Manifest file

[NewsArchive]

Friedrich,

In your web update instructions, you mention to send the server manifest
file (coolapp.ini in your example). No mention of the source of this file
or what it is about. Do I create it or does SB? Where is it found? If I
have to create it, what goes in it?

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

Hi Russ,

> In your web update instructions, you mention to send the server manifest
> file (coolapp.ini in your example). No mention of the source of this file
> or what it is about. Do I create it or does SB? Where is it found? If I
> have to create it, what goes in it?

The SetupBuilder compiler generates coolapp.ini and it's located in the \Web
folder. Just upload all files from your \Web folder to the server and you
are done.

Does this help?

Friedrich

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6.7
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Never mind, its created by SB <g>.

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

>
> Never mind, its created by SB <g>.
>

<G> :-)

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Couple more questions:

1) Is the wupdate.exe program generated by Step 2 of your web update
instructions? (I've not quite gone that far yet)
2) I've added a button to run a program when pressed, I assume this is the
wupdate.exe program?
3) I've set up the check for updates every 5 days (likely to change to a
longer interval). Does this remind the user to check for updates when the
program starts?
4) I've made the ftp upload to copy to a sub-folder like your web_test
sub-folder. Yet when it uploads, its in the root folder. Does the host
folder need to be the entire folder?

OK, more than a couple <G>

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

> Couple more questions:
>
> 1) Is the wupdate.exe program generated by Step 2 of your web update
> instructions? (I've not quite gone that far yet)

No, it's in Step 1. When you make your application "live update ready",
wupdate.exe is included in your initial installation.

> 2) I've added a button to run a program when pressed, I assume this is the
> wupdate.exe program?

Yes, you can call wupdate.exe from your application (Check for Updates...
menu, button, at startup, etc.). You can also call it from a Shortcut or a
Scheduled Task.

> 3) I've set up the check for updates every 5 days (likely to change to a
> longer interval). Does this remind the user to check for updates when the
> program starts?

If you call wupdate.exe at startup then it checks every 5 days for updates
in this case.

> 4) I've made the ftp upload to copy to a sub-folder like your web_test
> sub-folder. Yet when it uploads, its in the root folder. Does the host
> folder need to be the entire folder?

If you define the correct path then it will upload the files to the
sub-folder.

For example (typical server running Apache) the following in the FTP
Location field:

ftp.lindersoft.com/public_html/web_test

Does this help :)

Friedrich

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

"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6.7
Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

This is a problem as a slash or backslash is not allowed in the host
directory entry.

>> 4) I've made the ftp upload to copy to a sub-folder like your web_test
>> sub-folder. Yet when it uploads, its in the root folder. Does the host
>> folder need to be the entire folder?
>
> If you define the correct path then it will upload the files to the
> sub-folder.
>
> For example (typical server running Apache) the following in the FTP
> Location field:
>
> ftp.lindersoft.com/public_html/web_test
>
> Does this help :)
>
> Friedrich
>
> --
> Friedrich Linder
> Lindersoft
> www.lindersoft.com
> +1.954.252.3910
>
> "point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 6.7
> Create Windows Vista ready installations in minutes
>
> -- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner
>
>

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

Sorted. Leave that entry blank. The login/password combo ensures you land
in the correct folder.

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

Spoke too soon. SB ftp says it uploaded to the site, but they never arrive.
Not even in the wrong folder. No errors.

????

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

> Spoke too soon. SB ftp says it uploaded to the site, but they never arrive.
> Not even in the wrong folder. No errors.

Make sure the target folder exists and that you have the right FTP path to
it in the Release Distribution section of the visualizer.

For example on a UNIX/Linux type server, a common setup is that files that
are to be accessed via the http:// interface need to go into a server
folder called public_html (also aliased on some servers as www).

In a case like that your would take your FTP program, access the server,
change to the public_html folder and then create a "web" folder there.

Then your "upload" path in SB would be to:

www.domain.com/public_html/web

on port 21 (unless your server uses a different one for FTP).

Does that help?

Charles




--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Edmonds
www.pagesnip.com - "Print and Save the Web, just the way you want it!"
www.clarionproseries.com - "Serious imaging tools for Clarion Developers"
www.ezround.com - "Round Corner HTML tables with matching Banners, Buttons
and Forms!"
www.lansrad.com - "Intelligent Solutions for Universal Problems"
www.fotokiss.com - "World's Best Auction Photo Editor"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[NewsArchive]

*Exactly* what Charles said! I assume you uploaded to the wrong
(non-public) web folder. The compiler window tells you where your files
ended.

Should look like this on a standard web server:
ftp.domain.com/public_html/ckproduce/

BUT NOT:
ftp.domain.com/ckproduce/

Friedrich

[NewsArchive]

Nah, it was just a simple game of having http and ftp switch places <g>.
But that bit works fine now. I've now added something new to my application
(once I get one final part debugged) and then I'll follow step 2.

The only thing that is kinda bugging me about web deployment is having many
different version folders. I reckon that is the price to pay.

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

> The only thing that is kinda bugging me about web deployment is having many
> different version folders. I reckon that is the price to pay.

In a "typical" setup your web folders would be like the following:

Let's say you have all three variations of SetupBuilder working. So you
have a Full Install, a Web Install and a Web Update.

On your server you need three folders.

www.domain.com/download
www.domain.com/web
www.domain.com/update

You set the full installer to upload to the /download folder.
You set the web installer to upload to the /web folder.
You set the web update to upload to the /update folder.

The first two are links to start the download (or web install) and the
other is a hidden link just for the web updater.

With that setup you should be able to publish whatever you need.

Does that make sense?

Charles





--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Edmonds
www.pagesnip.com - "Print and Save the Web, just the way you want it!"
www.clarionproseries.com - "Serious imaging tools for Clarion Developers"
www.ezround.com - "Round Corner HTML tables with matching Banners, Buttons
and Forms!"
www.lansrad.com - "Intelligent Solutions for Universal Problems"
www.fotokiss.com - "World's Best Auction Photo Editor"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[NewsArchive]

You missed the plot entirely. I'm not talking about editions of the same
product, I mean version 1 of the super cool app. Then version 1.1 of super
cool app.

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

Sorry Charles, that comes across a bit more forcibly than I intended. Don't
know my own strength sometimes <g>

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

> Sorry Charles, that comes across a bit more forcibly than I intended. Don't
> know my own strength sometimes <g>

LOL - no worries Russ, I was up wind on that one!

;-)

Charles


--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Edmonds
www.pagesnip.com - "Print and Save the Web, just the way you want it!"
www.clarionproseries.com - "Serious imaging tools for Clarion Developers"
www.ezround.com - "Round Corner HTML tables with matching Banners, Buttons
and Forms!"
www.lansrad.com - "Intelligent Solutions for Universal Problems"
www.fotokiss.com - "World's Best Auction Photo Editor"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[NewsArchive]

> You missed the plot entirely. I'm not talking about editions of the same
> product, I mean version 1 of the super cool app. Then version 1.1 of super
> cool app.

In a case like that you still need only ONE web update folder on the
webserver.

If you have users out there who are on version 1.0 of Super Cool app and
you have released a web update to version 1.1 and then even 1.5, the files
will co-exist in the same web folder.

If a 1.0 user runs web update, then the web update program will figure out
what files are needed to update the system to 1.5.

If a 1.1 user runs web update, the same thing will happen, but fewer of the
cluster files will be downloaded.


As for your main (full) install, the best way to manage that is to keep a
consistent filename for the most recent version.

So lets say that the current version of the exe for Super Cool app is:

SetupSuperCool.exe

When you release a new version, you rename the old version on the server
with the version number as a part of the name. Then the new version
retains the same name (for the current version).

So if your server had files for 1.0, 1.1 and 1.5 the files would look like
this:

SetupSuperCool1.1.exe (version 1.0)
SetupSuperCool1.5.exe (version 1.1)
SetupSuperCool.exe (the current version - 1.5)

Then you can either publish the links to old versions with direct
hyperlinks, or just maintain them on the server in case they are needed.

BTW - this technique ensures that links you email out or that are published
to download sites always point to the current version - even if they are
used at a later date.

Does that make sense?

;-)

Charles





--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Edmonds
www.pagesnip.com - "Print and Save the Web, just the way you want it!"
www.clarionproseries.com - "Serious imaging tools for Clarion Developers"
www.ezround.com - "Round Corner HTML tables with matching Banners, Buttons
and Forms!"
www.lansrad.com - "Intelligent Solutions for Universal Problems"
www.fotokiss.com - "World's Best Auction Photo Editor"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[NewsArchive]

OK. I think I may be overcomplicating things. I have in my development
folder:

CoolApp1.0.0
CoolApp1.1.0

In each of the above folders, I have coolapp.app and coolapp.dct. Do I
really need to have separate development folders? Or am I adding stuff from
the dynamic scan into something not applicable?

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm

[NewsArchive]

> OK. I think I may be overcomplicating things. I have in my development
> folder:
>
> CoolApp1.0.0
> CoolApp1.1.0
>
> In each of the above folders, I have coolapp.app and coolapp.dct. Do I
> really need to have separate development folders? Or am I adding stuff from
> the dynamic scan into something not applicable?

You might be over complicating things a bit<g>

There are a number of ways to deal with this, let me tell you the way I do
it.

I have a "Distribution folder" that I maintain for each program I release.
This folder has nothing at all to do with the actual development folder and
I NEVER pull any files from the development folder into a build by
SetupBuilder.

Development and distribution are two different things.

So what I do is create a folder structure like this:

C:\DistCoolApp
CoolApp
Program (the compiled exe)
Docs (the help files)
Images (any special image files, etc)
Source (the app source and any supplementals)
Program (app, dct and clw)
Images
Icons

Add other folders to organize the files to be included in the distribution
as needed.

The goal here is to create a "snapshot" of the app at the time of release
(and the related docs, etc.). If you were mega paranoid, you could even
add a copy of your C:\Clarion6 folder under here as well. With that in
place you could easily rollback to fix a bug in that version if needed.


In regards to what goes into your SetupBuilder installer not all of the
files in this folder array are used, but it makes good organizational

I set SetupBuilder to look for the files it needs out of these folders:

C:\DistCoolApp
CoolApp
Program
Docs


So you build your project in SetupBuilder and then save that as
CoolApp1.0.0.sb

In the installer you set the version and add the files.

Then you build the installer and use the host directories on the website as
I suggested earlier.


Now - the important part<g>

These directories NEVER change:

C:\DistCoolApp
CoolApp
Program
Docs

Also on the webserver

www.domain.com/download
www.domain.com/web
www.domain.com/update



So - now it is time to publish version 1.1 of CoolApp.


First you go into Windows Explorer and down into your C:\DistCoolApp
folder.

Then COPY the "CoolApp" folder to a new folder called "CoolApp1.0.0"


You now have a "snapshot" of the files that were included in the 1.0.0
release.


Then you go into your folder where CoolApp.sb is and copy that into
CooApp1.0.0.sb. You can also copy the output folder created by SB into a
folder called CooApp1.0.0.

That gives you your snapshot of the SB side of things.


Next you go back to your C:\DistCoolApp folder and add whatever changed
files are needed to that structure.

Then you go into your full installer project in SB, increment the version
number to 1.1.1 (or whatever), make changes as needed in it and compile
again.

SB will still look at the same folders for the source files and the files
created for the website will still carry the same name. Remember that this
is your full installer.


Next you create your web update (from V1.0 to V1.1) by using the Web Update
Wizard. The wizard will ask you for the original SB project and you point
it to the CooApp1.0.0.sb project.

You SAVE this project as WUCoolapp1.1.sb

Then you add whatever changes (add/remove files, do script stuff,
whatever).

Remember that this is a small update with just the changes between V1.0 and
V1.1 - not the full install.

When you compile that project it gets output to the WUCoolapp1.1 folder.
Files from it get uploaded into the www.domain.com/update folder.


When you get ready to release V1.5, you repeat the steps above.


The goal (at least with this method) is that your SB project is always
looking at a controlled environment for the files to put in the install.

You only rename the subfolder when your making your backup of the last
release.

Then your output to the webserver always goes to the same place.


Obviously this is a quickie example, but hopefully it will give you an idea
of how to tame the beast.

I can do a new distribution very quickly (and with a minimum amount of
work) and still maintain a tight control of what files went into what
release.

BTW - before I upload the full install to the website I rename the exe file
up there to have a copy of the old installer available if needed. So
SetupCoolApp.exe becomes SetupCoolApp1.0.exe


Does that help?

Charles







--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Edmonds
www.pagesnip.com - "Print and Save the Web, just the way you want it!"
www.clarionproseries.com - "Serious imaging tools for Clarion Developers"
www.ezround.com - "Round Corner HTML tables with matching Banners, Buttons
and Forms!"
www.lansrad.com - "Intelligent Solutions for Universal Problems"
www.fotokiss.com - "World's Best Auction Photo Editor"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[NewsArchive]

That's the way I used to do it (until I tried the web update). I think I
need to restudy, I really missed something there.

--
Russell B. Eggen
www.radfusion.com
Skype Clarion chat: http://tinyurl.com/2273lm