Portable Application Template 1.4 released

I want that Inkscape.
Tutorial or Download?
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R McCue

Would it be possible to write a GUI for this? Thanks.

Thanks for the template, but I have a question: how to add a reg key to it?
I stored the required registry keys in a .reg file, but the readme says,

'!define REGKEYS "" ; insert regkeys to use separated by "||"'

Could someone tell me how to do that exactly (via an example)?

Thanks in advance,

tpr

I like the fact that it passes the command line switches to the app, been using Registry Rapper until now but it doesnt have this feature.

Oh and im wondering if does it support registry entries in different locations? ex HKLM/software/myapp||HKCU/software/myapp, i remember seeing an app that works like this but i cant remember which one

Thanks

Edit:
I tried making Foxit PDF Reader portable, here's the regkey part:

!define REGKEYS "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Foxit Software||HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf||HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{14E8BBD8-1D1C-4D56-A4DA-D20B75EB814E}||HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FoxitReader.Document"

For some reason it succesfully exports all 4 keys, but

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FoxitReader.Document

and

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf

and all the subkeys remain on the registry after closing.. am i doing something wrong?

thanks

i've tried to create a portable version of WinImage, and i've got the following problem :
after i run the portableWinImage, it deletes the WinImage resitry keys completely.
If i modify the template, and i comment out the lines :

StrCpy "$ACTION" "DeleteKeys" ; delete registry keys on host computer
Call DoAction ; just do it

at line 406 and 407, it doesn't delete the keys and restores the old registry settings, BUT, if there was no registry key to start with, it still leaves the key behind.

From what i can see, there's a problem and the RestoreKeys is not called after the DeleteKeys.

Is there a way around this as i'd like to be able to restore the old registry settings if there was any, but still don't leave any traces if there was no registry entry.

thanx in advance.

EDIT :

I've just looked at QuickPortTemplate, and i've seen a little trick there. After running DeleteKey and RestoreKey it uses a litle delay Sleep 500 before deleting the temporary registry file.
Maybe that's the problem here, the registry file might be deleted before the registry plugin manages to import its content.

EDIT 2:

After a few tests, i've managed to make the code work, here's how the last part of the file looks like (at aboutline 402)

!ifdef REGKEYS
StrCpy "$ACTIONPARAMETERS" "${REGKEYS}" ; hand over parameters list
StrCpy "$ACTIONDIRECTORY" "$DATADIR\Registry" ; define where local keys are
StrCpy "$ACTION" "BackupKeys" ; backup existing registry keys
Call DoAction ; just do it

RestoreOldReg:
StrCpy "$ACTIONDIRECTORY" "$DATADIR\RegistryBackup" ; define where to backup keys
StrCpy "$ACTION" "RestoreKeys" ;restore saved keys
Call DoAction ; just do it
Sleep 1000 ; this delay is needed, so the registry writing can be finished before the temporary REG file is deleted
EndRegKeys:
!endif

The ideea is that i've included the 1000ms delay both after deleting the regkey and after restoring the backup, this seems to work just fine.

Thanks for the help rmccue, although I figured it out myself after a few days (after checking out the code of portable photoshop and the nsis documentation). Maybe I asked it too early...

for some reason after creating "WordWeb Pro" into a portable app it keeps creating a "history.txt" file in the directory where the PortableWordWeb.exe file is kept. Is this normal, and if so how do i stop it, and if not, what am i doing wrong?

Thanks

Any chance of adding checking for multipul instances in this fantastic template? Or am i just blind and not configured it properly...

Current version of NSIS is 2.20 - it is stated (in the template) that it is written for NSIS 2.17

Does anyone know if it can be used with NSIS 2.20 ?

Kind Regards,

Dennis Hestbech

In the function :

!define SPLASHIMAGE "${PNAME}.jpg"

It apears an error, says that the image it's not found. Some suggestions?

During the time I testing in some project, I can't compile with the PAT 1.4, but I can compile with PAT 1.3.
Blog for Portability
http://blog.eafriends.com

Upload NewAdvSplash include, it's now giving me some errors about it now.

Am I missing something?

I don't see any of the supporting .nsh files in the zip

Registry.nsh
WordFunc.nsh
FileFunc.nsh

I admit I'm new to this, but should it really be this difficult?
-Zac

Hello Klonk. Thank you for your wonderful template (v 1.4). I spent about 4 hours last weekend creating about 10 portable app launchers, testing, extracting icons, etc., replacing Reg Rapper. Love it!

First question is generic. What is the environmental variable for My Documents? $PROFILE? I googled for about 20 minutes, but either could not find the correct variable or did not implement it correctly in the script.

Second question is more specific. I tried to compare your PAT 1.4 script with John T. Haller's script to see what the differences are. Since I do not know NSIS, I spent an hour and then gave up. What are the major differences?

Last question. Does PAT 1.4 store settings directly in the Data\Settings directory or does it store it on the Host computer and then copy to the USB stick's Data\Settings directory?

Again, thank you very much for having made this template.

CD

Hi Klonk and everybody,

Can you please help me with something? As mentioned in an earlier post, I have successfully created about a dozen launchers with PAT 1.4 and they all work flawlessly! Thanks again.

There was one program, Deknop (a graphic button maker), with which PAT 1.4 does not seem to work correctly (or with which I do not seem to do correctly). The launcher works, but the registry entry is not deleted when the program is closed.

This is the registry key that I copied from Regedit: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\deknop

This is the code snippet:

!define REGKEYS "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\deknop" ; insert regkeys to use separated by "||", comment out, when not used

Is there something special about a registry entry in the HKCU root that makes PAT 1.4 less effective?

Please remember that I used PAT 1.4 for a dozen other programs that all work correctly so although it could be human error, it would be a repetitive human error (which seems to delete registry keys in the other programs).

Thank you. CD

Hi Klonk,

I noticed from your website that you evolved to version 1.4.1. I don't read German so cannot tell if you wrote this on your website (and I could not find your email address). Can you tell me what improvements/changes you made? Otherwise I'll just review the code...but that takes much longer!

I'd like to also request a new feature in version 1.5 (if there will be one). Can you add files and/or directories to delete once the application is closed? Implementation like you did for unlimited registry keys, setting files and settings directories would be ideal.

I ask because Audacity 1.32 Beta, makes temporary directores that need to be deleted after program close. I don't want to copy these to my USB key because they are generally very large uncompressed audio (WAV?) files.

Thank you.

Assistance please.

Testing this will NSIS 2.22, and NSIS 2.20, I come upon an error, that seems to be with the Registry.nsh that is downloadable from the NSIS site. I'm getting:

Invalid command: ${registry::KeyExists}

The Registry.nsh is the one available here:
http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Copy_Registry_Key

I just bought a U3 stick earlier today. I'd LOVE to be able to make Quicken portable for use with it. Of course this will be just for my own personal use.

But I didn't see anything about using this to make apps U3 compatible.

Are there any tutorials available to make them U3?

Don

for providing this template. Created a launcher for Tunnelier (graphical SSH client with SFTP from bitvise.com) and it works a treat!
Waiting on feedback from bitvise about hosting this launcher for the community.

For those of you getting started with this template (an excellent one, BTW - Thank you for providing it), you need to download and install several additional plug-ins for NSIS.

Go to the NSIS Plug-ins page at http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Category:Plugins

Download the following plug-ins: NewAdvSplash, Registry & FindProcDLL and install them.

-Jeff

are u gonna remove default directories? like john has? so it doesnt autoprobe for directories, just a waste of CPU time

As John is currently releasing a bunch of updated Apps I really hope that he will add InkscapePortable at last... now that there's the brand new version 0.45.

NSIS 2.23 generates with the InkscapePortableSource.zip from 19 Oct 2006 an .exe which just consumes all CPU without doing something visible...

i think its nice but how can i make this file to an exe file?

I tried this. But the exe created is blank and when run complains about not finding the exe I specified. I am not a programmer. Does anyone have a start to finish tutorial for this using some application thats small and opensource?

Hello,

If my registry key is like this ,whats the format i have to enter it in the template.

(+)(REG KEY)HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{195B5D84-DAD1-11D3-AA5F-00105A6F87AB}\InprocServer32
(+)(REG VAL) ThreadingModel = 'both'
(+)(REG VAL) (Default) = 'C:\Program Files\SIPLink\dXDBInsp.dll'

Thankyou

If the executable can't be found, the script goes into an endless loop - leaving you hanging (pun intended).

Notice the reference back to "CheckAppsDIR" if the file is not found?

181 CheckAppsDIR:
182 IfFileExists "$EXEDIR\Apps\${PNAME}\${APP}\$PROGRAMEXE" "" CheckAppsDIR

Here's my guess as to the fix... using a new label "NoExeFound"

CheckAppsDIR:
IfFileExists "$EXEDIR\Apps\${PNAME}\${APP}\$PROGRAMEXE" "" NoExeFound
    StrCpy "$PROGRAMDIR" "$EXEDIR\Apps\${PNAME}\${APP}"
    StrCpy "$DATADIR" "$EXEDIR\Data\${PNAME}"
    Goto InitVarEnd		
; --------------------------------------------------------------------------
; No allowed pathconfiguration was found
; --------------------------------------------------------------------------
NoExeFound:
MessageBox MB_OK|MB_ICONEXCLAMATION `$PROGRAMEXE was not found.  Please check your configuration`
Abort ; terminate launcher

BTW - This is a great script, Karl! Thanks for posting.

Would you mind if I included the template with the NSIS Portable on my website?

For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know.

Hi, erm... I think this is a great script and all, but I get this error:

Error while setting icon to "$LimeWire.ico": can't open file

The code that I am using to get the icon is:

!define ICON "$LimeWire.ico" ; comment this line out when default icon should be used

And also, what does it mean: comment it out?

Cheat King
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