Build Automator Blog

At long last a new build and a new blog post! For the past month I have been so busy working on the Build Automator that I haven't taken time to update the blog.

To cut a long story short, we released a new build yesterday, version 1.30.100. This is our "finished" build of the Build Automator, meaning that the product is now fully working and functional and we look at it as finished. We still have a very long list of new features to add and in fact we have already started added features for the next build. Our next scheduled build will be in early July, about a month from now, but it is quite possible that we will feel sufficiently excited about our progress that we'll issue interim builds. The main focus in next months build will be FTP. Automated FTP is just an awsome feature that can be used for so many things that are not really related to creating new installs. I, for example, plan on using it for updates to our websites.

There is a long list of new features and fixes in this new version that you can access on our version history page. I'm not going to rewrite that list here, just metion a few things.

By far the biggest change in this new version is our decision to combine the Standard and Developer edition. Rather than having a Developer Edition that contained everything and the kitchen sink we decided to have just one edtion of the software. We could then develop specific plugins in addition to the standard plugins that came with the software. These additional plugins would offer more in-dept support for specific tools or operations. For example we might have a special Clarion plugin that would be for Clarion only. Perhaps a plugin for Visual Studio or even narrow it more down and have plugins for C#, VB.NET and C++ that could offer very language specific support. We feel that this will give us the freedom to develop some very sophisticated plugins where there is market for it. It also gives you the freedom to choose exactly what plugins you want. In fact with this design you can basically design your own Build Automator to include exactly what you want and need!

The Set Variable action makes the Build Automator a very powerful tool. You can now set variables anywhere in your script and in addition to just setting them to static values, you can set them to increment or decrement numbers, which comes in handy when creating version resources, or you can use about 50 functions to format or parse data to what ever you need.

The command line parameters along with the file association in the install allowed us to add a very cool feature: create shortcuts to the project files. This allows you to create shortcuts to the project you have open so you can double click on those shortcuts to open or execute the project. When you create the shortcut you can select if it's an open or execute shortcut and also where to put it.

The final change in this version that I want to mention is that the Maintenance Plan has now been added to the software. From now on you will need to have a valid Maintenance Plan to download updates to the software. The Build Automator comes with a 60 day free Maintenance Plan when you purchase. Those who purchase the Build Automator before June 15, 2008 receive a Maintenance plan that is valid until June 30, 2009. Everyone who has purchased the Build Automator should have received their Maintenance Plans yesterday (June 5). If you did not receive our email, please let us know.

Please note that our office will be closed from today (Friday June 6) until Monday morning, June 9. We will probably not be able to answer emails during this time, but if you need to contact us, please use our forums.

-- Arnor Baldvinsson