Application: XFire Portable
Category: Games
Description: XFire is a freeware program that allows you to chat with friends, record gameplay, take screenshots, brodcast your game live all from in the game. Everything you will normally get with the windows\mac version, in a much smaller, portable edition!
Download Here: http://www.mediafire.com/?a7jresd97v0hxay
Refer to the help.html within the app to report bugs!
Everything that was used to create this app came from http://www.xfire.com/ as well as some guides and programs from the PortableApps website!
Release Notes:
Development Test (2012-04-12):
- Fixed a bug were files were left behind upon exiting the app
Permission for Release:
(The flowing is a email that I received from Niles Plante, a XFire inc. Employee. You can contact him at nplante@xfire.com)
Hi,
Thanks for walking me through Xfire as a portable app. I appreciate the time and work you put into it. Though we will not be able to offer technical support for users of the portable apps version, we fully support your efforts to help more users get quicker access to Xfire. Let me know when it is up on the portable apps platform. I'd love to check it out.
--
Cheers,
Niles Plante
Product Manager
Xfire Inc.
want to include some more info like the base app website the release number the development number the base app version number. Also not generally a good idea to put an email address in (lots of spam that way) Usually protocol has bugs going to the forum so all members are aware of them...etc
That being said Glad I was able to help you, have you investigated moving the setting back and forth to data dir so on future updates settings are maintained?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Thanks for everything! I couldn't have finished this without you. Also, I'm being accepted to the XFire Development Community soon because of doing this. I'm going to list you in the final release as co-creator.
I'm not worried about spam in my inbox. I have tons of people email me 27/7 because this is the email that I use for my YouTube channel and other projects and things.
I'm going to go back and edit the forum post to include the source and everything, as well as put all the website links to the sources in the app itself.
I though you has said something earlier in one of the emails or chat messages about registry stuff? What was that again? Email me if you can. Hope to hear from you soon!
That's not the point with posting your email. There are thousands upon thousands of spambots that crawl forums and constantly send hundreds of emails to every email address they find.
Ok, I removed my email and simply put a "Refer to the Help.html" for reporting bugs.
Also, please remove the other email address you posted. it isn't necessary, and has the same risks of getting spam-harvested.
Again, bugs should be reported in this thread, not by email, so other users or developers can also assist.
Not to mention that posting here will prevent multiple users from filing the same bug.
Feedback:
xFire Portable.ini
" to "XfirePortable.ini
" inApp\AppInfo\Launcher
(without the space and correct app name)Splash.jpg
" to "splash.jpg
" inApp\AppInfo\Launcher
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Xfire
). It's up to you to find any other directories Xfire stores data in and handle them.HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Xfire
in the registry, and that may be only one of the registry keys it stored. You can use Regshot to find the rest.That's it for now. Let me know if you have trouble with any of the above.
I get a bit confused how to line things up here, as I told you in email as well as in IRC this was set up for you all I did was make a launcher wrokk which was what you needed help with, I also mentioned you needed to look at the launcher manual. And maybe base the app on one of the mentioned ones instead of using Notepad++ as a template. As for my comment about the registry what I said was I did not run the program so I had no idea what it did and that you should investigate it with regshot....I am willing to help but as you can see from the other response's it is better to do it here or even irc instead of personal as many people are more knowledgeable than I as well as more minds can think of more things.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Ok, I'm working on making new icons for the platform. I will tweak out all the names for everything and fix up those issues.
I have tried to use RegShot, but I can't figure out how to work it.
Set up your shots like this: http://screenshooter.net/5313111/ouvbpsn
Be sure to close all other applications first (or at the very least, don't use them if they're open).
Click on Shot. Let it do it's thing (it'll take up to a minute or more for it to work, so don't bother it, or you'll get a "not responding" message).
It'll beep when it's done.
Run the xfire portable, change some settings, create new profiles, do everything you can think of, then close the app.
Count to 10, then take a second shot. (It'll take less time for this one).
And then be sure you have the Output path to where you want the log to be saved, and click compare (this may also take a bit).
Then you'll see a nicely formatted text file called ~res.txt. Open it and there's a list of all the changes.
So what is the goal with using RegShot? Is it to basically stop the app from saving information to the registry?
The problem with the accounts is that this entire thing is based through online accounts. I don't want to have to create new emails and usernames and accounts in general to test out RegShot.
I'm not sure by what you mean by change some settings. Do you mean settings within the actual application or change settings within the apps files such as the configuration and data?
The app has to create some files and folders on the computer in order for the app to run properly. Unless it creates those files it wont work. It creates some output folders for the videos and screenshots, and that's about it.
And, on the plus side, you've got a good start for your first portable app. But there's a few things you've got to take care of.
I'll take you through it all...
First the appinfo.ini
--Name should be "Xfire Portable" (I'll be using this "Xfire" because that's how it's listed on the site)
--AppID should be "XfirePortable"
--Publisher should be "Xfire, Inc & PortableApps.com"
--I don't think Xfire is multilingual, so set the launguage to English.
--Trademarks should be "Xfire is a trademark of Xfire, Inc."
--InstallType should be ommited.
--I don't believe Xfire is open source, so set that to false.
--Xfire is not shareable without permission, so that should be false.
--I would set CommercialUse to false to be safe.
--Package version should be the version of Xfire, not Xfire Portable, so "1.148.0.0"
--Display version should be "1.148 Dev Test 1" (or Development if you care to write the extra text).
--Get rid of the [Dependencies] and [SpecialPaths] sections
--Delete the "extraction=".
--Also, you should try to keep all your sections and keys in CamelCase
Now installer.ini
--what are you trying to do with that? What you have there will do nothing with the installer. I think you confused that with the launcher (which I'll get into below). And even then, xfire_lang_us.dll's not a settings file, so it shouldn't be there either.
Xfire Portable.ini
--Rename that file XfirePortable.ini
--Your launcher is doing nothing more than launching the app. The whole purpose of the launcher is to copy over the settings from the Data folder to the computer, and then copy the files back to the data folder when Xfire closes. This way it doesn't leave any files or folders or registry entries behind (which is what defines a portable app). Don't worry though, as it's not difficult to do. It looks like there's 2 folders to take care of, (I haven't looked at the registry. Use regshot the way I mentioned before to see them.)
--It might be a bit tricky here, so I'll just show you what it'll look like:
--If you see any changes to the registry, refer to the manual to see how to handle it.
AppIcons
--Grab a copy of IcoFX Portable
--Drag Xfire.exe (from App\xfire) into the window and select the first icon from the popup.
--Once you see the icon, click the Windows logo in the toolbar and tick the XP Colors: 16, 32, 48 and 256 Colors 16, 32, 48. Save that as appicon.ico into App\AppInfo.
--Then right click on the second image (in the left hand image list), and click Export Image and save it as "appicon_32.png" and do the same for the third image, but save it as appicon_16.png.
--You also need a _128.png image, but it's not required, so we'll hold off on that for now.
Help.html
--You should use a help.html file from another portable app as a template (Notepad2-mod Portable is a good one) for your own help.html.
Recompile the launcher
--Your launcher is using the default icon. Once you finish making the right icons, recompile your launcher to put the icons into it.
Run a regshot
--It is ***EXTREMELY*** important that you run a regshot to be sure your portable app is really a portable app.
License
--You need to add a EULA.txt file with a copy of the license you see in the original Xfire Installer, into your Other\Source folder.
Read up on the format
--You really should read the whole PortableApps.com Format Specifications. I know it's long and boring, but if you wanna get good, reading it is a good place to start.
--The PortableApps.com Launcher manual is definitely something else to read.
Rename the forum topic
--It's always a good idea to name the topic with your portable app and version. Like "Xfire Portable 1.148 Dev[elopment] Test 1, so users and testers can easily tell when there's an update, and because it goes with the flow of the other beta topics.
Overall, though. You did pretty good. Except what I mentioned above. But yeah. Pretty good.
Originally he was trying to everything from installer.ini I creaeted a basic launcher to just run the app as he stated this was for his use only, nothing fancy, in fact all I did was copy and rename the default launcher. I never looked further since I was not nor had intentions to create portable app for this, Just so you know. I have also suggested reading manual etc...
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Ok, so I know that there is some type of development page for beta downloads for apps. How can I post it on the page or is it not possible?
I'm working on a second release of Xfire portable. Do I just replace the link in this forum post or make a new one?
Do you mean the Test Release page? It is basically a (very long) queue to add your app to for eventual release testing. There is a template here.
As for your second release, keep it all in this thread. Update your title and download link, and add to your release notes with a brief overview of what you changed.
Development Test 2 is release with some bug fixes and added information
Download here: http://www.mediafire.com/?evzbnbbtx2lq7m2
with the registry issues or the other data left on host computer?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
I'm still haven't some trouble figuring out RegShot. I'm going to need like a video tutorial on how to work it. I h e no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for or what the goal is.
Might need to do another 1 on 1 thing again.
Join IRC right now, I'll be waiting.
https://portableapps.com/support/chat/live
Glad to see you got the icons working, but you didn't edit the launcher INI. The two folders are still being created on every run. I'll address the issue tomorrow, though.
Ok, I just got confused. Remember I had both the installer.ini and the launcher.ini
I know it goes in the launches now, but do I do it like this
[directoriesmove]
(rest of it)
Below all the other stuff that's in it?
Just like I mentioned in this comment
Ok. I fixed it. Go download the updated version and test it out. It should make the folder, then remove it upon exiting the app.
Development Test 3 is released
Download: 1.148.0.0
Fixes a bug that caused files to be left behind upon exiting the app.
It's been quite a while since I've heard anything regarding beta 3. Anything else, besides the RegShot, that needs to be fixed?
Does this program require ,Net? In order to delete it after testing I had to shutdown 2 open processes of the dwm20.exe file (the .net error log system)? Also noted some changes to registry keys....which is why YOU need to run some testing on it!
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss