End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
The following products have already been discontinued and are no longer
sold. There are no bugfixes or other enhancements planned.
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Product Name Version Remarks
------------ ------- -------
SetupBuilder Standard 4.x Migration to SetupBuilder 5 Professional
recommended
SetupBuilder Web 4.x Migration to SetupBuilder 5 Developer
recommended
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Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910
"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
Is there a way to migrate SB4 installs to SB5?
Thanks,
--
Carlos Gutiérrez
http://sca.com.mx
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
Carlos,
SB5 cannot open SB4 files. SB5 has a different philosophy regarding the
project management (and feature set). SB5 is completely "script driven".
SB4.x projects are limited because they are based on a sequential database
driven processing model. Something like the following:
1) Display GUI (Welcome -> Readme -> License -> etc.)
2) Install Files
3) Write Registry/INI Entries
4) Perform Actions
5) Run Programs
In contrast to SB4, the new SB5 is completely script driven. Would you like
to display the License Agreement before your Welcome dialog? No problem.
Or read some values out of the Registry and based on this information
display different sets of wizard dialogs. With SB5 you can do it. SB5
supports IF..THEN..ELSE and LOOP control structures to provide looping and
conditional execution of installation components.
You can now use the *same* script to compile *different* versions of your
installer (e.g. full or upgrade image). The SB5 preprocessor can
conditionally include lines of code within an installer program. The
directives that include code conditionally are defined in such a way that
you can construct a chain of inclusion directives to include exactly the
functions you want.
Of course, you can still use your old SB4 installations (there is nothing
wrong with that). Because SB5 gives you so much more power and flexibility,
it's wise to "rethink" some distribution projects.
If you create new projects, I would consider SB5. It supports Windows 95,
98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.
Does this help?
Friedrich
--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910
"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
I understand the advantages of SB5. The problem is when you have complex SB4
setup you have been polishing over the years. I would be nice if SB5 could
import file lists with attributes, shortcuts, folders, registry key, delete
file actions, etc. from a SB4 project, even if the resulting SB5 project
wasn't completely functional. Alot of the hard work would be saved. Even an
external unsupported utility would be fine.
Regards,
--
Carlos Gutiérrez
http://sca.com.mx
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
Friedrich,
What about Setupbuilder for Clarion - you don't mention it in the message.
have I missed a previous announcement ?
ie. have you already dittched support for this
SB4 for Clarion is enough for my limited use
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
Chriss,
SetupBuilder 5 for Clarion (a major sub-set of SetupBuilder 5 Professional)
will be available within the next few days.
We'll post an End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4 for Clarion soon.
Thanks,
Friedrich
--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910
"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
Carlos,
I agree that a conversion utility to write 'the bones' would be a good idea.
I have a client that upgraded from SB4 to SB5 and I had to rewrite their
install for them - a real PITA. I was quite surprised there wasn't any
conversion utility.
After that effort, I've elected to stay with SB4 since I have a whole lot
more installs than my client that would need to be rewritten and SB4 is
doing everything I need. I'm sure SB5 is a "whole lot of wonderful" but ...
Al
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
Al,
Unfortunately, it's not possible to develop such a tool :-( There will not
be a conversion utility for SB4.
Friedrich
--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910
"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
Carlos,
If you put so much work into your SB4, then it's "wise" to rethink your
distribution strategy in SB5 because it gives you so much more power and
flexibility.
For example, I think it took more than 2 days to develop the Clarion 5.5 and
Clarion 6.0 installations. With SB5 we were done in 90 minutes. SB5
supports include and exclude wildcards, tons of new functions, compiler
directives (e.g. use one script to compile different installations), new
security features, etc., etc.
--
Friedrich Linder
CEO, Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
1.954.252.3910
"point. click. ship" - that's SetupBuilder 5
Re: End-of-Life Notice for SetupBuilder 4
Hi Friedrich,
While I can well understand the announcement of the demise of SB4, I have
just one question.
Having mutually discovered that the SB4 binary patch methodology is
sometimes more efficient than that of SB5, is there now an option to select
the patch method in SB5 Pro, as per earlier emails?
Sim