I use a program written in VB6 that uses crystal reports 7 for reporting. my machine crashed recently. I managed to copy the program files to a new system, but when I try to run the program, a file related to crystal reports is said to be missing. I was advised to install crystal reports 7 runtime but I don't have the setup. Does anybody know where i could get it from?
The program vendor is out of business, so try figure out the dilemma! ;)
Which file(s) does it say is missing? You might have to contact SAP (who bought Business Objects, who bought Crystal Decisions, who were formerly Seagate Software, the makers of Crystal), and that could cost you. Some Crystal 7 files are downloadable from here, but it's mostly samples.
On a further note, Crystal 7 is years out of support so 1) they might not be interested in any case, and 2) the files might not run/install correctly on a new system.
I have a copy of the version 8 runtime which might work. To my knowledge, not a whole lot changed between version 7 and 8.
If you still need it, leave me a comment and we can work something out. I have a puny web server, and would rather not post a public link.
Related
So lately I joined a company which has been developing on their core business application for several years, which has seen multiple developers over the past years. As in many projects there has been a huge lack of documenting the source code.
My job is to organise the code, find dead code, make stuff more efficient etc.
Because this project is a 80+ class project I would really appreciate a class diagram to give me some overview of the project.
When I do a search most anwsers date back to '11 or '14 which suggest to use OmniGraffle. Well I do have OmniGraffle installed on my macBook but I need to have the Pro version to create diagrams from Xcode projects.
Is there any WORKING tool out there on the WWW that could help me out, or maybe some one with a OmniGraffle PRO license to confirm that this functionality is working? In that case I will advise the company to buy a pro license.
Thanks in advance,
Tom
What is the future of Windows Script Host ?
Microsoft has announced, in may 2015, the end of VBscript and ActiveX in their new browser Windows Edge (and that's a good news for web standards, by the way). However, I can't find out recent information about the desktop part of the scripting world. I'd like to know if VBscript, wscript.exe, cscript.exe and mshta.exe will still be supported by the next Windows desktop versions. I'm worried because Windows Script Host reference is, days after days, more and more difficult to find in MSDN library.
I've a lot of vbscript and hta files to maintain (in a professional environment) and I need to anticipate if a migration will soon be required.
If you have any information about that, please share !
It is on sustained maintenance so no updates (unless a major security flaw is found).
Millions of businesses use so it is safe for admin purposes. Well over half of all programmers are basic programmers.
Yes, this question still stays relevant nowadays. I also can't find any official announcement from Microsoft. They ended up with IE and AHT support years ago, but WSH stays usable. So, the answer is: there's no official end date for it, but Microsoft stimulates programmers to choose Powershell over VBScript for new applications.
Having tons of professional VBScript code running and with Powershell's leaking for easy Windows deploying and maintenance in mind, my piece of advice for you is: stuck with VBScript until you can develop a custom flawless deploying architecture for Powershell. Then, start every new project with the last, but keep the support for the former until its app's end cycle comes.
Since the above-mentioned exe files are part of both the already released Windows 11 and Windows 12 in the test state, it can be rightly assumed that sooner or later Microsoft will further develop both VBScript and the closely related HTA. Last year I read in a Microsoft blog post about Windows that the company is already working on enabling VBScript to be able to use .NET classes directly, and on updating mshta.exe, that in Windows 12 the new version can be released.
Since I myself do VBScript-HTA developments, I was also concerned about how long the company would support this. But after reading this blog post, which unfortunately I can't find now, I am no longer concerned with switching to other systems.
The fact that Microsoft has further plans for the VBScript-HTA pair is perhaps also indicated by the fact that one of the example programs of the new Visual Studio, VS 2022, which has just been released, demonstrates how to integrate a new language into the VS environment through VBScript. And also trough it is demostrated how to develop a new project template.
Do ICS in Lazarus is installed and works fine on all platforms?
I read somewhere that there is a problem with Linux. Is this problem solved?
I ported ICS to Free Pascal in the 2005 timeframe, but I never maintained it, because I needed SSL which was back then still a payed option. The backwards compatibility all the way to Delphi v1 was also very frustrating.
At the time I mostly worked on console level (since my target was a server), but the last attempts showed designtime components could be made to work too.
Current status is unknown, but at the time Francois merged back most fixes. That's 7 years ago though. My guess is a died in the wool porter could do it in a couple of days. FPC is more compatible than ever.
I kept a small notes page at http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/ics.html
I suggest to try Indy Components from the Indy project.
They work well under Linux, Windowd and FreeBSD.
I would like to know if you could share some (trusted) sources of information (books, URLs) that you consider the most relevant for learning Windows Installer. They could be for starting on this technology or for an advanced or professional level of knowledge.
Where can a future deployment engineer start and where can he/she go to keep on the right direction (step by step)?
I'm obviously biased but I think my blog and the WiX toolset are good ways to learn:
http://robmensching.com/blog
http://wix.sf.net (click on the Manual or Tutorial links on the right)
Some people like Phil Wilson's "The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer" but I never read it. I learned straight out of the MSI SDK.
I did 7 years of writing InstallScript installers before ever picking up MSI. While there is a huge difference between procedural script-driven imperative installs and data driven declarative installs, they both do the same fundemental thing: deploy software.
I became an MSI Expert but studying everything I could on the domain, writing LOTS of installs and by blogging for 7 years and answering over 4,400 posts on the InstallShield community forums. The only way to go in my book is to have been there and done that.
So the first step in your quest should be to understand the Windows Platform and related technologies very thoroughly. These evolve over the years but you should get a decent understanding of:
Fundamentals
Registry
FileSystem
NTFS
ACL's
DLL Types ( Win32, COM, .NET Assembly)
Win32 API
.NET Base Class Libraries
Service Control Manager Drivers ODBC
SQL IIS Active Directory ( GPO, LDAPand so on )
Global Assembly Cache
WinSxS Cache
DLL Hell
Good and Bad Installer Behavior
The second step is
Tools
Now let's start to writing installs. As Leslie ( Easter I assume ) said in another answer, pick a tool and learn how to use it to accomplish the above things. But don't stop there, as soon as you can go to the next step.
MSI
Start digging deep down into how your tool is working behind the scenes as soon as you can. Just as you can write C# in .NET and look at the IL with ILDASM, learn to use ORCA and see what is happening. Read the MSI SDK. Yes, it's rough and cryptic but I spent 3 months commuting beween DC and TX and I spent at least 16 hours a week traveling away from internet connections but nothing except the SDK to read. Read it, know it, live it... the cryptic help topics will eventually start to click and become second nature.
And finally, read my blog: DeploymentEngineering.com and every other blog you can find.
There is not a simple answer. The primary reason is that most install developers use a specific tool which in turn hides the bulk of Windows Installer behavior. While it would be nice if those developers had an in-depth knowledge of Windows Installer, that's not the case.
My suggestion would be as follows:
Focus on a specific tool. Many of the development environments offer a trial period and some are free. The on-line help for these tools plus the act of building some sample packages will be a useful process.
If practical, consider taking a training class for the tool. I know Flexera sells their basic and advanced InstallShield course manuals. They are a bit over-priced, but it does include need-to-know Windows Installer specifics. The problem you'll run into is that most documentation is specific to the tool without explaining a lot of the connectivity to Windows Installer.
You'll need the Windows Installer SDK -- in addition to the help file, there are some interesting tools and VBScript scripts. Orca is one tool that is included with the SDK and there are similar tools on the Internet (SuperOrca, InstEd, etc.). The SDK is not a great read but it is a great reference. As you come across specific questions regarding Windows Installer use the SDK help file to understand the deeper internals.
Google 'windows installer blog'. You probably don't want to hear that, but there are many great blogs available that cover many bits and pieces of Windows Installer. Make sure you pick up the Windows Installer Team blog.
No matter what path you choose, you'll find learning Windows Installer to be a hands-on process. I hope this helps!
I'm also biased, but this might be helpful. I recently revisited WiX for a real-world Windows Installer project and wrote up my solution which ultimately plugged into a continuous integration server.
The steps in the article take you through using WiX, localizing the MSI, and creating a bootstrapper for installing any prerequisites.
For learning, Tramontana's tutorial WiX helped me a lot.
A nice little blog post about how to debug custom actions is WiX and DTF: Debug a Managed Custom Action and how to generate an MSI log.
I have been using Visual Basic 5 since it was first released until a couple of years ago.
I re-installed it on each new laptop I bought and downloaded the service pack each time. I think it is SP2 for VB5 I need.
But having not touched it in two years I have now just installed it on a laptop to modify an app. However, it seems that Microsoft no longer offers the service pack for download.
And on opening my projects i get repeated messages for each frame telling me I "don't have the license to use the control in developer mode".
What is this error and how do I get the service packs?
If you port to VB6, you shouldn't have to make very many changes.
If you port to any version of VB.Net, you will find that the changes are rather extreme. An automated tool will try to do some of the work for you, but depending on how your code was written and what VB5 features you used, you will probably find that you manually need to fix up most of the changes that were made.
The biggest problem is that some of the VB5 features don't have direct equivalents in VB.Net. Do any of your forms use control arrays? You CAN do something at least vaguely similar in VB.Net, but the conversion tool doesn't know about that, so converting them will have to be completely manual.
FYI, Microsoft service packs are available in two forms. The normal update process figures out what patches are needed on your computer, then downloads them and installs them. But there's also an "administrative" version that downloads every change that MIGHT be needed, in one package. That package doesn't automatically install - when the download is complete, you have to manually start it running. The admin version is intended for system administrators, who might have to apply the same patch to dozens / hundreds / thousands of computers on a network - you shouldn't have to download the same data over and over.
The admin service packs won't help you with VB5, of course (unless you find someone that downloaded the VB5 service packs and held on to them). But if you end up going to a new version of Visual Studio (or VB), and you think that it's likely that you'll keep using them more than 6 months or so past the end of Microsoft support, you might want to get in the habit of downloading the admin service packs and archiving them somewhere. It might prevent problems like this in the future.
The licensing issue is referenced on Microsoft knowledge base
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/181854
A fix is available, downloadable from the same place.
Note : if you are running Windows Seven, you need to run VisualBasic in elevated mode.