Release Notes

Eschalon Setup for Windows 95 and NT
Version 2.2

_____________________________
Upgrading from 2.1

If you are upgrading from version 2.1, please read the New features in 2.2 section below.

_____________________________
Upgrading from 2.0

If you are upgrading from version 2.0, the first change you will notice is the new file format. Script files (.stx) have been replaced by project files (.spj). In order to use your old projects you will have to convert them. To convert a script, start Eschalon Setup Wizard, and import it using the File|Import menu. Once the script has been imported, you can save it under the new format. You should not lose any functionality when converting a project, although you might want to review each item to see how the new features affect your current settings.

The new format is much faster, especially when saving. If you had the Save before building option turned off due to the time it took to save, you might want to turn it on again. Opening a project is still a little slow, but that is mainly due to all the processing that must be done for each file in the project.

You will also have to convert your custom language files using the new Language Manager. The extension hasn't changed, but the file format has. Note that although this new utility can be freely distributed to your translators, you may not distribute it to your end users. When distributing to your translators, you must only include the language manager and the .slg files. You may not distribute any other part of Eschalon Setup.

The second change you'll notice deals with the uninstaller. The entire handling of the uninstaller has changed, and as a result you will have to adapt your projects. If you used to create an icon for the Remove.exe program, you need to modify it to include the following as a parameter:

/U:"$(ApplicationDir)\Remove.log"

This example assumes that you're placing the log file in the folder pointed to by $(ApplicationDir). If you are not, then replace that variable by the appropriate one. If you'd like to display the Recycle Bin icon instead of the setup icon, set the shortcut's Icon Index to 1. You should also verify the new uninstaller settings using the File|Properties menu, on the Uninstall page. If you use a different log file name, then you must modify the shortcut log file name as well.

In order to correct some uninstaller related issues, we have had to change the way branding works. We no longer brand the main Setup.exe file, instead we now brand the archive file (the part that contains the data to be installed). Unfortunately this means you can no longer brand a single .exe setup file. If you want to use file branding, you must create the setup files in two parts, Setup.exe and Setup.arv. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes, but based on surveys conducted on our core beta testers, this was determined to be the best solution.

Finally, if you used the undocumented Write registry trick to delete registry entries, you will have to change your project to use the new Delete registry action.

While we have attempted to make upgrading a transparent operation, and we haven't found any problems when converting script files, we recommend that you do some testing to assure that everything works as you expect it to.

_____________________________
New features in version 2.2

The following list includes features added to Eschalon Setup.

•	Changed Build menu item captions
•	Added Check Project menu item to Build menu; checks the complete project and displays help for any incomplete or incorrect pages
•	Added Favorites menu to manage multiple project files; supports folders within the Favorites folder, just like the Windows Start menu
•	Added Packages to provide pre-configured items to any project. This powerful feature allows one-click installation of common items such as BDE, MFC, ODBC,  and VB run-time files and settings
•	Added Templates to provide saved settings of commonly used setup projects. Includes various templates for Delphi, VC++, VB, etc.
•	Added support for design time variables; configurable via the Tools|Options menu; allows locating files in a system independant manner; very useful for packages and templates; variables are stored in registry and are usually created at setup time
•	Added Add Wildcard item to the Files page; allows using a wildcard spec to include an unlimited number of files using only one entry; very convenient
•	Changed Storage options in File Properties dialog; added options for storing file attributes
•	New action phases After setup prompts for branding information and Before setup checks space requirements
•	New Delphi BDE actions for configuring the BDE, creating and deleting BDE aliases, and registering BDE language files
•	New Borland Local Interbase actions for registering and unregistering the server

Other minor changes and additions have been made on the interface and few minor bugs have been corrected.

_____________________________
New features in version 2.1

The following list includes changes to the operation of Eschalon Setup.

•	Improved file format resulting in overall speed improvements
•	Includes several new language files (most are user supplied, mainly as a convenience, therefore please keep in mind we do not necessarily support all language files; please feel free to send us knew language files for languages we don't currently supply)
•	Includes distributable Language Manager utility
•	New help file and context sensitive links; an improved help file will be released as soon as it is ready, we apologize for any inconvenience this delays causes, but the new features were determined to be more pressing
•	Importing and exporting to text file format; the format is not documented, but you are free to figure it out; if you include a large License Agreement or ReadMe message, you will not be able to re-import the file; delete these two strings and everything will work fine (we should have a fix soon)
•	Branding has changed; the archive file (setup.arv) gets branded instead of the loader file (setup.exe); this means that you cannot build a single .exe if you want to use branding (you can still brand the registry and use a single .exe)
•	Drag and drop support from File Manager and Explorer to open projects and add files to the file list
•	Project properties window provides access to project information, as well as uninstall and language settings
•	Edit and View menus dynamically adapt to page contents; provide the same functions as the context menus available with the right mouse button
•	Cut/Copy/Paste menus and hotkeys for list view items; works between instances of Setup Wizard; very cool
•	Show menu added to context and View menus; allows showing and hiding files based on file type and components
•	Added /N command line switch to Setup Wizard to disable display of the splash screen
•	Command line support for building of projects; uses /B switch followed by project name (setupwiz.exe /b project.spj); at this time errors are still reported using message boxes
•	Dependency scanner now includes button to automatically add missing files to project
•	New 1,024 Kb and 512 Kb archive part sizes; perfect for transmitting files over the Internet to servers that restrict the size of e-mail attachments
•	Global editing of source directories using the Edit menu or the context menu
•	Removal of invalid files using the Edit menu or the context menu

The following list includes features added to Eschalon Setup.

•	Documented command line options for the run-time engine in the online manual; more to come
•	Several new variables; see manual under Variables
•	New actions for setting file attributes, deleting registry keys and values, and finding files
•	Expanded Set variable action to include various common operations
•	Added Show Mode to Run application action to control the application's initial window state
•	Branding options have been added for: default values, input mask, field is required/not required, brand setup/do not brand setup; each item can also specify a separate root key
•	Folder variables can be assigned a value in the Before setup is initialized action phase, and if the folder exists, the user won't be prompted; this is very useful when adding files to folders that belong to other applications, such as Visual Basic, Microsoft Word, Borland Delphi, etc.
•	New Platform option for files; restrict installation of files to specific platform type; Let us know if this should be expanded to other items, such as shortcuts
•	Separate "before" and "after" ReadMe messages
•	New requirement for checking dates, allows setups to be executed only within a specific date and time range
•	Platform requirements have been changed to support separate version specifications for each platform type

The following list includes changes to the uninstaller.

•	Overall handling has changed; contact us if you experience problems with old projects; fixes problems with Windows 95 "Add/Remove" applet
•	Remove.exe is now separate from the uninstall log file, and can be shared among applications; it removes itself once every application stops using it
•	Remove.exe has a recycle bin icon in the second icon index; if you create a shortcut for Remove.exe, you should use this icon index

____________________________
Proposed features 
for future versions

The following list includes "under development" and proposed features.

•	Action Wizard to facilitate things like file associations, adding to application path, etc.
•	Call DLLs; proposed interface includes COM object for access to variables
•	Printing options

If your favorite feature is not on the list, please feel free to submit a suggestion. We're always looking for good ideas!