I wonder if I could have copies of those packages...? I'm curious to see why v8 failed to install them.
Sure. I'll PM you the links once they have upped (should be around 15-20 minutes, my upload speed sucks).
OK, I PM'd you the links (sorry for the wait). Those apps wouldn't work on Win7 x86 (VM). At first I thought it may have something to do with VC runtimes as it was a clean install without runtimes installed, but after install VC runtimes it was still a no-go. But as soon as I installed them again with SetupS v13 they worked.
I'm having no luck pinning down exactly why the synergy between v8 & v13 is off at times. Those failures I mentioned in the PM ... turns out they were a minor bug with ssEditor (which is fixed now). But an unchanged SetupS has been able to install without incident all sorts of variety of v8/v13 type of packages on both XP and Win7. Even with those packages you PM'd me -- they are all installing okay for me. If I can get more details from you on how I can reproduce your failures, that'd be great. But I think for now I'll have to put this issue on the back-burner. I've fixed a couple bugs with ssEditor but that's about it. I still want to do some fine tuning for the project: For game categories, I want to reintroduce a few that were dropped: Puzzle, Arcade, Card, Board, Dice, Music, Physics(?). Even though they can be defined with the other primary categories, their use in the wild is pretty popular all the same. So I'd rather have them available as dropbox selections. They'll be that much quicker & easier to "enter", more consistent, and less chance of a typo. For the startmenu catalog, I want to see about changing "- Internet" to "- Networking" instead. Getting some auto-sync going between the Meta fields ReleaseVersion & ReleaseDate with the Version/Copyright field. Enabling the filenaming tags feature for ssEditor.
So are you saying the problem with SetupS seeing the shortcutnameskeep as target is fixed, or that you could never reproduce that part? Just asking because from your PM's I got the impression you were able to reproduce that part as well. The main culprit app for me in that was the LameXP ppApp, when installing with SetupS v13. That still won't work with current v13, by the way. Unless the ssEditor bug was to blame for that and you've fixed that now. EDIT: Did you have to change anything about adding that shortcutnameskeep to v8 .app files? Or can that remain?
Yeah, I had thought so too. But after digging deeper, it turned out that what I was seeing was problem with ssEditor. It wasn't affecting SetupS. I tested LameXP in its original "v8" file-format then later with it converted to the "v13" file-format -- and everything installed perfect with SetupS v13.5.9 for me on both XP and Win7. The only thing I didn't test was with a SetupS v8. Mainly because you'd mentioned SetupS v13 as being the problem. Right now, the only thing I see different that you did was in using it in a Win7 VM; but I don't really see why that would cause any problems, though. And I also created some new ppApps from "portable apps" that would have identical characteristics with LameXP and the shortcuts created for those were perfect as well. So unless I'm missing something, this has got me stumped for sure. Yes, that rule change was made for v13 only. It's pretty obscure so I doubt I'll change v8's behavior.
Try and see if you can reproduce the problem I had with LameXP when installing it with SetupS v13 but with a v8 .app file. Because that is when I encountered the problem at first. Since I've been converting apps to v13 format (not making them from scratch) it might indeed be an ssEditor problem otherwise when dealing with v13 .app files. But as far as installing by SetupS, the problem should be reproducable by install it as v8 .app file but with v13 SetupS. BTW, I upped the LameXP ppApp to my FTP location as accessible through my sig now, but I think that the same (v8 .app format) one you already had. Sorry, keep editing this post! OK, I forgot to mention, this problem of LameXP not creating a valid shortcut when installing with SetupS v13 is also occurring on my live install (Win7 x64) so it's definitely not a VM problem. In fact, I've tried this same scenario in several VM's now and a live install, and it acts the same every time. I've also reinstalled SetupS several times so that's not it either. Otherwise, I have not encountered real problems changing to v13 ini format. The only thing I find is it's difficult for me to create multiple shortcuts for ppApps easily when using ssEditor, but that goes for both v8 and v13. For that, manual editing of .app files is really the easiest thing. This is kind of why I had been slow to adopt v13, because for convenience I'm finding I need to maintain both versions of each app (or at least keep the v8 format ones around) which isn't exactly convenient in itself. I had considered moving over to ini format completely, if nothing else for the new ssWPI. But it's kind of hard for me at the moment because the old ssWPI works flawlessly and fast for me, and so does v8 SetupS... Do you plan to drop support for v8 (or maintaining it) any time soon?
Exactly. Which is why I'm finding this issue so puzzling. And if it weren't for this bump, I'd feel ultra confident about v13. But now I'll have my doubts until I can solve what's causing it. FYI -- in case you didn't know already -- ssEditor has a tool for capturing existing shortcuts from the startmenu (even an entire folder), desktop, or wherever. It's my best tool for converting ssApps into ppApps. No, but I think Glenn already has.
Well, that is incredibly odd then. Because I can install a Win7 in VM right now, fresh, and install that app and its shortcut will fail. And also on a live install. That almost makes one think there is a 'timing' issue going on. OK, thanks for the tip. That may come in handy in some situations, yes. As it would be mostly with new (or previously unmade) apps that I'd have to figure out shortcuts for it anyway. Yes, he has. He's probably at SetupS v14 by now
I agree. And it keeps me lying awake at nights. LOL And you're right, there's something we're missing or not thinking of. Later on I'll test those packages on Win2003 just to see whatever.
Sorry, some problems can be such a pain. I'll run some more tests too in the weekend, maybe reinstall the OS too (besides testing in VMs) to really make sure.
Ha! I don't know what you did exactly, but that LameXP ppApp with the v8 .app file, it works now with v13 SetupS and creates a shortcut OK, so it looks like I can go back to making v13 style apps again
Weird. I never touched shortcut creation -- or anything remotely connected to that... Though didn't you report issues not long ago regarding some apps (ppApps?) not registering correctly? And was that with an x64 OSArch...?
So far, RealStudio regging appears to work, J.River Media Center shortcut seems to work too (not converting th MS media center shortcut anymore). I tried that last one in a newer x86 VM, which is where it gave me that problem last time. So far, so good! I'll have to test it a bit more. I just haven't been able to test using SetupS v8 because it's still the old version. So yeah I should probably be cautious in my enthusiasm
Yeah I take that back: RealStudio (v8 .app file) fails to register when installing with SetupS v13 (your latest) on x86 Win7 VM.
I did make this one change a couple days ago... You suppose it had anything to do with that? And strange that such an obscure and minor "rule" had an impact like that... I swear, sometimes I think SetupS should just be renamed ssJenga. LOL
Maybe something is wrong with the ppApp... I looked in the registry for the RealStudio app and it does show the reg!
OOODDDD: I just installed RealStudio 'over' the install I just did, and now it IS registered... Maybe in my zeal to prevent a EULA message at first start of the app, I removed an additional reg that was present in older version of the app I did. Yeah I think that's what it is. But the LameXP app definitely creates a shortcut now where it didn't before, and that was very consistent. So yeah
Huh. Then maybe Glenn can lend a hand and help us figure out what is missing to make RS function as a ppApp.
It has the regging in hex format and on older RS apps I made it had 2 locations for those reg entries, but slimmed them down to one thinking it would work (I guess). It's been a while since I made it so I'm not exactly sure, plus I hadn't used it much so didn't install it much either. But it'll be easy to enough to test/repeat. EDIT: I think it's one of those cases in which the app looks in several locations for the reg, and when it finds it only in one it can create a registered state from only one location, but you have to restart the app. It could be something like that. I'm thinking that because I remember I used to include 2 locations for the same reg but reduced it to one.
^^ I'm so optimistic about what I can do in the weekend all the time ^^ Quick question: The meta-data has a field for 'Release Date'. Should that contain the release date of the ss/ppApp package, or the release date of the app version in question? I caught myself filling in approximate release dates for the applications themselves, until I was making one that a release date that was way back in time, and then I thought something isn't right here
Good question. Release Date means the date of publication or revision (from the developers). It's meant to be closely tied to the Release Version (and hence its name). Perhaps an unfortunate choice of words since there's also a meta data field for "Builder/Releaser" I'm thinking we should rename those but I'm too close to the forest to come up with anything that isn't as ambiguous. Any suggestions?
