It's time once again for another fun and exciting PortableApps.com Update. Please turn off all cell phones and pagers until the end so as not to disturb your neighbors. Anyone using theirs is fair game to have popcorn thrown at them. Now grab your popcorn and beverage of choice and lets dig in.
Drupal 6 Upgrade - DONE!
The first one is a big one... the Drupal 6 upgrade is done. For those who don't know, Drupal is the content management system that runs our website, forums, membership system. And the 6.x upgrade was a long-awaited one. It has great new features like better performance, improved moderator setups, wikis, polls, localization of all pages on the site, automatic closing of open tags in comments and lots more.
Unfortunately, it was one of the messiest upgrades yet. For those who followed along in the thread, it occurred this past weekend after being planned for the past few weeks and getting some work like updating our custom theme and ChrisM writing a new Mark Forums as Read module for the 6.x. But, the upgrade, begun off-hours on Friday night at 1am so as not to disrupt users, essentially blew up halfway through and left multiple tables without primary keys, incorrect indexes, unupdated data, permissions askew and more. So, manual fixes were searched for and made until 6am... then some sleep was had... then more fixes, tweaks and the like.
The good news is that, other than some minor visual bugs, the upgrade is done and things seem to be working smoothly. We'll be introducing the new features individually with input from the community. We've already added one...
Real Forum Moderators
With the Drupal 6 upgrade, we now have real forum moderators. This means that Marko Moeller, Patrick Patience, Ryan McCue, Steve Lamerton, Tim Clark and myself can all moderator comments as well as forum topics, which will make everyone's lives easier. I added a banner to the forums page so that everyone knows they're all around.
App Releases Catching Up
After a few delays during the Drupal upgrade, we're nearly caught back up on app releases. The Firefox 3 RC1 and Pidgin updates were posted yesterday. Task Coach and GnuCash are being posted today/tomorrow.
New Apps
We're also about to release a few new apps, too. They've been in testing long enough and are getting the final bits as well as logos and homepages on the site. CoolPlayer+ Portable by me with an awesome theme by NeoRame and PNotes Portable packaged by OliverK are being released today/tomorrow. JkDefrag Portable by Travis Carrico and our first original app since Toucan, Xenon Portable by John Bentley will be posted in the next week.
Upcoming Apps
In the next couple weeks (after the next big thing mentioned below) we'll be rolling out our next set of new apps. Apps like Lightscreen, LBreakout2, Daphne, Blender, TypeFaster, Eraser Drop Target, Stellarium and more. (Don't worry if your app wasn't mentioned... these are just a few that seem just about ready to go... we're getting to all of them) 
PortableApps.com Format Spec DRAFT2
The PortableApps.com Format Specification DRAFT2 is still up and awaiting more review and commentary from the community. I'll be gelling this into a more complete and easier to follow document after the 1.1 release. And, closely related...
PortableApps.com Installer Update
In conjunction with the Spec mentioned above, the PortableApps.com Installer is getting its update after the 1.1 Platform release to allow developers to easily package their apps without having to write and compile their own installer code. I've posted a preliminary list of appinfo.ini configuration options for the installer to go on and we're still awaiting more review and feedback from the community.
PortableApps.com Platform 1.1 Testing
We're just about done with the 1.1 platform testing. PortableApps.com Platform 1.1 Release Candidate 2 is still up for testing in the forums. A final RC will be posted today for a quick test to ensure all is well.
PortableApps.com Suite App Inclusion
There's a quick discussion on what apps are being included in the upcoming suite standard and light packages going on in the PortableApps.com Suite 1.1 App Inclusion Ideas (Take 2) topic.
PortableApps.com Platform/Suite 1.1 Release Tomorrow
Barring any issues with the final platform RC and quick suite installer test being posted today, the suite and platform will be released tomorrow. We'll be doing a few site updates, a news story release, etc along with it. The download page on the site will look similar to the table on the app inclusion page in the forums.
Next steps...
We'll be talking more about our next steps including setting up the PortableApps.com support wiki, next apps, 1.5 alpha releases and direction, PortableApps.com Theme Format and more after we get through the big updates this week.
Ok, now back to work
Best,
John
PS - I'll be on and off IRC today (May 20th) while working, so you can catch me on #portableapps on irc.freenode.net as JohnTHaller.
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John,
Thanks for the update
and, as always, for all the great work you do
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
I'll get the Daphne icons up tonight for you. I'm not too crazy about either of them, so I may try to come up with something on my own. I also have a new TypeFaster logo in the works.
Thanks for the update, glad to see everything it still moving.
Edit: Here they are
NuoveXT
Crystal
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
for the update John
Being a proper mod definitely has it's advantages, and I think it will be very handy after the release of 1.1 
Its good to see progress, the site really feels like it is moving along in the right direction now, and I cant wait to see the release of Xenon!
Just to give a quick update on where I am, I have currently done 4 of my 7 exams, with two more this week. I am ploughing ahead with Toucan 2 in my spare time, so hopefully we will have a more respectable sync, backup and encryption app by the end of next month
hola soy colombiano por el pequeño detalle del ingles, pero eso es facil de resolver la tradusco y listo... bueno yo quiero expresar que el menu esta fenomenal pero lo que no me gusta es que uno tiene que entrar en la memoria para poderlo ejecutar ya que hay virus que sustitullen el autorun y por eso no funciona ademas hay veces que no funciona en todos los computadores.... entonces yo quisiera sugerirles que crearan un sistema de arranque unico para el menu ......pues siempre y cuando eso se pueda. chao y gracias..
[Very poor translation provided by mod Tim
hello I am Colombian by the small detail of the English, but that is easy to solve tradusco and ready… good I want to express that this menu is a phenomenal one but what I do not like is that one must enter the memory to be able to execute/run it since there is/are virus{es} who "sustitullen?" {substitute/change?} autorun and for that reason it does not work, furthermore there are times that it does not work in all the computers….
then/so I would want to suggest to them that they then created a system of only starting for the menu
OR
then/so I suggest that you create a system unique to the boot menu
...... as long as that can {be done}. ciao and thanks.
.
[End my very poor translation, Tim]
PR3 is done, I just need some minor strings for the Japanese translation. Should I just release it and add the translation for the final release/next PR?
cowsay Moo
cowthink 'Dude, why are you staring at me.'
Drupal runs worlds smoother and quicker now, and everything looks pretty good to me. I also think that the Platform 1.1 update was needed badly, and I look forward to the official release.
I think that PortableApps.com is really going to be a lot more relevant, and I'm glad that the whole community is chipping in. I like where this is all going.
John, I'd like to thank you for the time you invest in this site. Your work is phenomenally exceptional, and you're obviously very committed to the success and development of this site.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
ditto that!
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Do I have to? (ducks popcorn):D How are you managing the pnotes release? Just curious, and thanks for all the great other apps
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
The suite upgrade is great. But my 1GB Flash Drive is getting pretty full (especially since I like to play with the BETA TEST software.)
My question is this: Since I reside in the English-speaking world; do the apps really need text and other stuff IN OTHER LANGUAGES residing on the software?
Can I get guidance in removing non-english files to make a bit more space?
pineappleLayne
lane
Apps like Pidgin, GIMP and AbiWord you can install them over themselves and don't select the additional languages... it'll remove them if they're already there.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Yes reinstalled them. I was thinking .... WinZip used to have a tool to convert executables into compressed .exe files. The few times I tried it worked but of course it then takes more time to decompress and execute. However there was substantial space savings.
Any way to design a portable app for compress executables?
lane
we use UPX to compress our exe's. it's a command line utility. John made this utility to help automate the process.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
sorry, but i don't found another forum
i think wich in the extensive collection of software portable, theres is not an alternative for the CAD commercial.
maybe can work on ARCHIMEDES or GCAD3D, because are freesoftware, liscenced with GPL,
if, be there someone intrested, will be gratefull, i don't know nothing about programation
sorry for the nad english
Miguel,
Cademia might be just what your looking for. It is an open source cad program. Your post should probably go under "request apps". Welcome to portableapps.com and if you ever need any help, don't forget to try the search box in the upper right corner first.
There's actually already a test release of CADEMIA Portable right here
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Please HELP
Good evening.
One question: How do the launcher of portable applications?
Anyone who routed to the exe file.
At App directory \ portable \ portable.exe
No entiendo este.
Por favor pregunte en español.
Debería haber alguien aquí, que puede contestar en español.
P.S. No digo el español, usé un programa de traducción en línea.
I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you.
Is there a specific reason this is still stickied? Also a note, there's a couple cool apps like Daphne and Blender up there you mentioned that would be great to have released.
because there hasn't been another update yet?
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I like the way you think.
you're right.
There should be a new one!!!
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Agreed!
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world