[Obsolete] Portable Application Template 2.7.3 released

Your template works perfect! Very cool! Thanks alot!

quicky

Since Portable Application Template 2.4 is now out in the wild, and I don't expect people to read through the 2.3 thread, I'm allowing myself to publish a few direct links to posts, that I posted there after the release of 2.4 (which I at that time hadn't yet been made aware of), which I assume are still valid and therefore of might be of interest to PAT users (including myself, and hopefully the developers of PAT).

https://portableapps.com/node/6709?page=1#comment-59128
NSIS 2.33, plugins and newadvsplash::wait

https://portableapps.com/node/6709?page=1#comment-59145
Specifying ICON?

https://portableapps.com/node/6709?page=1#comment-59146
parent v.s. child registry keys

https://portableapps.com/node/6709?page=1#comment-59228
EXEPARMS are passed to application as ONE string - NOT tokens

https://portableapps.com/node/6709?page=1#comment-59238
Java support and Portable Application Template 2.3 [/2.4]

Hope You don't mind, me "reposting" these here.

Karl,
I was unable to get the Registry.reg manipulating code to work with the .reg file stored as "portableappdir\Data\Registry\Registry.reg". The file was not found at all. I put in some MessageBox printouts and learned that the code wanted the Registry.reg file stored in the Data directory itself, as "portableappdir\Data\Registry.reg". I may have misunderstood your directory setup instructions at the bottom of the file but I think they say that the Registry.reg file is supposed to be put into the "portableappdir\Data\Registry" directory. If the code is supposed to work with the Registry.reg file in this directory then I think your code needs to have this modification:
(using as an example one of the lines that manipulate the Registry.reg file:)
IfFileExists "$DATADIR\Registry.reg" 0 InitRegUseVar
changes to:
IfFileExists "$DATADIR\Registry\Registry.reg" 0 InitRegUseVar
Did I misunderstand where the Registry.reg file is supposed to be placed?
-- Don

Hi Klonk,

while using Your PA Template 2.5 with an application making use of GTK I noticed that You're adding the path of the "portable" GTK to the end of the PATH environment variable. This is fine as long as the user doesn't have a path to a GTK installation in his PATH. If (s)he already has one, that version would be used instead of the "portabe" GTK. To remedy this situation one should prepend the path, to the "portable" GTK installation, to PATH instead of appending it (as it's done in 2.5 - and in earlier versions too, I assume). This will make the PAT-based portable application pick up the right installation of GTK.

To accomplish this one has to change line 594 from reading:

System::Call 'Kernel32::SetEnvironmentVariableA(t, t) i("PATH", "$R0;$GTKDIR\bin").r0' ; set new path

to read:

System::Call 'Kernel32::SetEnvironmentVariableA(t, t) i("PATH", "$GTKDIR\bin;$R0").r0' ; set new path

This will give the "portable" GTK installation higher precedence.

The same is true for USEJAVA, 5 lines higher up in the template.

How does NSIS work?

Is there any chance of having a setting at the begining of the script that can add folders to the Path?

It would be handy to be able to add a sub folder, in the App directory, to the Path so that the portable app can get access to it.

Cheers Rochey

Hi Klonk,

I posted the following request today and am requesting you seperately to assist me if you can.
QUOTE:

I do not understand anything in apps development and will be very grateful if someone can help me in making a portable version of "LockLizard Safeguard Viewer 2.5.65".

The software version of the software is available at the website: http://www.locklizard.com.

UNQUOTE

Rgds,
Sahak

After some days of reading code and forum posts I have a question and a request.

Scenario: I am trying to use this fantastic template to portablize WinPT. The registry keys are put into registry.reg as such

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinPT]
"Extensions"="1"
"nKeys"="0"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WinPT\Keyserver]
"Default"="http://wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GNU]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GNU\GnuPG]
"HomeDir"="E:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\Data"
"gpgProgram"="E:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\App\\gpg.exe"
"OptFile"="E:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\Data\\gpg.conf"

program loads and runs fine, however on exit the registry.reg gets overwritten with.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GNU]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GNU\GnuPG]
"HomeDir"="E:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\Data"
"gpgProgram"="E:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\App\\gpg.exe"
"OptFile"="E:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\Data\\gpg.conf"

The GnuPG keys are properly removed from the registry, but the WinPT key is left behind.

Question: Any notion as to what I am doing wrong?

Request: Would it be possible to use variables in the registry.reg so that it may look something more like

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GNU\GnuPG]
"HomeDir"="{PORTDRIVE}:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\Data"
"gpgProgram"="{PORTDRIVE}:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\App\\gpg.exe"
"OptFile"="{PORTDRIVE}:\\PortableApps\\CommonFiles\\gpg\\Data\\gpg.conf"

I would think using WordReplace in the RegFileToStack could take care of the replacing it on the way into the registry, but I have no idea how to have it do the reverse when exiting.

Thank you very very very much.

that can shed some light on using this as I get errors when I try it and as I'm just starting to learn, have no idea what some of them mean?

And also, does this create the installer for you? Or is that done by something else?

What about making this a portable tool? After all most of us, even those using NSIS, may not keep or keep up to date most of the stuff required by this template.

What I'm suggesting is to create a compressed file with NSIS, UPX, plugins... and the template. People would simply need some editor (VIM, EclipseNSIS) additionally.

That's just a suggestion.

The registry keys can be save and restored which is very nice but just not that clean. After settings some REGKEYS "HKCR\Foo||HKCU\Software\Classes\Foo" those two keys remained after closing the application. Is there a way in the template to delete them after closing the application, just like the files.

Most applications here don't use the template. Strangely? Anyway my point is: There are not many examples.

Still it has many good features and doesn't slow down much. The coding style is also way cleaner than the spaghetti code of the official releases.

I'm currently changing to remove the extra stuff that I believe is not needed: Copy app files, creation of INI, copy source files, etc. and I split the file in two. The launcher and the settings which are application specific (with some callbacks for advanced stuff possible). I also fix some issues:
- Terminate only after the last process quit.
- Clean registry and faster by renaming registry keys.
- Other stuff.
This way the launcher can be updated (to fix something for example) while keeping the script settings untouched.

I may post it here if people are interested.

Cool! But, which is better, portable app creator, or this. Actually, maybe you two should team up. Also, to make it more portable, is it ok to use both applications on a program I want to make portable?

Edit: Now that I look at it, PAC looks a bit more user friendly.

ok, on this specific computer i can't access the ragistry at all. regedit dosn't work. saving a .reg fiole and merging it dosn't work. i thingk its a group policy thing, so theirs no way around it. will the program still work?

This template is great. Very helpful. The code is also very readable (as another user commented). Kudos.

I have one tiny nit: the template should have a 'long name' and a 'short name' macros. For example, some apps may have spaces in their official, 'long' name (e.g., "Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition"), while the exe and folders should probably not have spaces and use a 'short' name (e.g,, "FirefoxPortable").

In the current template (2.5), I got around this by changing the DESCRIPTION macro (line 88) to be the 'long' version and then changing lines 226 and 230 from this

VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "ProductName" "${APP} Portable"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "Comments" "Allow ${APP} to be run from a removeable drive. This launcher is based on the Portable Application Template created by Klonk (Karl Loncarek)."
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "LegalCopyright" "Launcher created by ${AUTHOR}"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "CompanyName" "by ${AUTHOR}"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "FileDescription" "${APP} Portable"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "FileVersion" "${VER}"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "OriginalFilename" "${PNAME}.exe"

to this

VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "ProductName" "${DESCRIPTION}"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "Comments" "Allow ${APP} to be run from a removeable drive. This launcher is based on the Portable Application Template created by Klonk (Karl Loncarek)."
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "LegalCopyright" "Launcher created by ${AUTHOR}"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "CompanyName" "by ${AUTHOR}"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "FileDescription" "${DESCRIPTION}"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "FileVersion" "${VER}"
VIAddVersionKey /LANG=${LANG_ENGLISH} "OriginalFilename" "${PNAME}.exe"

e.g., they use "${DESCRIPTION}" rather than "${APP} Portable".

I have 2 comments/changes that I think would help with PAF compatibility.

1. The registry entries should be saved as ${APP}.reg

2. All the settings should go under ${App}Portable\Data\settings\

I think this is the way all the apps on this site are headed if they aren't already formatted this way. Hopefully you can update this for the next version.

Hi, again, Klonk!

* First of all, maybe you should mention that the current release of APT is 2.6.1, in the history section of this topic (and the ApplicationPortableTemplate.nsi itself) to make it easier to be spotted by visitors to this topic at a first glance, w/o having to read the responses. I myself found it out from the "version 2.6.1 - 2008/05/06" stamp in the template.

* Another issue I've noticed is that, when compiling the template w/ NSIS, it complains about "unknown variable/constant "{COMMERCIALUSE}" detected, ignoring", which might be a remnant of the past, or not yet included idea? After launching the ${APP}Portable, the appinfo.ini file will contain an entry "CommercialUse=${COMMERCIALUSE}". Is that intended behaviour?

* JFYI, in the appinfo.ini file it says also says "Type=PortableApps.comFormat". Is this the intended formating, or is there a space missing in front of Format?

* JFYI, I also get a warning about "label "LaunchEXE" not used".

* Finally, I've noticed that (in the case having commented out INSTALLSOURCES) the "Current Working Directory" (CWD) of the application seems to be App/DefaultData !? If on the other hand leave it at it's default (uncommented), then the CWD is Other/${App}PortableSource. This can't be the intended behaviour, can it? I'd expect the CWD to be the directory of the launcher, USERPROFILE, etc. NOT DefaultData, ${App}PortableSource, etc. You can easily verify this by putting a batch file in App/${App}/${App}Test.bat displaying the directory content, and launch it from your launcher.

Maybe I'm just missing something essential here?

BTW, compiling w/ NSIS v2.33 on Windows XP sp2

How do I use this?

Hello, (again)

I got this problem with the last version

Function: "Init"
Invalid command: ${registry::CreateKey}
Error in script "D:\Portabilizer\portabilization\GnumericPortable.nsi" on line 524 -- aborting creation process

You can help me or should I post all the compilator log ?

I forgot to precise that it's happening whatever is the Application : Gnumeric, ImageJ, Inkscape 0.46....

I have full administrator rights.

Do I miss a plugin or ?

Thank you

I really love this template, but I think I encounter some problem about registry saving about this PAT. This is my post: https://portableapps.com/node/14595 . Hope anyone here can give me an solution. Thank you very much!

In the OP Klonk mentions:

"(There are several helper apps for that task)"

I am able to monitor file/folder generation easy enough, but are there any suggestions as to a helper app for registery key generation?

Bug1:
There is a bug in the script. When the user starts to copy app files from hdd to usb and then in the browse dialog changes its mind and clicks cancel launcher starts copying files from random location.

In the template lines

546: Dialogs::Folder "Select installation folder of ${APP} " 'Select the main folder where you installed "${APP}" on your harddrive:' "$PROGRAMFILES" "${VAR_R0}"
547: CopyFiles "$R0\*.*" "$PROGRAMDIR" ; copy files from harddrive to mobile drive

should be:

546: Dialogs::Folder "Select installation folder of ${APP} " 'Select the main folder where you installed "${APP}" on your harddrive:' "$PROGRAMFILES" "${VAR_R0}"
547: StrCmp $R0 "" 0 +3
548: ${registry::Unload}
549: Abort ; no folder was selected
550: CopyFiles "$R0\*.*" "$PROGRAMDIR" ; copy files from harddrive to mobile drive

And if I may make a suggestion, I'd like it if template can be made to work from
path\to\folder\Other\$APPPortableSources\
folder. What I mean is that when I compile it in that folder it would produce launcher in path\to\folder\ directory.
And I must say Thanks for this great script.

Bug2:
Also I found one more bug. When you test for write access to the registry you do it in the HKLM hive and that is needed only if you need admin (or poweruser) rights, I think you don't need to test it if app doesn't need admin rights. if my launcher (or app) don't need write access in HKLM I can't start app becose launcher aborts.

I'm just starting to play around with this template, and need some help:

i've got a registry file called testapp.reg, and have placed it in the following dir:

TestApp\Data

; If a file e.g."TestApp.reg" within the data directory is found then it is read
; and all child registry keys are processed as if they'd have been set within
; REGKEYS
!define USEREGKEYSFILE "TRUE"

The nsi file is being compiled without problems, but i launch the portableapp the reg file is not being processed, any ideas.

Thanx in advance for your help!

BUG: several "{registry::unload}" instances lack the '$' sign in front of them and thus make the template PAT 2.6.4 fail to compile.

BUG: On line 553; the "Abort;" statement should either have the ';' removed, or be separated from Abort by a space.

BUG: Commenting out USEREGKEYSFILE [as mentioned in the README section of the template], OR clearing, makes the compilation fail with the following message [after fixing BUG mentioned in my last post]:

Invalid command: ${registry::Unload}
Error in script "E:\PortableApps\TestPAT-2.6.4-Portable\ApplicationPortableTemplate.nsi" on line 438 -- aborting creation process

Please Help: How do I configure the Portable Application Template 2.6.x for an application that has/needs multiple executables/launchers? E.g. for a file structure similar to this:

PortableApps/
             AppNamePortable/
                            App/
                               AppName/
                                      appname1.exe
                                      appname2.exe
                                      ...
                                      appnameN.exe
                            Data/

                            # generating a result similar to:

                            AppName1Portable.exe (launcher 1)
                            AppName2Portable.exe (launcher 2)
                            AppNameNPortable.exe (launcher n)

                            Other/
                                  AppName1PortableSource/
                                                         AppName1Portable.nsi
                                                         AppName1Portable.ico
                                  AppName2PortableSource/
                                                         AppName2Portable.nsi
                                                         AppName2Portable.ico
                                  ...
                                  AppNameNPortableSource/
                                                         AppNameNPortable.nsi
                                                         AppNameNPortable.ico

BTW, and how are/should App/appinfo.ini and App/appicon.ico be handled in this case?

TIA

Hi everyone, I added a new feature to this template. I don't know how to make it capable of using extra path before the program execution. Since I didn't find any option in the header, I added one. If you find it useful, can you please add this feature in the new versions?

There are 3 places to add code:
Insert in line 59:

; define extra path before execution, separated by ". e.g. "$EXEDIR\Data" will append the "Data" directory of the portable to the "PATH" environment variable.
	!define EXTRAPATH			""

Comment this line or leave blank will disable this feature, just as USEJAVAV feature.

Insert in line 155:

!ifdef EXTRAPATH
	!if ! "${EXTRAPATH}" = "" ; only do stuff if constant is not empty
		!define USEEXTRAPATH
	!endif
!endif

This mimics the USEJAVAVERSION code.

Insert in line 629:

!ifdef USEEXTRAPATH
	ReadEnvStr $R0 "PATH"
	StrCpy $R0 "$R0;${EXTRAPATH}" ; append extra path
	System::Call 'Kernel32::SetEnvironmentVariableA(t, t) i("PATH", R0).r0' ; set new path
!endif

Mimic again. Append ${EXTRAPATH} to the current %PATH% variable.

BTW, please fix the bugs eresele mentioned.

Hi, I am working on a little utility that wraps the template. It is at: http://trac.geiseri.com/wiki/PortoMatic. Its pretty rough still, but I have a preview of the installer on the site. I have to ask people to test the template out, since I cannot get it to run reliably here. I am going to assume operator error until someone else can tell me otherwise though. Good luck.

I have a app that is just a single EXE file (and already portable) would I use this to get it to show up in the portalbeapps.com launcher menu?

I have an app that stores lots of details in HKCU. If I create the launcher to run with !define ADMINREQUIRED "FALSE", it asks for set up and everything works. On shutdown, the {APP}.Reg gets created as it should. Seems fine. Problem is, when I run it again, it is as if the app never got set up. Like the reg file is not getting applied like it should.
Now, if I change to force the app to run as administrator with !define ADMINREQUIRED "TRUE", everything works as it should and the reg file gets applied correctly.
I want to try and fix this because there are machines that I might not have admin privs on. And this is HKCU so it should be ok with out admin.
Any ideas?

Hi all,
I finally got a fellow who knows how to test portable apps helping. His comments pointed out a couple of things.

1. PAT creates Data\ and AppInfo\ under the ..\ProgramDir. My 'ProgramDir' is like this:
App/FreePCB/bin
so I have App/AppInfo, then also the code creates App/FreePCB/DefaultData, and App/FreePCB/Appinfo, i.e. same level as /bin.

I suggest adding a variable like "TOPDIR", or "APPDIR", which is the point at which the template would add folders. Or does NSIS have a basedir already? I bet it does, we just need to change the default folder creation point and remove PROGRAMDIR from that part of the code.

2. The Adv Splash dll is not being cleaned up.

3. Install source puts 4 files in the App/ root. Is this the correct way?
I don't see why it 4 of the files from the Other/Source folder anyway.

I will attempt to fix these items.

Thanks,
Joe