File Extensions and Directory Writes
in [Visual Basic]
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From: Webbiz on 12 Mar 2010 18:41 On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:40:53 -0600, Webbiz <nospam(a)noway.com> wrote: >On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:13:03 -0500, "mayayana" ><mayayana(a)nospam.invalid> wrote: > >> >> >>> >>> Time to do a search on SFX. >>> >> >>This is what I use. V. 6.11 is free without >>restrictions. It's 9 years old now, but ZIP >>hasn't changed much. >> >>http://oldapps.com/powerarchiver.php >> >> An SFX is just self-executing. Usually CAB >>or ZIP. It works by attaching a small EXE >>"stub" to the front-end of the file. That's what >>a lot of MS downloads are. (You can tell by >>the old-fashioned icon that shows a Win95-era >>program window with an open yellow box in front. >>It's sort of the old version of the newer icons >>for setups that show a PC, with box and CD in >>front.) >> >> Oddly, Microsoft often uses an SFX CAB with >>an SFX ZIP inside that! >> >> The SFX stub unpacks the ZIP/CAB. Generally >>there's also an option to run an EXE inside the ZIP >>after unpacking. >> >> You can actually get free stubs, and you can get >>source code to write a custom one. But it's easier >>to just use something like Power Archiver, >>or another "full-featured" ZIP program. You >>just make a zip and then create an SFX >>from that. >> > > >I actually have a purchased copy of PowerArchiver 2010. Ran through >the SFX stuff and coded it for %DOCS%\MyProgramStuff. > >The .exe file I created was uploaded to my private Discus forum which >produced a link. > >Problem: When clicking on the link, it will not run the SFX exe from >the server itself. It asks where you want to download it. Having to >download this does not save any steps and still requires the user to >say where to download. This is a bummer. > >Can't believe something that seems so simple is so difficult to do. > >Thanks. > >Webbiz Figured out why this is happening. It appears to be BROWSER dependant. My IE browser gives a RUN option that tested worked nicely. My firefox did not, so I'll have to find the options to see if I can get it to do the same. SFX should work fine. Thanks. Webbiz
From: Norm on 12 Mar 2010 18:52 "Webbiz" <nospam(a)noway.com> wrote in message news:7hglp5566rv862vdmnh6asurk2bfoumrcm(a)4ax.com... > On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:13:03 -0500, "mayayana" > <mayayana(a)nospam.invalid> wrote: > >> >> >>> >>> Time to do a search on SFX. >>> >> >>This is what I use. V. 6.11 is free without >>restrictions. It's 9 years old now, but ZIP >>hasn't changed much. >> >>http://oldapps.com/powerarchiver.php >> >> An SFX is just self-executing. Usually CAB >>or ZIP. It works by attaching a small EXE >>"stub" to the front-end of the file. That's what >>a lot of MS downloads are. (You can tell by >>the old-fashioned icon that shows a Win95-era >>program window with an open yellow box in front. >>It's sort of the old version of the newer icons >>for setups that show a PC, with box and CD in >>front.) >> >> Oddly, Microsoft often uses an SFX CAB with >>an SFX ZIP inside that! >> >> The SFX stub unpacks the ZIP/CAB. Generally >>there's also an option to run an EXE inside the ZIP >>after unpacking. >> >> You can actually get free stubs, and you can get >>source code to write a custom one. But it's easier >>to just use something like Power Archiver, >>or another "full-featured" ZIP program. You >>just make a zip and then create an SFX >>from that. >> > > > I actually have a purchased copy of PowerArchiver 2010. Ran through > the SFX stuff and coded it for %DOCS%\MyProgramStuff. > > The .exe file I created was uploaded to my private Discus forum which > produced a link. > > Problem: When clicking on the link, it will not run the SFX exe from > the server itself. It asks where you want to download it. Having to > download this does not save any steps and still requires the user to > say where to download. This is a bummer. > > Can't believe something that seems so simple is so difficult to do. > > Thanks. > > Webbiz Hi, I did not read all the answers to this problem, but I do something similar within my apps when an update is available. You can have the app check for an update and then download it to app.path, so that you don't have to know what directory it has been installed to. My app then shell's to the new downloaded inno setup file and closes. The inno setup then install's a new version and any needed files to the app's present directory. I am not sure this is what you want to do or not, but hope it helps. Norm
From: mayayana on 12 Mar 2010 20:43 > It appears to be BROWSER dependant. My IE browser gives a RUN option > that tested worked nicely. My firefox did not, so I'll have to find > the options to see if I can get it to do the same. > If memory serves, the default is to show a choice, but some browsers allow one to choose. Looking now at Firefox and K-Meleon I see that K-Meleon lets me customize it, while Firefox (1.5) only has a Save option. I imagine most people know how to proceed, though I remember, many years ago, reading about a software company that was trying to find out why they had so many downloads and so few sales. It turned out that with 2/3 of the downloads people couldn't figure out where the file had gone. :)
From: Webbiz on 13 Mar 2010 00:35 On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:43:27 -0500, "mayayana" <mayayana(a)nospam.invalid> wrote: >> It appears to be BROWSER dependant. My IE browser gives a RUN option >> that tested worked nicely. My firefox did not, so I'll have to find >> the options to see if I can get it to do the same. >> > > If memory serves, the default is to show a choice, >but some browsers allow one to choose. Looking >now at Firefox and K-Meleon I see that K-Meleon >lets me customize it, while Firefox (1.5) only has >a Save option. I imagine most people know how to >proceed, though I remember, many years ago, reading >about a software company that was trying to find out >why they had so many downloads and so few sales. >It turned out that with 2/3 of the downloads people >couldn't figure out where the file had gone. :) > Yes, absolutely. Many of my customers seem to not be very computer-saavy. You tell them to download the install and then run it, and they get confused as to where it is after they download it. I find this out when I have to help remotely. That is why I'd like to automate as much as I can. Now, I've come to sort of a solution. My app is a charting program. Some who use it are also clients of one of my services, and some are not. I provide a unique indicator for those who are clients. THe unique indicator requires updated data once a week. This is what needs to be downloaded and found in a specific folder on their drive so the program can find it and use it. The service I provide is a weekly report with important info to be plotted on the chart. It is created with Excel. So I've automated as much I can. 1. Run the Excel macro that automatically gleans the needed data off the sheet, formats it appropriately, and saves it in a file in a specific folder on my system. 2. I created a batch file that runs the command line version of PowerArchive to automatically convert the file to a .ZIP. 3. Because PowerArchive does not have a command line version for creating a SFX file, the batch then runs the Windows version of PowerArchive via command line and arguments to find the .ZIP and to convert it to a SFX .exe file. It is coded to extract to a directory under the users My Documents folder. 4. That file is then uploaded to the server of our private forum. 5. If the user has Internet Explorer, the user can simply click and select RUN to install the file exactly where it needs to go. No thinking necessary. If the user has Firefox, it is suggested that the user get the free ADDON for Firefox called OpenDownload. This puts a RUN button on the dialog for Firefox users as well. Other browsers the user will have to find out on their own as I've covered the two major ones. So now it's all mostly automated. Whew! Click a macro button here, click a desktop icon there, and upload. Easy for me, easy for my clients. Thanks again for your SPX idea. That gave me the direction I needed to figure out the last of this mess. :-) Webbiz
From: Webbiz on 13 Mar 2010 00:38
On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:52:49 -0700, "Norm" <NormF4(a)spoof.com> wrote: > > >"Webbiz" <nospam(a)noway.com> wrote in message >news:7hglp5566rv862vdmnh6asurk2bfoumrcm(a)4ax.com... >> On Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:13:03 -0500, "mayayana" >> <mayayana(a)nospam.invalid> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>>> >>>> Time to do a search on SFX. >>>> >>> >>>This is what I use. V. 6.11 is free without >>>restrictions. It's 9 years old now, but ZIP >>>hasn't changed much. >>> >>>http://oldapps.com/powerarchiver.php >>> >>> An SFX is just self-executing. Usually CAB >>>or ZIP. It works by attaching a small EXE >>>"stub" to the front-end of the file. That's what >>>a lot of MS downloads are. (You can tell by >>>the old-fashioned icon that shows a Win95-era >>>program window with an open yellow box in front. >>>It's sort of the old version of the newer icons >>>for setups that show a PC, with box and CD in >>>front.) >>> >>> Oddly, Microsoft often uses an SFX CAB with >>>an SFX ZIP inside that! >>> >>> The SFX stub unpacks the ZIP/CAB. Generally >>>there's also an option to run an EXE inside the ZIP >>>after unpacking. >>> >>> You can actually get free stubs, and you can get >>>source code to write a custom one. But it's easier >>>to just use something like Power Archiver, >>>or another "full-featured" ZIP program. You >>>just make a zip and then create an SFX >>>from that. >>> >> >> >> I actually have a purchased copy of PowerArchiver 2010. Ran through >> the SFX stuff and coded it for %DOCS%\MyProgramStuff. >> >> The .exe file I created was uploaded to my private Discus forum which >> produced a link. >> >> Problem: When clicking on the link, it will not run the SFX exe from >> the server itself. It asks where you want to download it. Having to >> download this does not save any steps and still requires the user to >> say where to download. This is a bummer. >> >> Can't believe something that seems so simple is so difficult to do. >> >> Thanks. >> >> Webbiz > >Hi, > >I did not read all the answers to this problem, but I do something similar >within my apps when an update is available. You can have the app check for >an update and then download it to app.path, so that you don't have to know >what directory it has been installed to. My app then shell's to the new >downloaded inno setup file and closes. The inno setup then install's a new >version and any needed files to the app's present directory. I am not sure >this is what you want to do or not, but hope it helps. > >Norm Hey Norm. That's great for updating your application. In my particular problem (now solved...read comments in another post under this thread), not all users of the application is allowed to download this particular file that is updated each week. I would love to have the application download this file from the website automatically. It's easy to do. But I don't know how to restrict non-clients who have my app from also getting the file. Clients pay for this information. Non-clients do not. If I can find a solution to this part I would LOVE to do it. Thanks. Webbiz |