196 replies to this topic

[Nuno Brito]

Beta 10 is available for testing!

Here are the changes:

- Added support for Enter key inside web browser, theme styles and automatic form filling.
- Added display of author name while downloading
- Added safety check when downloading files from the download center - first it's downloaded to extension .web then it is renamed as original file if passes MD5 integrity check
- Improved the safety check when trying to upload a single script without valid configuration or not connected to the ftp account
- Added the individual file upload progress bar when uploading a new web server
- Removed the previously added wbChat from beta 9 - wb's homepage chat is a good replacement for the moment
- Added "Stop" button for individual file uploads, also fixed the respective progress bar
- Added the option to remember last position of the main window - this option will be ignored if no winbuilder.ini file is found (to keep the root folder clean)
- Some more cosmetics changes on the download center

This beta should prove to be more stable that all the previous..

FTP upload has the corresponding progress bar with details while uploading.

Web component is more responsive - but there are still a few things needed to get done - like the hability to check if web is online or not and load an offline page to help users get started even when no internet is available.

Download center should work better now - previously while downloading files, the new file would simply overwrite the old one - but if the user pressed the cancel button the old file could not be recovered and would be listed as present when rechecking for updates.

Now it will still download the same file, but the target file is renamed with extension .web and only after the download and md5 check are both sucessfull it will overwrite the old file.



Know bugs to fix on upload web server button: If the user presses the cancel button when uploading the projects folder, the connection will still get active and won't be possible to retry uploading. The only solution at the moment is waiting for the ftp server to timeout and cancel the connection - at least this was the behavior using Filezilla ftp server for windows - don't know if linux hosted ftp servers will behave like this too - need to fix this soon, sorry..


These are the changes for now, many more to come soon - hope you like it so far!

[thunn]

How do I work this crazy thing? I don't see "Play" anywhere!
Seriously though, it look's great..I'm running a test and I'll report if any errors. Thanks for fixing the file copy problem from beta 9 and even releasing a silent update prior to beta10.

[TheHive]

I see the Play button on beta10.



Can the download message be move a bit higher. At this time it blocks the name of developers script.
For example.

[Nuno Brito]

It wasn't wordwrapping as expected, here's the result now:

[pscEx]

Nice working of upload progress bar

Peter

[TheHive]

Some thing is needed to explain to the user what the project is about before downloading a project.



Some thing else we might think about.
The method to notify a user that there is a missing source is implemented.
The user is not told what next.
Maybe add in the same prompt
press "Play" button to start Building
or something like that

If a user doesnt download the main Live XP tools but select Psc Project there will be errors when building because there will be missing tools.
We might think of having a way to tell the user they need to download tools for a project to build properly.

[Nuno Brito]

On the download center, clicking on a folder from each project will display the resumed information read from script.project - but I will also add a startup page to explain what it is expected to do with this tool.


The paths tab is quite a problem, been also noticing some confusions with people trying to use the livexp project with vista waik as source..

Perhaps a small wizard as you've suggested some months ago would help people get started - will try to add it in a way that can be adapted for all projects verifying if needed files and specific rules are found in order to recognize a source as valid and avoid these confusions..

Very good idea..

[Nuno Brito]

Beta 11 is uploaded to the first topic!

- Added safety ping check to homepage adress to handle situations when wb is not online
- Added the same safety check to the download center
- Added a "Source Wizard" - safety check and validation that ensures that specific files are found inside the source before continuing the project build.
- Moved the Options tab to the tools section
- Moved the Paths to the last tab position

It's a small list of changes, but it is an important one..

Download webservers will only work whenever wb can sucessfully ping them - to ensure that the server is available and that the program has a network connection (this works on both intranet and internet)

Source Wizard is a new helper to ensure that projects only run with a valid source - it will validate a path as source for the project if it matches a few rules.

The rules are simple, you write a few specific files needed to be found to make it acceptable and allow the project to continue. Thinking on vistaPE wich can be waik or Vista DVD based - there's an OR option - wich will allow to specify an alternative list of files that also need to be found if the first list fails the file check.

You can also choose to not use these rules to make the project run without any source check - it's a small and simple validation but I hope that it helps people avoid any confusions with wich source to use.


So the configuration process on a typical process is a bit different now:

User downloads scripts, press play - the validation tab comes up to select a valid source - and the project build continues..

This validation tab doesn't come up anymore while the source is valid.

The paths tab has been moved to the last tab position since it won't be as needed as before, until people wish to change any of the target, source or ISO settings as before.

The options tab has also been moved to the tool section to make the main tabs less crowded and easier to follow.


Now the main goal will be finishing up the upload method to make it overwrite any newer files on an existent web server and shouldn't take long for a new stable release..

[TheHive]

Overall the new stuff looks good. Good addition of the rules tab.

The Toolbox button need something like when you press it it opens the toolbox options and when you press the button again it closes. It doesnt feel natural you click the toolbox button again and nothing happens. I know the x is meant close it. But the alternative to clicking the Toolbox button should be implemented also. Even though I know there is an X to close that option, my instinct is to click on the Toolbox button again to close it.

Bug:
When you download a project and press the play button. It jiggles and asks for the source. The thing is that it goes to the second tab which is now the web tab. It should be fixed to go to the paths tab instead.

[Nuno Brito]

Thanks for the extra quick feedback - will comply!!

[thunn]

thank's Nuno, I've been dying to use this 'smiley!'

Open a project in the DL page and all the scripts are selected for download. Why not have the download defaults reflect the project (scripts to run) defaults? This would save novice users' download time and your bandwidth. Of course it's nice to get everthing at once, but I don't think users would mind, (unfortunately) most people like decisions made for them. In this case though, If all they do is download and run WB with a viable source, they get a lean mean PE machine. ...either way.

I should also tell you a test of v68 beta 11 went perfectly and looked quite slick doing it's job!

[MedEvil]

Nuno, i don't want to slow you down in your perfectioning WB, but i think at the moment the new versions pop up a 'little' to fast.

I dl a new WB and by the time it is finished dl the projects, i have already missed 2 more betas.
Imagine how bad it would be, if i would try to create CDs as well!

[Nuno Brito]

..
dl a new WB and by the time it is finished dl the projects, i have already missed 2 more betas.
Imagine how bad it would be, if i would try to create CDs as well!

There is an urgent matter on my head right now - vista limits administrative tasks like loading hives?

Testing projects on the platform, and only nativeEX suceeded on booting - still with a loading hive reported error..

Maybe I will dedicate my coding time to create a way to edit these hives without need of loading them onto the registry.

[mamisano]

Suggestion: Would be nice to have some sort of version history for the scripts. Maybe have a [Version] section that would be displayed somewhere under the Description Tab.

Honestly, The "Credits" section is not usually filled with info, maybe cut that down a bit and add the version section.

I tried to add some notes under the Credits but the program freaked out when I added more than one line, it proceeded to add 50+ lines of repeating info into the script LOL.

[Nuno Brito]

Suggestion: Would be nice to have some sort of version history for the scripts. Maybe have a [Version] section that would be displayed somewhere under the Description Tab.

Honestly, The "Credits" section is not usually filled with info, maybe cut that down a bit and add the version section.

I tried to add some notes under the Credits but the program freaked out when I added more than one line, it proceeded to add 50+ lines of repeating info into the script LOL.

Hi mamisano!

A new tab can also be added just for the version history in order to keep everyone well informed on what has changed, there is a bug on how the data is entered on the [main] section since users can't use commas because they'll be interpreted as line breaks, pressing enter will add the #13 character wich also add a permanent looped line break..

I will work on these issues soon, thanks for the report!

[Nuno Brito]

Hi everyone!

A new beta was uploaded to the first topic and it is ready for everyone who wishes to test the new features - here's a quick list of changes:

- Tool section button can show/hide respective tools tab
- Added an icon next to the source description on the source wizard
- Modified progress tab - added the name of the script author and a few small UI changes
- Modified error icon displayed on logs to a red X to make them easily identifiable
- Added UI language support - an editor was also placed on the tools tab and will write text files to projects\tools\languages

The big modification on this beta is the support for multiple languages, adding, modifying and sharing custom languages will be done with some ease:

Use the english list as support for your language, modifying the english text with the one you wish, just beware to keep text around the same size as the original to keep them well displayed on the user interface.

Saved languages will be stored inside the Tools\Languages folder - this way it will be simpler to upload new languages as they appear and make them available to everyone using the download center.

At this moment only the user interface was focused, still working on support for all the other messages that show while the log is being generated and such.

Hopefully this will also open the way to make script interfaces and echo messages that can use this common language engine and this way start providing common sentences that can be shared amongst scripts.


Predicting that languages often get outdated when introducing changes, the last beta of winbuilder.exe will always keep an updated english list of the available language terms, meaning that the terms that are missing on the custom language file will use their english equivalents whenever needed or until an update is available on the download center.

To publish new languages, please post them on the respective language sub forum on the international point where more native speakers of the same language can discuss it and further improve when needed.

Thanks for all the warm feedback so far!

[pscEx]

I'm inside German translation.
Before continouing: How can I test?

Peter

EDITED: At the first new start I did not see anything, but now, after the second start I see some results.
Question obsolete!

Edited by psc, 12 March 2007 - 04:43 PM.

[Nuno Brito]

You need to save the language into a file - press the save button with your changes and it will prompt you for a filename / title to use.

Restart the application and you should be able to see the result - I've already added support for direct loading the new selected language without restart and modified the labels using verdana font to default tahoma wich should be working better, will be available on the next beta.

Good luck!

[mamisano]

Under the Download tab, both Add and Delete web server buttons have the same tooltip: "Delete this web server".

[Nuno Brito]

Under the Download tab, both Add and Delete web server buttons have the same tooltip: "Delete this web server".

Thank you!!

will fix it..

[thunn]

Downloaded the new (v68b12) beta and ran in it's own folder, all went well downloading from the nativepe server dir. I made and the result booted fine.

Attached Thumbnails

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[pscEx]

I just finished the German language file.
(More you can see in the international forum).

I tried to select English language to compare. That is not possible inside WinBuilder.
The only way was to comment out the 'German' in WinBuilder.ini.

The Language tab of WinBuilder should have an 'English' option inside the languages scroll box.

A second complain: Some translations are longer then the English original (It is well known that an English sentence translated into German usually has about 50% more letters)

So some UI sections do not look well.
Sorry, just a complain, I have no suggestion how to make better.

Peter

[Nuno Brito]

Peter, do you mean something like a side by side compare list?

It can be added, just a bit more dificult to make both list scroll at the same time - can they be placed side by side and each have their own scroll bars?

[pscEx]

Peter, do you mean something like a side by side compare list?

It can be added, just a bit more dificult to make both list scroll at the same time - can they be placed side by side and each have their own scroll bars?

No I just meant that some things do not look nice

Peter

[Nuno Brito]

I moved the checkboxes to the options tab and placed the buttons on the bottom, this way they can be wider and fit the translated text as expected..