APM file, ReleaseDate and Display Order

[major4579]

I have read the documentation, specifically the following:

"4.6 - ReleaseDate

This property defines the date on which the setup file the module installs was created. It must be an eight digit number in the format YYYYMMDD (year, month, day).

* However * This property is much more important than it sounds. It actually defines the order that things are installed! AutoPatcher will install modules in the order: older date to newer date (smaller number to bigger). It also has an effect on the order things are listed in the selection window. "

I basically want to list the Stand Alone programs in alphabetical order. First I tried setting the release date all the same - that didn't work. Then I tried setting the release date to a sequence: 20000101, 20000110, 20000120, 20000130. I expected these 4 items to be sorted accordingly, but no luck.

(BTW, the standalone.apm parent file has a release date of 00000005).

This happened in 5.6.72 and 5.6.76

Any suggestions?

-John

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

As far as I know ReleaseDate is the oder in which things are installed, not displayed. I do not think you can control the order.

[major4579]

  M2Ys4U said:

As far as I know ReleaseDate is the oder in which things are installed, not displayed. I do not think you can control the order.

I know that the documentation is not always correct but it does say:

"It also has an effect on the order things are listed in the selection window."

I guess I was assuming that this "effect" was something I could utilize to alpha sort the selection list.

-John

[+theblazingangel MVC]

i believed it did when i wrote the documentation because i gave sub-parents lower values and they appeared first. i didn't actually experiment though i have to admit and it could have been through raptors design that sub-parents come first... if so a correction to the documentation is in order... (on the todo list to check it out at some point and correct if necessary)

[Tenchi103]

I've been playing with the order a lot so I know the answer to this one. The display order is 100 percent dependent on the module's releasedate property. Lowest release date on top, highest on bottom.

I was thinking about asking Raptor to create a new property to control the order of displayed updates compared to what order they are installed in but I've been having him play with the executable so much lately, I was going to suggest this later. <hint, hint>

[major4579]

  Tenchi103 said:

I've been playing with the order a lot so I know the answer to this one. The display order is 100 percent dependent on the module's releasedate property. Lowest release date on top, highest on bottom.

I was thinking about asking Raptor to create a new property to control the order of displayed updates compared to what order they are installed in but I've been having him play with the executable so much lately, I was going to suggest this later. <hint, hint>

Tenchi103,

Sounds like it works for you - what am I doing wrong? - I tried setting the ReleaseDate for 4 modules to a sequence: 20000101, 20000110, 20000120, 20000130. I expected these 4 modules to be sorted accordingly, but no luck!

Thanks, John

[Tenchi103]

How are you're modules currenlty being displayed when you run AP?

[major4579]

  Tenchi103 said:

How are you're modules currenlty being displayed when you run AP?

I tried a number of different schemes, even setting all the ReleaseDates to the same number (9010). Here is a list of the ReleaseDates from the APM files in the same order as displayed on the 'List of Available Items' screen:

ReleaseDate=00009010

ReleaseDate=00009010

ReleaseDate=20000130

ReleaseDate=00009010

ReleaseDate=00000050

ReleaseDate=00009010

ReleaseDate=00009010

ReleaseDate=20000120

ReleaseDate=00009010

ReleaseDate=00009010

ReleaseDate=20000101

ReleaseDate=20000110

I am running AP ver 5.6.76, but the same was happenong with 5.6.72

-John

[Tenchi103]

First thing you should always practice is to create a standard naming scheme for your ReleaseDates making sure that the number is greater than the parent module they are in.

Try beginning with 2000005 and go in increments of 5 (Example: 2000005, 2000010, 2000015...)

Give this a try and see what happens.

[major4579]

  Tenchi103 said:

First thing you should always practice is to create a standard naming scheme for your ReleaseDates making sure that the number is greater than the parent module they are in.

Try beginning with 2000005 and go in increments of 5 (Example: 2000005, 2000010, 2000015...)

Give this a try and see what happens.

Tenchi103,

I finally found some time to play with the ReleaseDate. I set the modules to the following sequence:

ReleaseDate=20000110

ReleaseDate=20000120

ReleaseDate=20000130

....

ReleaseDate=20000360

And the Parent Module had a ReleaseDate=00000005

No luck, display order had no relationship to ReleaseDate order.

BUT, when I changed the Parent Module ReleaseDate to 20000005 it all worked fine!

So I hope this helps others....

John

[Tenchi103]

  major4579 said:

Tenchi103,

I finally found some time to play with the ReleaseDate. I set the modules to the following sequence:

ReleaseDate=20000110

ReleaseDate=20000120

ReleaseDate=20000130

....

ReleaseDate=20000360

And the Parent Module had a ReleaseDate=00000005

No luck, display order had no relationship to ReleaseDate order.

BUT, when I changed the Parent Module ReleaseDate to 20000005 it all worked fine!

So I hope this helps others....

John

I'm curious, is the parent module you created inside another module or is it on the root of AP? If it's inside another module, this would explain why you had to up the ReleaseDate from 00000005 to 20000005. (The parent module has have a larger number than the module that it's in)

[major4579]

  Tenchi103 said:

I'm curious, is the parent module you created inside another module or is it on the root of AP? If it's inside another module, this would explain why you had to up the ReleaseDate from 00000005 to 20000005. (The parent module has have a larger number than the module that it's in)

It's a root module - the APM file resides in "\autopatcher\modules".

All the actual modules (the ones I numbered sequentially) reside in "\Autopatcher\modules\stand_alone_mods".

Here's the contents of the root module APM file:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

[AutoPatcher 5.6 Module]

[General]

Title=Stand-Alone Modules

Description=

Author=Various

ModuleAuthor=ModuleEditor2

WebPage=

ReleaseDate=20000005

[behavior]

ParentID=

UniqueID=STAND_ALONE_PARENT

Critical=False

AutoExpand=True

Depends=

TimeToInstall=0

TimeToRemove=0

RequiresReboot=False

[DetectionRegistry]

RegistryPath=

KeyName=

KeyValue=

[DetectionFile]

FilePath=

FileName=

FileVersion=

[OperatingSystem]

WindowsVersion=ANY

SystemLanguage=1033

[systemComponents]

InternetExplorer=ANY

WindowsMediaPlayer=ANY

DotNetFramework=ANY

WindowsInstaller=ANY

MSNMessenger=ANY

[OfficeComponents]

Word=ANY

Excel=ANY

PowerPoint=ANY

Outlook=ANY

Publisher=ANY

Visio=ANY

Project=ANY

OneNote=ANY

FrontPage=ANY

InfoPath=ANY

Access=ANY

[installation]

[Removal]

--------------------------------------------------------------------

-John

[Tenchi103]

Thanks John,

Give me a day and I'll see if I can recreate this on my side