WinButtons 3.1.2 gets a configuration editor WinButtonEdit 0.8.0

It's been a while, but I've been busy with a project: WinButtonEdit (WBE).
WBE is a configuration tool for WinButtons, and aids in the rather awkward job of creating a set of button definitions with a plain text editor in an ini file.

The download is available here, with the updated version of WinButtons 3.1.2, that also got a few more or less minor improvements, with as the most important one: Switch the context to an other group of buttons based of the currently selected control of an application, instead of selecting the application. This allows to present a set of buttons f.e. linking to information that is available in that control (listbox, combobox etc.)

AutoIt3 project WinButtons, updated, now has Conditional Buttons

I've been adding a new feature to WinButtons: Conditional Buttons. It adds a means to completely hide, make invisible or disable a button on 1 or several conditions, like the existence of a file or directory, an exe being loaded, or not, and the evaluation of AutoIt3 functions. And all this can be combined with AND and OR logical operators, and inverted by the NOT operator. Round brackets can be used to group conditions as needed.

The download of WinButtons 3.0.0 is available from this webpage.

AutoIt3 project WinButtons, Another update: it now has variables

After fiddling around with WinButtons for a while, I found a project it could be actively used for a temporary solution. It involves a set of buttons that copy files from one set of folders to another set of folders. And all this in several flavors.
As the base source and destination directories of all these folders will be the same, but the number of buttons is unknown, I would like to use some sort of constants or variables to be reused for each button. Hence the new feature 'Variables'.
This is available from version 2.5. (but never officially released).
During development of the Variables feature, I also dearly missed easy 'configuration' of these variables, so I also introduced parameters to variables. After some testing and debugging, this has become WinButtons 2.6.0 (links to the original release-thread on the DonationCoder.com forum)

All documentation and download is available from the WinButtons page on my DcMembers site

Another few extensions where made, by giving options to display a message, or ask for confirmation before a command is started, using the -ask, -asc and -msg options on a button's command<n> parameter.

AutoIt3 project WinButtons, Big update for big onscreen buttons

After only a week of live time for version 1.0.0, I released the next version of WinButtons, v2.0.0 last Friday, 11-03.
Again it was uploaded to the forum where it all originated, DonationCoder.com, the fine place to be for all 'software connoisseurs', as (one of) the site's subtitles states.

The reason for this rather quick increase in the version number, is that there's a major new feature added:
Context sensitivity: The displayed set of buttons can be made dependent on the current foreground (focused) application.
This is accomplished by defining a button group, naming one (or more) executable name of the application that should get this special set of buttons. The buttons set is defined in the same configuration file, and loaded as soon as the application gets the user's attention. Even the position of the WinButtons window can be defined for that set of buttons.

Configuration is still a bit awkward, as this involves manual editing of an ini file, but I'm working on a GUI just for setting up the buttons more easily. This is a work in progress, though.

AutoIt3 project: WinButtons, Big onscreen buttons for touchscreen use

Hi,

To aid in the promotion of the March 2011 Fundraiser, over at the DonationCoder website, I created another AutoIt3 tool I called WinButtons.
It was requested a few weeks ago at the Coding Snacks section of the DoCo forum, and I needed another small project anyways, so there you go!

Just released version 1.0.0, as scheduled for the Fundraiser, and the first responses are pretty positive. That's very nice to start with, ofcourse.
Screenshots and the latest download (source, exe and readme included) are available at the forum.

/Ton

AutoIt3 project: WinSendKeys updated to handle text from clipboard

Today I updated my AutoIt3 project WinSendKeys 3.0.1 2.6 (Thread at DonationCoder.com forum, download at the far end of the thread)

Version 2.6 adds 3 commandline parameters, -c, -cc and -cn to enable Clipboard text-contents to be sent to a specific Window.
This was triggered on DonationCoder.com by this forumthread.

Version 3.0 adds 2 more parameters, -x executable_filepath and -xp executable_parameters, to run the named executable (with optional parameters) if the WindowName is not found, or if a WindowName is not specified, it then tries to find that executable and activates it or runs it.
As requested by user kikon at the DonationCoder.com forum.

Version 3.0.1 adds 1 more parameter, -xd delay, to delay for some milliseconds after starting the file specified by -x parameter, so slow starting applications can be catered for.

The included readme file is a required read to optimally use these new options.

AutoIt3 project: Commandline KeyStrokes and MouseStrokes sender WinSendKeys

The last couple of days I worked on a small project to help a member of the DonationCoder.com forum, and created WinSendKeys 2.5.

WinSendKeys is a command-line tool to send keystrokes and/or mousestrokes/clicks to a named 'Window' (Application).

It has gotten to v2.0v2.5 already, as at first it only supported keystrokes, but now also can send mouse clicks to applications that don't support accelerator keys.

Download available at the link above, readme included in the zipfile.

Inno Setup prepareToInstall scripts updated to 0.5.1

Hi all,

I'm at the risk that this blog looks like an Inno Setup only tour, but that's not the intention. I'm just doing some scripting with Inno these days, other projects I can't disclose here (yet).

I've updated the PrepareToInstall scripts (original post is here) to version 0.5 and it's available for download here.
(Updated to v0.5.1 because of a minor mishap in the demo script. Thanks Robert.)

The previous posts on this subject are updated to point to this one, so new finders can have the latest release.

The improvement I made is:
+ Added support for local NextButtonClick, NeedsRestart and PrepareToInstall event functions (set a define and add the prefix 'Local' to the local function name)

Inno Setup using correct LanguageId's

To use (and store in your settings) the correct Language Id when installing your application using Inno Setup, I created a few macro's that could make life a little easier: languageIdMacro.iss

The download is available here

Have fun!

Inno Setup script for dl&install .NET 4.0, VC++2010, SQL Express 2008 R2

Today I scribbled in a few Inno Setup scripts, after helping a friend getting his .NET 4.0 and VC++ 2010 runtimes installed with his new app.
I started at the ISXKB, a huge resource on Inno Setup knowledge and sample scripts, but the holy grail wasn't there. Nearest is this page though, and there are also a couple of links to external script sources. This post will be added there, I guess...
As there's no suitable, ready-made, working sample available, I started with the (nicely modular) scripts of stfx @ CodeProject. There are quite a few updates and improvements hidden in the comments at the end of the page, that I missed at first ofcourse, so I had to update my changes again. That's one of the reasons we will never get out of work in IT, changes, changes...

The zipped-up results can be grabbed here. Update: A newer release is available here (plz e-mail me if the link dies)

Notable differences:
+ (module) .NET 4.0 download & install for either/both Client and Full profile (using the web-installer, so no Language-pack hassle, it automagically gets the right localizations)
+ (module) VC++ 2010 runtime, downloading and installing both the x86 and x64 redistributables on x64 OS's
+ (module) SQL Server 2008 R2 Express for either x86 or x64 OS's. If SQL Server 2005 Express is already installed, nothing happens, that needs a manual upgrade or parallel install
* (update) SQL Server 2005 SP3, as the original extra module (suggested in the comments) couldn't install the RTM package on Vista or later
* (update) Restructure of the example setup.iss, so a single #define enables a feature
! (bugfix) Blocking the install if a non-privileged user runs the setup without using 'Run as Administrator', and one of the prerequisites needs to be installed. This enables PrivilegesRequired=none capable application-installations if all prerequisites are met.
* (feature) Rebooting at the end of the install if installation of a prerequisite requests a delayed reboot (MSI returncode 3010)

Any comments are welcome.


/Ton