. About
75% of all new SetupBuilder customers come from the .MSI world.

For us, .MSI is more of a marketing vehicle than a tool to solve real
installation problems. And because it is only a marketing instrument, we
decided to include required features first (in SetupBuilder 6.5).

One of the next steps is to include .MSM support (this makes use of the
above .MSI compiler). We can then convert standard Windows Installer
Merge Modules (.MSM) into native Windows Installer runtime installer for
SetupBuilder 6. This is of value for our customers, because it gives access
to standard redistributables which are only available for .MSI.

After that we'll plug-in the .MSI compiler so you can generate native .MSI.

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

gut satz .... with a name like that if I had not seen it <BG>

Most welcome Friedrich !

JP

--

Thank you

Jean-Pierre GUTSATZ

Best Regards

[NewsArchive]

<G> ;-)

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Friedrich,

> Edvard,
>
> Thank you for your kind words :)
>
> We already have an experimental .MSI compiler for SetupBuilder available.
>
> But of course, you'll lose all the cool SetupBuilder installer advantages
> when compiling a .MSI. Per definition, .MSI does not support a scripting
> language. That means, all the nice if..then..else..elseif..etc. conditional
> statements are not supported. To make it even worse, about 90% of the
> native SetupBuilder installer functionality is not supported in .MSI.
>
> ..MSI is a perfect example of a giant solution in search of a problem. About
> 75% of all new SetupBuilder customers come from the .MSI world.

What you REALLY need to do with MSI, is to have a reverse engineering tool
(I know it's possible, and some already exists) which would create a basic
SetupBuilder script FROM an MSI package.

THAT, I buy yesterday! <g>

Bernard

[NewsArchive]

Friedrich,

> Edvard,
>
> Thank you for your kind words :)
>
> We already have an experimental .MSI compiler for SetupBuilder available.
>
> But of course, you'll lose all the cool SetupBuilder installer advantages
> when compiling a .MSI. Per definition, .MSI does not support a scripting
> language. That means, all the nice if..then..else..elseif..etc. conditional
> statements are not supported. To make it even worse, about 90% of the
> native SetupBuilder installer functionality is not supported in .MSI.
>
> ..MSI is a perfect example of a giant solution in search of a problem. About
> 75% of all new SetupBuilder customers come from the .MSI world.

What you REALLY need to do with MSI, is to have a reverse engineering tool
(I know it's possible, and some already exists) which would create a basic
SetupBuilder script FROM an MSI package.

THAT, I buy yesterday! <g>

Bernard

[NewsArchive]

Bernard,

Yes, it's possible to export MSI database tables to, say, XML. We can
already import .MSI tables (we need this for the Merge Module tool). No
problem.

But a general tool to really reverse engineer any .MSI is nearly impossible.
Very simple .MSI yes, complex .MSI no <g>. I have tested most of them and
they all failed.

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Hi Friedrich,

I understand and concur with much of what you say - but for us - its not a
question of choice.

Most often we dont even get a chance to discuss the matter with the user and
explain the drawbacks of MSI - they have already moved on to another product
because we cannot provide their installer method of choice - MSI.

Also more of our developer clients using our Print drivers are intimating
that it is causing them poor feedback from their clients - so at some point
it wont be a case of waiting - we will either have to find a solution or
lose the client.

Like Larry - I would also welcome some means of importing scripts form
alternative installer products - we have around 50 or so in InnoSetup
format - and it would be a huge attraction to be able to import these.

--
Best Regards

John Verbeeten
Tracker Software Products
PDF-XChange & SDK, PDF-XChange Viewer;
PDF-Tools & SDK, Image-XChange SDK,
TIFF-XChange & SDK, Raster-XChange.
Support: http://www.docu-track.com/forum/index.php
Web site : http://www.docu-track.com

[NewsArchive]

Hi John,

Yes, I understand that sometimes it is not a question of choice.

We'll provide an option to compile .MSI from SetupBuilder. But the result
will be a "static" installation. It will not give you any of the
SetupBuilder flexibility. And of course, you can use ORCA or other tools to
simply open the .MSI and export any included file.

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

The problem is Citrix.
Citrix is based upon several (Typical 10 to +100 servers) with identical
program folders.
Citrix has a standard for installing to all servers at once - And that is
MSI based.
This means, that the Citrix based enviroments tend to use their MSI tool to
repack my setup.
When I am only a small supplier to a major community (Not the mention the
danish goverment), its a quiestion of deliver a MSI or don't get your
software installed.
I understand very much your way of thinking that its a second rate product -
I would not be surprised if if you are said to be right from most - but when
I am one of the minor players on the market, I will have to have a MSI tool.
Best in form of the 6.5 Setupbuilder, but else I have to get another
product.

Hopefully regards

Edvard Korsbæk

[NewsArchive]

Edvard,

To show this is not "vaporware", I have compiled a quick and dirty native
MSI test Windows Installer.

If you are interested, please download:
http://setupbuilder.com/sb70test.msi

It displays a Welcome dialog, License Agreement dialog, Choose Setup Type
dialog, and a Ready to Install dialog. Then it installs a test C60RUNX.DLL
into the ..\Program Files\SetupBuilder 7.0\bin folder and displays the
Finish dialog.

To uninstall the test, go to Add/Remove Programs Panel or start sb70test.msi
again and select Remove.

This code-signed MSI is a perfectly valid native MSI Windows Installer,
generated with the SetupBuilder MSI compiler. If you perform an ICE
validation, it does not report any error or warning.

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Perfect!

I have never, never, never said or believed that anything from you was
Vaporware. Period
You are, which I have said (And written many times in NG's) in top 3 over
reliable and service orientated 3. party suppliers.
I never forget a saturday a couple of years ag, where you made (Fre of
charge!) the dll i had to use in my SB4 for my at that time most important
customer.
:-)

And I hope that will see your MSI soon, because I have a problems with the
cities of Århus and Hedensted.

Best regards

Edvard Korsbæk

[NewsArchive]

Look forward to it Friedrich - actually will bite your hand off <g>

Cheers

--
Best Regards

John Verbeeten
Tracker Software Products
PDF-XChange & SDK, PDF-XChange Viewer;
PDF-Tools & SDK, Image-XChange SDK,
TIFF-XChange & SDK, Raster-XChange.
Support: http://www.docu-track.com/forum/index.php
Web site : http://www.docu-track.com

[NewsArchive]

<G>

BTW, I think it was not wise to say: "It will not give you any of the
SetupBuilder flexibility".

Perhaps it's better to say: "It will not give you *all* of the SetupBuilder
installer flexibility". We'll try to port some functionality over to MSI
(in form of custom actions). So it's not all lost if you have to use MSI.

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

That's good to hear Friedrich,

as you know I have been trying to get my guy here that maintains our
installers to invest the time in converting our installers to SB, but so far
he has managed to wriggle for a variety of reasons for most of them. So any
help in this area is appreciated.

--
Best Regards

John Verbeeten
Tracker Software Products
PDF-XChange & SDK, PDF-XChange Viewer;
PDF-Tools & SDK, Image-XChange SDK,
TIFF-XChange & SDK, Raster-XChange.
Support: http://www.docu-track.com/forum/index.php
Web site : http://www.docu-track.com