NoteWorthy UpgMaker - What's New

NoteWorthy Software, Inc.

Wednesday, 16 May 2012

Features Added in Version 3.01

New user license; UpgMaker is now freeware
Support for import instructions in the *.ini file, which can be used to manually build your own upgrade configuration to be used by UpgMaker
New file actions have been added. The Replace action works just like Update, the the old version of the file is not used in creating the patch. This means that you can use Replace to update multiple versions of an older file set, all with a single upgrade. The Verify action can be used to make sure that particular files already exist on the user's machine, even if they do not need to be upgraded.
A bug in the compression scheme has been corrected, thus making compressed upgrade support more reliable.
Minor changes to the interface have been made to improve the editing experience within the UpgMaker tool.

Features Added in Version 2.50

New compression (deflate) feature enables the creation of compressed upgrades, which can be applied in the same fashion as the original raw upgrades. The UpgMaker now includes a compression option, and several of the applicators now have the ability to inflate (decompress) a compressed upgrade on the fly, as the upgrade is applied.
New applicator programs are provided that do not include the additional overhead required to support compressed upgrades. This makes them even smaller, and makes them suitable for inclusion in compressed archives and self-installing packages.
New applicator DLLs for use in custom programming. Two new DLLs are included which support the new compressed upgrade format, and two DLLs are included which are smaller but do not support compressed upgrades.
New ZIP archive templates that can be used as the basis for creating your own self-extracting ZIP archives that are actually upgrades.
New command line options allow the UpgMaker to be run from a batch file, without operator intervention (unless an error occurs). A new tip in the help file demonstrates how to automate an upgrade build from a batch file. It also shows how to automatically create self-installing upgrades by combining the UpgMaker with self-extracting ZIP archive tools like WinZip and WinZip Self Extractor. You can even use the command line options to backup important files or directories to a secondary drive, like a removable drive (by combining an auto-detect operation with an update operation). See the Tips and Tricks section of the help file for more details.
Sample applicator program source code is now included in both the Shareware evaluation and licensed editions of the package.
General fixes, including a fix for the folder browsing mechanism in the UpgMaker when run on Windows NT (this did not work correctly in earlier versions).

Features Added in Version 2.01

A new column header for displaying the list of files in the UpgMaker program. You can now adjust column sizes and sort the list of files by column. Optional grid lines are also supported.
New 32-bit versions of all applicator redistributables (new files include UPGWSE32.DLL and UPGAPP32.EXE). If you plan to provide upgrades for Windows NT users, you need to distribute the 32-bit applicator in order to support the NTFS file system.
A new customizable user interface for the apply portion of the upgrade applicators. You can now control the content of the error and warning messages when applying an upgrade. See the source code examples for a demonstration of this mechanism.
The UPGAPPLY.EXE and UPGAPP32.EXE programs now automatically load a file called DEFAULT.UPG if it exists in the same directory as the program itself. This adds convenience when distributing an upgrade in a ZIP package (as is done with this upgrade).
The UPGAPPLY.EXE and UPGAPP32.EXE programs now preserve the current working directory, so a relative filename can be specified on the command line when invoking these programs.
The UPG32.DLL module can now be loaded more than once on Windows 95 machines. In the past, attempts to load it more than once resulted in an error message about Win32s.
A group of files can now be quickly assigned the same description all at the same time.
The UpgMaker program now handles dropped files into the list of files better, overcoming apparent bugs in the Windows 95 handling for this event.

Features Added in Version 2.0a

Two new utility DLLs have been added to the product. The UPG16.DLL library provides support for upgrade files in 16-bit Windows programming. The UPG32.DLL library provides support for upgrade files in 32-bit Windows programming. These libraries enable companies to create their own custom upgrade applications. Two sample upgrade programs (a 16-bit and a 32-bit program), complete with "C" source code, are included in the product.
A new utility DLL in now included which allows upgrade files to be installed from within a Wise Install script. The UPGWISE.DLL library can be included in a Wise setup, and its functions can be used to install an upgrade created by the UpgMaker program. A sample script for applying an upgrade with Wise is included in the product’s Source folder. It includes comments that should help you understand how to incorporate the DLL into your own Wise install scripts.
A new upgrade program is included in the product. The standard applicator for your upgrade files is now the UpgApply program (assuming you are not creating a custom upgrade application). It includes a new wizard style interface to walk the user through the upgrade process.
User selection of directory names is now accomplished from a custom browse dialog, rather than the stock file open dialog used in the prior release. This change has been implemented into the UpgMaker program and all of the upgrade applicators.
Two new options have been added to the auto-detect process:

- A "Compare file contents" option has been added. This options controls whether the auto-detect process compares actual file contents during a directory scan. If not checked, only a file’s time stamp is used for comparison.

- An "Older new file warning" option has been added. The scan is now able to detect changed files in the new folder that are actually older than the corresponding file in the old folder. You can optionally be warned of this situation, when it is detected.

An optional "Output Folder" option has been added to the upgrade build options. This option allows you to designate a global "upgrade" folder that should contain all of the upgrades that you create in the UpgMaker program. This option works globally, creating any and all of your upgrades in this folder, if it is specified. If this option is left blank, the upgrade files will be located in the same folder as the UpgMaker configuration file.

support@noteworthysoftware.com