PortableApps.com Platform 2.0 Beta 5 Released For Testing

John T. Haller's picture
Submitted by John T. Haller on July 16, 2010 - 4:39am

We've just posted the Beta 5 of the upcoming 2.0 Platform (codename: Leo) release for testers and translators. The main purpose of Beta 5 was to debut the PortableApps.com Updater so you can keep all your software up to date, start testing our brand new theming engine (with 32 themes built-in) so you can make the menu look the way you want it to, and greatly improve multilingual support so you can use any language you want wherever you want. This latest beta represents a large behind-the-scenes effort to upgrade many of the underpinnings of the PortableApps.com Platform on the road to 2.0. So, let's get on to what's new...

Read on for more details...

PortableApps.com Updater - Keep All Your Apps Up To Date

One of the biggest new features is the first public test of the PortableApps.com Updater. The updater can track all your apps and ensure you're running the latest release. It can download and automatically install any apps that are out of date including the PortableApps.com Platform itself. For apps available in multiple language packs (Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org, etc) it will download the appropriate language pack based on the language you have the PortableApps.com Platform set to. Just click Manage Apps - Check For Updates! Check out the updater in action (click for larger versions):

New Theming Engine - Multiple Colors and Images, 32 Themes Included

We've also debuted a first look at our new theming engine. The theming engine combines a powerful colormixing system allowing themers and users to easily select a menu look they like. We're still using the old-style theme selector until the Options window debuts in Beta 6, but our two built-in themes (Default White and Dark) are included with 14 colors each as well as a Rainbow and Texture theme in both White and Dark to show what's possible with the new engine. Here are some examples of the new theme sets (click for larger versions):

Full Unicode Support - Use Your Favorite Language On Every PC

Another big feature we're debuting is full Unicode support. This means we can add support for languages like Serbian and Vietnamese; and that we can support running any language even if it is different from the language Windows is set to. That means that if you like your apps in Japanese, you can set the platform to Japanese even on an English Windows PC. Here are screenshots of the menu running in Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Simplified Chinese, all on a standard Windows 7 English PC (click for larger versions):

The Road To 2.0

From this point forward, we'll be releasing a new beta every week or two until we hit 2.0 final. Upcoming features include those we announced in the 2.0 Preview including the full theme switcher, improved options screen, file associations, full category/folder support with smart app organization and lots more. Once you're on 2.0 Beta 5, you can just check for new versions and you'll know as soon as Beta 6 is available for you.

Download The Beta Today

You can download the new test version from the PortableApps.com Platform 2.0 Beta 5 forum topic. Get it today!

Make a Donation - Please help support PortableApps.com's development and hosting

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Comments

mbrsolution

May 11, 2011 - 11:16pm

I don't comment very often but today I thought I would share some words. I have been following and using portable apps for a few years now. I am extremely happy with their work and I will continue to support them and use their product for as long as it is on the market.

Now for all who feel that the progress takes too long. I would like to point out that for a free product one should not request for a speedy process but in actual fact one should try and contribute to help out all the wonderful people who work endless hours to produce free products like portableapps. I do understand that one can become impatient however kindness should be pass on to those who work so hard for us to enjoy free products.

Once again thank you so much for such a superb product. You have my full support and take the time that you need to fix the bugs and produce such a wonderful product like yours.

Kind and warm regards

hi i remember this old menu mod version here https://portableapps.com/node/8569 had a customizable menu. it was great because with a hole lot of apps, to be able to set up folders. with categorizes. such as browsers, INTERNET, maintenance. office. etc and categorize the apps i needed in there. it almost makes me want to go back to that if not for the new automatic updating. also i think you could add line separators. and also it allowed to rename app names in the menu.

I find that this gave a clean tidy menu. will you be adding these features to the official menu. would be nice if you would.

please let us know what your thoughts and ides are relating to this.

as it was done in the r30 mod menu i would think it would be easily configured for the main menu.

An Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

MickeyJ4J

It is not as easy as it seems. The menu mod did some things completely different (and in an incompatible way) so it is not just taking the bits of code used there. When the Platform 2.0 is released (it may definitely take longer than expected but it surely will be released) categories should be included. Line separators would be a nice addition but take up valuable space. Wink
You can rename an app entry already with the betas.
What the menu mod had to offer above that, is free sorting. Some of its features were accomplished by writing a settings file into the apps folders. :evil:
I don't really need categories but they may come in handy for some. I think the other sorting features could proove useful, I'm waiting eagerly to test them.

Not really much to suggest on this beta release other than; get rid of the pink corners on the visual menu (which I'm sure will happen with further development).

As it seems, it looks like I'm not the only one with this suggestion but, ... it'd be nice to be able to place apps together in group folders to customize the cluttered list of apps. Think; PStart format. A folder for 'Office Apps' one for 'Games' etc, making the customization of the menu layout much more clean.

Otherwise this platform ROCKS!! App updater, look & feel, everything is SMOOTH AS PIE!! Thank you PA for pimpin my drive!!

[br0ken]:The Dead
"If you dance with the devil, the devil don't change. The devil changes you." - Max California (8mm)

After using the portable menu on windows 7... and after distributing it over a dozen of friends, i shall dare to make the following propositions:
- make a tick right to the application, to show it is auto-starting
- make an option for auto-stop launched applications with menu/drive exit/eject
- make the options to hide or not buttons from the task-bar the tray both explicit
- folders would be nice, but not so much
- make the data folders(documents,music,films,...) addresses configurable, so that their place could be changed, and so the buttons will browse to them even on non-standard places... and the launchers could thus know that place/-s

! Think about a solution for the following problem: "pin application on task-bar" after it is launched actually pins the app, not the launcher, so the next time you launch the pinned-app you will not have launcher options. But if you pin launcher, you will have two buttons with the same icon after launching - one with the launcher, one with the application... the obvious solution is to not pin applications on task-bar and just use portable menu, but anyway - this is a thing to think about.

Like to suggest being able to choose different coloured icon for portable apps menu to show/identify different USB drives when plugged in and minimized.

I am looking forward to new version release.

I have some suggestion, maybe it was mentioned somewhere here.

It could be nice to have some "applications tree" in application list area.
Tree with user defined (add, remove, rename) nodes like: "Office", "Utilities", "Games_1", "Games_2", etc.
Tree nodes possible to expand/collapse.
Add installed application into tree node by context menu ("add into "Games_1" ") or drag-and-drop.

New version looks SUPER.. I absolutely love the updated...

Anyone else notice that the taskbar icon doesn't go away for the 2.0 stuff (at least on Windows 7)...? The System Tray is perfect.. but shouldn't the task bar be invisible?

every time I run the portable apps software update and I get a bunch of new releases Smile I get an endless sequence of prompts (do you really want to install this? do you want to install it at the default location or somewhere else? d you accept the T&Cs?) where invariably I click ok all the time (sometimes after having to figure out there is a prompt, since some of those appear in the background).

is there (or would it be possible to have) an option to run the updates in an unattended mode "assuming yes/ok to all questions"?

thx

The behaviour depends on the installer. Some newer apps use a more recent installer routine that supports silent updates when run from the portableapps.com platform, some older ones are still packaged with an older version of the installer so there is no silent mode yet.
Over time as all apps get updates, this should be less and less of a problem.

"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

June 8, 2011 - 4:24pm

Make sure the platform is running. Unattended/silent installers only run in that mode when the platform is running. If you run the updater directly or close the platform after launching it, all installers will run in standard mode.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Any chance we could set a short mouse over tool tip?

Most of the apps I will be installing are self explanatory from the Icon or the Product Name embedded in the executable (which is what I assume you use to build the list). But some others are much less obvious and it would be nice to set a brief message for them to be displayed in the form of a mouse over.

the theme shows two small pink triangles on the top of the menu corners where they are curved. i have the latest build and everything works fine except for this little problem, is this suppose show or does something need to be fixed?

I have been holding off on installing Beta 5 even though current new app postings point out that it can auto update. Why? Beta 5 is almost a year old. Am I looking at the wrong place? Is there a less-than-a-year-old-beta to try? Would love to upgrade from my current framework. Thanks!

Most in the know have been using beta 5 for quite a while and are happy with it.
It's quite stable. The beta comes from the fact that there are more features that will be added. AFAIK, there aren't any real bugs in it.
The updater alone is reason to go to beta 5 IMHO.
Smile

I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

June 23, 2011 - 2:02pm

If you installed Firefox Portable 5 Beta, it was installed as FirefoxPortableTest (for both the directory name and the AppID which we use internally in the updater). If you installed regular Firefox Portable 4 Stable, it was installed as FirefoxPortable. Firefox Portable 5 Stable is also FirefoxPortable and will be pushed out to users who had Firefox Portable 4 Stable installed. It isn't sent to Firefox Portable 5 Beta users because FirefoxPortableTest is, for all intents and purposes, a separate application as far as the updater and the platform is concerned. If you'd like to upgrade it to stable and have it keep working, rename the directory from FirefoxPortableTest to FirefoxPortable and the updater will update it to the stable release.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

Believe it or not (it took me a minute to get my head around it...) in just a few days (July 16th to be sure) this Beta version (Beta v.5) will be a year old. I realize that the author has many things to do, and I am not really complaining as I have had no problems running version Beta 5, enjoying all the missed production dates, the promises of upcoming chotchkies and themes, alas I have come to the conclusion that this is the actual release, there will be no further advancement in the production and so I propose that we change the name to "Pentultimate Portable Apps Beta" (I know that the real world is penultimate, but "pent" points to 5...) after all we have over 100 apps to keep up with and really how often do we change our themes anyway! So Happy Anniversary Beta 5!

Hi

Are there some command-line arguments we can use with the Updater application ?

I'd like to run it (outside of the PortableApps menu that I don't use) by script everytime i launch the other menu i use, but i'd like to skip the popup saying "your portable apps are up to date", making it silent if there is nothing to do.

Are the (potential) command-line arguments described somewhere on the site ?

Aluísio A. S. G.

June 28, 2011 - 4:54am

Please remember that this is a beta version.

PortableApps.comUpdater.exe [/STARTUP=[true|false]] [/MODE=[ADD|ADDALL]]

You can try passing /STARTUP=true to the updater.
There's also /MODE=ADD, that allows you to install new apps, and /MODE=ADDALL, that does the same but selects all available apps by default.

Previously known as kAlug.

John T. Haller's picture

John T. Haller

June 28, 2011 - 10:34am

Note that this will only work properly with the PortableApps.com Platform running. The Updater's options (language, whether to install optional bits by default, etc) are all in the platform and passed to it. So, we'll be disabling the ability to run the updater directly to avoid any issues.

The updater will run automatically and silently whenever you launch the PortableApps.com Platform by default (which you can also change in the platform options, of course).

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

troyguffey's picture

troyguffey

June 30, 2011 - 12:04pm

I'm stuck on dial-up and the updater keeps failing to download even files in the low MB range. What's worse, is that it gives a failure message that you have to click the "OK" button to attempt the next update.

It is also impossible to cancel the entire update process at once, and trying to cancel each individual update as it comes up requires you to click on the "Cancel" twice

My suggestion is that you allow users to set a number of failures before attempting to move on the next update, and accumulate download errors to a logfile to show at the end of the process.

I have WinXP.

robertrock

July 6, 2011 - 11:26am

Could be a week, a month, or a year away, we seem to be out of the loop.

We at least need a status update which is looooooooooooong overdue by about 10-11 months. If you got problems fine, just let us know what's happened. I hope it's not legality problems for you. There's more to this stuff besides the coding.

Throw us a bone, John, please?

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