PC World 2008 May

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ PC World 2008 May / PCWorld_2008-05_cd.bin / temacd / taskzip / TZip.exe / TaskZip_Readme.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 2001-10-09 | 42.3 KB | 1,082 lines

===================================== T A S K Z I P R E A D M E . T E X T ===================================== VER 2.10, BLD 2 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - At Backup Job Builder Wizard, if user clicks 'browse target folder' button but the target directory in the text box no longer exists on system, would get a fatal error. Fixed. - Jim Park: Re-worked non-compression backups so that if a file is locked in use, backup will continue, but that failed file will be logged as an Error in the trans- action log. User is responsible for checking trans- action log for errors. Added change so that if user has ignore errors, then backups continue; else they stop at locked file and popup a message box. - RE-COMPILED WITH VB6 SERVICE PACK 5. Was using VB6SP3. If you encounter any system issues with other apps...this might be why. You will need to update your other apps if a problem is encount- ered. VER 2.09, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - Jim Park: Notified me that Excludes were failing on 'non-compression' backups. I had tightened up the compression backups with 2.08, not realizing that the problem several others had reported lie with the non- compression option. Now, it works well. Turned out that the file comparison test required was case-sensitive and required a UCASE() fx call at each side of the comparison. VER 2.08, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - John Reilly fixed bug where file names were being shortened in the status bar at the bottom of the screen as the files were being zipped up. - John Reilly fixed a bug with setting file attributes in Win2K (now all are set, not just some as before). This was the source of the most reported Error #5 bug. - Fixed bug where /SILENT option did not work properly if user set File | Preferences for Save Screen Size to Yes. - Fixed nasty bug when users tried to select a UNC path and pick path dialog returned a path without \ at end. Result was Error occurring both when picking source files, and when picking a target output path. - Altered note for file exclusions...they do NOT apply to folders; although if an exclusion parameter matches a folder name, problems may arise. - Check for Drives powered down by BIOS power saver settings...used to only do the computer on which TaskZip running...now also do the Target Directory. Still do not do the source directories. - Fixed Error #75 Path / File Access error due to wrong attribute in ClassFileFinder that was incorrectly filtering out vbDirectory parm from API call returned contents. - Added note that ZIP file format is built so as to not exceed 2GB (or 4GB on some zip utilities...go look at WinZip for confirmation). - Fix by Ivan Sheppard for CD-R drives to test and make sure test for disk in drive works. - Fixed command-line parameters so that /? presents list of switches and how they work. - Added /EXIT switch so that TaskZip shuts down after all jobs in the command-line are executed. - Fixed the /RUN command-line so that users are shown (msgbox) the file (.tzp) that was attempted to run if it failed out so that they can continue to modify the name (remove spaces, etc.) until they get it right. - Fixed Error #13 Type Mismatch when trying to run command-line parameters (the variable type was wrong). - Paul Frere added 1 line of code to more gracefully exit and continue forward if the compression operation failed on one of the file spec items and got an error 18 because one or more of the files were locked and could not be copied...now will copy what it can, and log the errors for the rest. - Help | About form links to website should now work on Windows 2000. Forced to show shelled out process as vbMaximizedFocus instead of vbHide and vbNormal. Will cause some problems on Win98 where otherwise hidden IExplorer windows will now be visible...oh well, better this way. - Jim Park: Fixed the excludes so that user is notified if parameter entered is not in the proper format ("*.ext") and is informed of proper usage. Ditto blank entry. VER 2.07, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - If user does not have a C:\ drive, then can never pick files to add to a backup. This default drive fails and the form never pops up. Fix is to intercept this error, then loop through every possible drive from A: to Z: until a valid drive is found. Thank you to Brandon C. for reporting this bug. - Fixed bug where users running TaskZip without tray app (it is turned off) could not get TaskZip to shutdown (ctrl-alt-delete and task list shows still running). Turns out that needed to loop through the forms collection and kill all forms still running if users have the tray app setting turned off. Thanks for the bug report E. Giere! VER 2.06, BLD 3 - MINOR BUG FIXES --------------------------------- - Reset Compression level to CHR$(9) instead of 0 for maximum compression, and since string value expected. - Implemented John's new One Shot form. It allows for international dates, allows + and - keys to increment and decrement values in the text boxes, and allows midnight as a valid time. VER 2.06, BLD 2 - MINOR BUG FIXES --------------------------------- - Fixed minor bug where version number was still at 2.5. - Fixed minor bug where Job Options form did not properly state "Select Day of Week..."; but was truncated off at "Select Day of". VER 2.06, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - Fixed major bug where wildcard includes that were other than *.* were not working properly for subdirectories below. For example, one user (Jorgen Bernsten) was attempting to archive *.cpp but it would not bakup anything. The bug was a result of removing the -i parm when converting to the zip.dll. That code needed to be re-added back in and tweaked for the dll call. - Re-thought omission of hyphen in backup job names. Had recently omitted for TaskZip 2.00+, but now allow it as per request of David Smith. VER 2.05, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - Removed redundant Disclaimer from Help file. Fixed copyright symbol in Help file. - Fixed text on Preferences to say Yes or No and not True or False. - Fixed Scheduling so that One Shot is a frequency type just like Days, Weeks, and Months in the drop down window. Fixed start time and its associated vertical scrollbar (spinner-light) so that both are not visible if is a One Shot frequency. - Renamed APP_Constants.bas to APP_VarCon.bas to better reflect that it contains global constants and global variables. - Reset main form's timer to 30 seconds not 10. VER 2.04, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - Ack! Fixed multi-language issue again where True and false, even in native language not being read properly. Soooo, converted so saves the boolean as an integer. Reads in as value, but pre-sets value to -1 if was "true" for the first time that an existing user loads in an existing, unconverted backup job. Once that old backup job with text for True and False is re-saved, it will be -1 or 0 henceforth. I hope this fixes the problem that users experience where cascading subdirectories and other backup job settings, as well as job preferences boolean listings now work in German, French and other non-english languages. VER 2.03, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - Fixed zip backup password error. Turns out that if numbers used in password, the password fails. Fix was to alter scramble code slightly. This means that between beta version 2.00 and now, if you created a backup job password, you need to edit the backup job and change the password to what it is supposed to be (it will be garbled due to new scrambler). - Added file 'msstdfmt.dll' to the setup. It is needed for some reason on the oneshot form (probably for the vertical spinner controls). - Fixed multi-lingual issue where True and False saved to preference file or .tzp backup job files, but loaded in improperly because expecting 'True' or 'False', but other languages save different values. Thanks to Johann Sirour for reporting this bug. VER 2.02, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - Fixed path for download source code button on Help | About. (.net, not .com...oops). - Fixed monthly scheduling error. Was using a constant array of month names (Jan, Feb, etc.) that failed to run properly in foreign languages. Now uses DateSerial function to fix bug. VER 2.01, BLD 1 - BUG FIXES --------------------------- - Fixed bug where Add button on Job Definition Wiz form opened Pick File dialog which promptly crashed. Error was old API call on filelistbox that is N/A. - Fixed every instance of Dir$() to use all applicable attributes (vbHidden, vbReadOnly, vbSystem, etc.) Also OR them together instead of +'ing them together. VER 2.00, BLD 5 - BUG FIXES + NEW FEATURES ------------------------------------------ - Fixed bug where backups scheduled for monthly were repeatedly run, over and over and over. Now run once and properly schedule next run. - Fixed scheduling bug where next run date is set to same day, esp. for monthly backups. Now, proper date of next run is calculated because Changed flag is not set before lookup DateNextRun at SaveIniFile. - Made Pick List form's file list control wider so that long filenames show up. Note, could not use API for horizontal scrollbar send message call. - Fixed incremental backups for compression backup jobs. Before, was backing everything up, now will just backup files with date time greater than that of last run. - Removed the MSCOMCT2.OCX requirement by ridding the One Shot form of the nice, but expensive (600K) control and the setup issues it brought. The 'control' I put in is not as nice, but makes things simpler. May revert later...wait and see. - Set max length of backup job name to 50 characters in Job Options form so that name does not scroll off end of window caption bar. - Added note regarding zip file password protection: 'Please note that the password inside a saved .tzp file is only scrambled, not encrypted, thus deciphering would not be very difficult for the sophisticated user. Also note that there are many shareware packages out there built to crack zip files...zip encryption is not very secure.' -- Thanks John for FYI. - Made OpenWebpage function to consolidate web page calls on About form. Fixed for NT (need to test yet). - Restored One Shot functionality as John Reilly intended it to work. No longer is it one of four scheduling choices, but rather there are three recurring backup choices (daily, weekly, and monthly); *AND* there is a one shot list in addition. His intended usage is much better than the poor interp- retation I had built into the GUI. - Can no longer manually type over the Job Options' form's Number of Runs text box value...it has been disabled so that the count is a true count, not a fake count that some user inflated. - Disabled wizzy blue box at Help | About behind TZip icon. Used to be able to click on and enter text. - Force hard-drive to wakeup if it is in sleep mode ...loop until file we know exists can be seen without error...code: 'On Error Resume Next 'Do ' sTestFile = Dir$(App.Path & App.EXEName, vbNormal) ' DoEvents 'Loop Until Err.Number = 0 - Fixed bug where source files to backup whose path exceeded 64 bytes in length caused an error. Now, the default path length read in is at least 255; so error will not occur unless user chooses a file path to backup that exceeds 255 characters (and the O.S. should preclude this anyway). - Fixed bug with Passwords where CHR(0) should have been just a 0 stored in the last character of a byte array. Minor bug caused passwords to fail. - Hack not really fix for Callback function to display filename currently being zipped...if the filename is partial (smaller than 4 characters), then do not show that particular file...no idea why Callback is returning empty or single character byte array. Oh well, user will not notice now. - Fixed display of filename currently being backed up so that shows right most text rather than clipping it off. - Can no longer exit the application while a backup job is running. (Thank you John Davis for Bug.) - John already fixed bug where non-compression backups errored out when encountering an empty directory to copy. I tested it. - John already fixed bug where non-compression backups errored out when encountering a system directory and attempt to remove it during subsequent backups. I tested it. - Job Options form now pre-empts users from using same path as both source of files to backup, and target into which files get archived. - Fixed bug where compression backups (zip) using the copy number extension (_2, _3, etc.) would start leaving gaps if a root level zip were not made (files not exist, error occurred, incremental backup with nothing changed, etc.). Now, all files are decremented back to their original number if the zip fails. - Fixed bug where non-compression backups failed if the target folder had same named files set to system or read- only or hidden attribute flags. - Added notes about never copying 'pagefile.sys' and 'win386.sys' files, as well as not backing up more than 2GB per zip file. Also do not backup *.pst exchange files, etc. that are in use. - Fixed bug where backups whose size exceeded 2GB would error because file size variables and fucntions all used Long data types (-2 billion to 2 billion). Changed to double and used Fix() function to remove error. VER 2.00, BLD 4 - MATT'S TWEAKS TO JOHN'S V1.50 ----------------------------------------------- - If backup job grandfathers older backup jobs by day, week, or month, the date format extension is no longer 'ddmmyy' because that does not sort in a directory properly. Instead use 'yyyymmdd' so sorts ascending. - Added suspended icon for compress, and non-compress listview icons. - Re-built Suspend toolbar button icon. - Made ini loader for preferences default the tray app pref to true so that installs always work as used to (in tray app) until user chooses to turn it off (love the new feature though John). - Added cue cards to all forms so can quickly see message box describing what the text box, command button or other control is supposed to do. - Rebuilt About form, giving credit to John Reilly for all of his incredibly wonderful work on TaskZip (see below)! - Tweaked Job Options form layout, Log Comment form layout, Preferences form, and others. Button sizes standardized, align controls, etc. - Made new AppConstants module to consolidate application constants. - Made new AppPreferences module (should probably be class) to isolate Preferences code from AppSetup code. - Made new AppZip module to isolate zip calls (just moved around John's code, no changes to it though). - Pick file form simplifed to one screen with no tabs. Reduces confusion about what selected. - Moved help to subdirectory (still need to re-write it). - Set archive flag after backup files for subsequent incremental non-compressed backups. - Fixed LED lights to stay on status bar. - Fixed Viewer selection at preferences window so checks filename, and so can pick a file. VER 1.50, BLD 227 - JOHN REILLY FIXES + NEW FEATURES ---------------------------------------------------- THANK YOU JOHN REILLY OF NEW ZEALAND FOR ALL OF THESE ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL NEW FEATURES AND BUG FIXES!!!!! - New /RUN command line switch so can run jobs and exit. Syntax is: ..\TaskZip\TaskZip.exe /RUN jobname1 jobname2 jobname3 ... - Insert and Delete keys work in Scheduler form. - Can add comments to zip file backups or copy file backups if manually run backups (like Visual Source Safe comments). - Pick form now allows more useful wilcard spec's such as "*.xl?" or "test.*". - Refresh option in menu to refresh schedule form view. - If rename a backup job, will rename the output zip files too. - Browse for folder at Pick File dialog now starts at current directory or C:\ if current directory is not valid. (THANKS!) - Pick form no longer tied in code to wizard form, re-built generically so that Job Options for uses it too...ended up scrapping old Job Definition wizard shortly thereafter (Matt). - File selection text box now allows user to type directly into it. Matt had removed because users crashing app by typing in funky stuff. - Copy backups (no compression) now have size recorded in log, can be aborted while in process via menu item, can be incremental or full (incremental uses archive bit of O.S.), and displays progress information during the operation in status bar. - Zip file passwords are now scrambled inside the .tzp file so that unscrupolous people cannot break into and determine the backup password(s). Note that scrambling is not anywhere near secure though. - Size and position of scheduler form is saved if you set the preference to do so. Can also define the columns you want visible on the scheduler dialog, as well as the width and location of the columns. Preferences allow you to indicate whether to run TaskZip from system tray, or as standard Win32 app that does not run scheduled jobs. Several other preferences have been added, but are big enough that they get their own line item below. - Can now select transaction logging mode: + Detailed - Everything possible is logged + Standard - Intermediate level of detail + Minimal - Only header information showing which jobs ran + Nothing - Only errors are always logged NOTE that errors are always logged regardless of mode selected. - Can now schedule one shot backups that occur one time... similar to milestone snapshots of a project's files. Can keep an unlimited number of these around. - Added Status column to scheduler form's listview control. Codes are D, W, M, S, R, or #. They stand for 'D'aily, 'W'eekly, 'M'onthly, 'S'uspended, 'R'unning, or # for invalid jobs. - Added Last Run Date columns to scheduler form's listview control. - Added Job Type column to scheduler form: "Zip", "Rebuild", "Update", or "Freshen" as types (see elsewhere for def.). - New feature to drop/delete transaction log or error log. - If you shift target directory in the Job Options dialog, then all existing backups will be shifted too if you answer yes to prompt. - Can terminate a backup if it is using compression because John wired in zip.dll and got rid of zip.exe. Option is a menu item. - Re-wired incremental backups to work again with new dll and new feature set. - For non-compression backups, there are three copy styles now available: (1) Rebuild - completely rebuild the whole directory structure (The default for new jobs which matches the previous style of backup). (2) Update - copy newer files over existing ones, and any files not backed up. (3) Freshen - copy only newer files that already exist in the backup. - Can now pick the executable name for the default viewer used to view error and transaction log files. Notepad.exe or Wordpad.exe are good choices. - Total number of times a backup job has been run is now stored in the .tzp file. You can overtype in a new value, or click the Clear Count button to change this value. The Total Runs value can be displayed in the scheduler list view control. - Do not use _1, _2, etc. as the extension tagged to the end of previous grandfathered zip backup jobs. Rather, add on _ plus the date (yyyymmdd). Instead of a number of previous backups to maintain, set a number of days back in time to maintain. Set the cutoff based on the date appended at the end of the zip filename. This would be pretty cool, it would simplify the code (no longer have to rename files, have code to loop, etc. Just have to check files whose date extension--not file date stamp because it could change by opening zip file--is older than date X. If multiple identical backup file names same day, then append (1), or (2), etc. to backup_YYYYMMDD name. John coded the app so now can keep N copies around for D days, or W weeks, or M months...you specify. - For non-compression backups (not applicable to zip backups), do not completely delete all contents of the target directory before copying in the source contents. Rather, add to or change the target contents. User found that if he deleted files from the source, then after the next backup they would be deleted from the target (archive directory) as well. Well, I can look into adding this as an option, but will not replace the current method as it is an important option too. - Make option so not have to schedule backup jobs, but can only run them manually (TaskZip is standalone). I was surprised to learn that many people use TaskZip manually like WinZip as a means of quickly zipping file sets. If I would have realized this sooner I would probably not have designed TaskZip as a tray app with scheduling functionality. I would have specialized the app as a file set zipper and let users use their own preferred scheduling agent (and probably have built a freeware one myself). Oh well, I may do that way down the road, or someone else can beat me to the punch (imagine if WinZip had templates, file specs, file sets, or whatever you want to call it--built in). Does not have tray icon if this preference is set on. GREAT JOB here John Reilly for coding this (and all the other features for this release version). - Make .tzp file structure into INI format (but retain the .tzp extension). This is very important as future feature enhancements can be added in as properties much easier. I initially had no idea that TaskZip would grow this much and have this many wonderful suggestions, otherwise I never would have assumed that the flat/sequential nature of the current .tzp file structure was acceptable. I wish I would have done this correctly from the start--lesson learned. - Clear the archive bit flag on files that have been backed up. If could get this to work, then could also make a true incremental backup option...and not just a date based incremental which has weaknesses. - Replace zip.exe with a more robust dll, ocx, or activeX control. Should offer more features than a util that shell out too. I know that DynaZip has more features...use it at work...but don't want to spend the money to purchase for at home right now. - Allow exclusion of specific file types (by extension). The opposite of the include wildcard option. - Make single dialog rather than having to wade through all the Wizard steps for more advanced users. John did excellent job here. - Timer now kicks off every 60 seconds instead of every 5. - Fixed bug where backing up directory in which target output zip file is going to reside would yield strange error. - Users can now suspend backup jobs right in the scheduler window. The jobs are grayed out (Matt later replaced with white X in red circle). Nice feature John. - Job editor now simplified. Fewer screens, less to read. Has wizard mode for new jobs only which is sequential forward with verification checks, but can still click buttons to jump to other pages. No flashy controls, so will work in all versions of VB. - Added drag drop to exclude list. - Can now view dated backups. - Autorefresh on backup job directory changing. - Pre-empt missing error log error, now just inert message box indicating no log yet exists. Ditto transaction log. - Stored column widths (scheduler form listview) are now sanity checked when loaded so all columns reset to default if any sizes errored out. - Can now see which job is running if multi-select several jobs (R in status column of scheduler window's listview). - Execution of backups used to require form and window handle so that API call for backup could automatically center the copying status window. Re-written now using VB code not API so this handle no longer required. - Used to be a bug in zipping to distinguish file from folder by looking for presence of period in the filepath passed in, but John fixed with call to GetAttr(sfilepath) to determine if directory with '.', or really a filename. Fixed rare bug. - When editing one shots directly, will include backup name in window caption. - Size field stored in backup job, not checked every time load tzp files into scheduler listview. VER 1.04, BLD 3 - BUG FIX / NEW NOTES ------------------------------------- - Still trying to correct minor bug where user unable to backup without compression files that somehow due not have an extension. Changed around so that now if root drive g:\*.* copied, then d:\TargPath\g\*.* is the target, and not error, and not d:\TargPath. Also, changed around directory copy without subdirectories so that it creates subdirectories instead of just dumping everything into the target directory. VER 1.04, BLD 1 - BUG FIX / NEW NOTES ------------------------------------- - Very important note added to step #1 of the Backup Job Definition Wizard. User's hard drive crashed, and when he restored using the backup files TaskZip created, he found that he could not distinguish folders from drives C and D. After further research, it turns out that zip files (you can confirm by testing in WinZip) do not record the drive, just the path information. So, I put a warning on the first step to suggest that users should create separate backup jobs for each drive if there are too many folders to easily distinguish drive of origin. - There was an error in the FilePathStripFileName() function that caused backups with no compression saved to the root directory to fail when the path was searched for \'s and there were none. Not many people use this sequence, but for those that do it was a significant bug. - Re-pointed the Download Source url to a redirector link on xoom.com. From now on, if sharehouse.xoom.com keeps going down, etc. then it will be easier to quickly modify the redirector html (one line VBScript) to point to a site that is up. Pretty soon I am going to bite the bullet and pay for a web hosting site...just want to find a good one with unlimited monthly download bandwidth, 50MB+ storage space, able to store/host files (not just web files, but shareware downloads), etc. - Fixed bug at Backup Job Definition Wizard when selecting Target Directory, and user clicked Cancel, then directory was set to '\'. Now just left unchanged. (Thanks to Kristopher Culin for finding this and emailing code fix...he has others too that I will be implementing soon.) VER 1.03, BLD 1 - BUG FIX ------------------------- - Dag-nab-it. User found a bug that has been here for a long time. Many users were getting an error #53, file not found. Turns out that when _not_ using compression, the uKill() function was not properly clearing out system and hidden files. Thus, after the first backup, all subsequent backups failed with this error. I tried in vain several times to reproduce it, but never realized that the C:\My Documents\ folder was a great sample troublemaker (has a hidden ini file for user's desktop info in Win98). Anyways, this error is finally fixed. Thank you to Richard Sedgewick for the report. Many other users have also reported it...but I just never was able to exactly reproduce it, so sorry it took so long to fix this non-compression, specific file-type backup problem. - Added in new feature where clicking the View button on non-compression backups will now open up Windows Explorer in the target output directory. It used to just popup an error indicating that the feature only open zip files for compression backup...now it opens both backup types' output. VER 1.02, BLD 4 - BUG FIX / NEW FEATURE --------------------------------------- - Newer Wise 8.0 setup should fix the Windows 2000 install problem. - Ability to Copy backup jobs from the scheduling window. Highlight source backup job. Click copy. Copy of previously highlighted backup job is created with prefix of "Copy Of ". This new backup job copy is highlighted and opened up for you to edit in the Backup Job Definition Wizard. I really appreciated this suggestion. - Dashed line with Backup Job Name is now inserted into the transaction log at the start of every backup job. This makes it much easier to see what activity belongs to what job. I really appreciated this suggestion. - Checks for missing removable media (floppy disk, zip disk, CD, etc.) and warns user so can continue rather than just error out. - Drag and drop files from Windows Explore had error where two backslashes were recorded (\\) for root level directory selections. It is now fixed. - Can now click Finish on any step in the Backup Job Definition Wizard. If any required fields are unanswered, a verification error will popup. - Now, all bad characters (~`!@#$%^&*()_+-=|}{[]\:;'",<.>/? etc.) will be prevented as character in your backup job name. You should go back and change existing names...although they can remain the same. This will prevent errors that some users were having when the name was used as the backupjob.tzp filename, and the zip compressed file name. - Fixed bug where could not backup to root level directory on removable media (e.g.: A:\, D:\, etc.). - Make a note that zip backups do not currently span diskettes on removable media. - When resize screen, the green and red lights would sometimes disappear. Fixed now. - MAJOR bug for non-compression backups. Files with read-only, hidden, or system flags set were not being deleted by the uRmDir() command (actually the uKill function). This bug resulted in initial backups working fine, but all subsequent backups (non-compression) failed because the target folder was not properly cleared out in preparation for the backup. Great find by user. - Help | About dialog altered (copyright, send payment to option, website url, mailto address, etc.) - Help file changed to reflect changes above. - All forms opened modally to prevent focus shifting problem when moving between dialogs. - I think the localization issues surrounding different date formats (German dates, etc.) has finally been resolved. Times are stored in military time (no AM/PM), and the previous date fix (mmm-dd-yyyy) should both combine to fix the problem (I tested it on my machine with Regional Settings on German - Standard, and it worked...but this has been a thorny bug and perhaps one of the other hundreds of regional settings may cause problems...if so please email me). VER 1.01, BLD 20 - BUG FIX -------------------------- - Big fix here was to add COMCTL32.OCX version 6.00.8022 to install. Setup.exe is much larger now, but hopefully this will do away with problems users have been experiencing. Fear is that older Win95 machines will have some existing apps broken because Microsoft did not make this OCX backwards compatible in some instances. Please email me if you experience any problems with this latest install, and I will pull it. I test it on all the machines I have at my disposal (Win95b, Win98, WinNT4SP5, but *no* Win2K yet). - Added Win2K install bug information known to date (must have Win2K Administrative Tools to install TaskZip). - Combined two troubleshooting sections in Help File. VER 1.01, BLD 19 - BUG FIX -------------------------- - Fixed "File Path Access Error #75". This error occurred where user assigned target zip directory to a directory that does not exist. Rather than trying to create the directory on the fly, I locked the text box, forcing users to use the browse [...] button to popup the common dialog and select a directory that way. Users can also click the Windows Explorer button at the bottom of the screen to create the directory. User pointed out this error today (1/13/2000), but I did not fix it like he wanted (auto-generate the new folder). May go back later and add code to do this. - Added Button to Download Source code from Help -> About dialog. Source code is VB5 and is free. VER 1.01, BLD 17 - BUG FIX -------------------------- - Pick File dialog now remembers the most recent folder that was last saved. This makes it much easier to select a few different wildcard file types without having to re-select the drive and path (what a pain). Great suggestion from two users. One other user and a reviewer had even better suggestions (multi-select at drop down for wildcards, and multiple extensions in text box, separated by spaces); however, it would take too much time to implement those great suggestions at present. - Great suggestion by user. Now the Pick File dialog box has a horizontal scrollbar so that you can see the entire path + filename. I wasn't thinking clearly when I originally through this form in as a quickie to improve file selection. Great user feedback from Jim Bruce. - Added button to Step 3 of Backup Job Definition Wizard. Now, can click the Drag-n-Drop button to fire up Windows Explorer. From there, user can drag and drop as many files and/or folders as s/he wants. Some people prefer this to the Add... button. - Added troubleshooting section to Help file discussing COMCTL32.OCX fix with link to our website (downloadable file), and how to register the control. - Add link to EnZip for users to download as TaskZip compliment. URL is http://www.cpam.freeserve.co.uk/. VER 1.01, BLD 15 - BUG FIX -------------------------- - Major bug found and fixed thanks to Kevin Kleinfelter (also reported by numerous folks, but he actually made a fix and sent it to me). This bug prevented users from copying *.* from the C:\, or D:\, etc. root directories. It turns out that the freeware zip.exe that TaskZip shells out too handles root directories completely differently. Now users can backup everything from the root. HOWEVER, I was unable to find a workaround for backing up a wildcard spec (e.g.: *.htm from the root directories). So, for now a warning pre-empts you from making this mistake when building backup jobs; and you are forced to select subdirectories (e.g.: C:\Windows to use a spec of *.dat for registry backups). This was a major bug we somehow missed in testing and many people reported it. Thanks to all of you! - Major bug where system and hidden files were unable to be backed up. Thank you Rich Weigold and others for pointing this out. Now able to easily backup user.dat and similar files. - Fixed Pick File dialog so file list actually shows hidden and system files for user to select. I neglected to activate these two property settings earlier (was not thinking!). - Fixed Error 75 File/Path Access error that some users got. Turns out that sometimes people view a zip file or older backup zip file that is being renamed (decremented) and lock it opened so cannot be deleted. Now message box pops up indicating exactly why user got the error. - Fixed bug where EasyZip and FreeZip not properly running from View Zip files button. Now, original registry lookup still active, but if that fails, user is prompted to confirm that s/he knows there is a zip file on the system. If click yes, then Explorer.exe runs and will find the correct zip file viewer and fire it up. Only drawback is clicking Yes every time. Need to add a preference setting some time later. - Added a combo box to pick common file extensions for Wildcard Backups at the Pick File dialog. - Locked directory pick field at Pick File dialog because too many users getting confused and adding wildcard spec to this directory rather than using the "Wildcard Spec" tab. Rather than put in verification code to be sure user not put in bogus spec at directory, instead just eliminate ability to accidentally enter a spec here. Must use ... browse button to change paths. - Locked Schedule form when backup is in progress. Unlock form when finished or errors out. Users could accidentally click a button and produce errors down the road due to files that were permanently locked but not finished, etc. - Fixed website link and mail to / tech support link for NT. Used to shell out and use Start.exe which is present in Win95 and Win98 command subdirectory, but not present in NT. Now shell out and pass url's to explorer.exe (yep that one, not IE). It automatically recognizes file associations and does its job. VER 1.01, BLD 12 - BUG FIX -------------------------- - Fixed bug where System directories like the Favorites folder could not be copied. Had to add flag to "DIR$(sPath, parms)" command at parms argument. VER 1.01, BLD 11 - BUG FIX -------------------------- - Fixed bug where archives using compression with only one backup errored out the 3rd time you ran it. Had to do with how code handles renaming backup from 'backup.zip' to 'backup_1.zip' (assumed there was a 'backup_2.zip' that had already been renamed from backup_1.zip). User bug find (excellent write-up by the way, I could reproduce it easily with those details). - Ahh, Miscellaneous Zip Error #18. Numerous users emailed me about this one and it took a while to figure out. Turns out that error 18 is an error reading a file. Typically, these are files that are in use by Windows (e.g.: when I backed up the entire Windows directory). The error message in the task log now specifically indicates what the cause of the error is (which file spec errored, and why--due to inability to read the file). VER 1.01, BLD 10 - BUG FIX -------------------------- - Undid one new feature. Now, auto-scheduled tasks will NOT run when schedule window is up. Turns out it does some bad things when user is building a task and another fires off. Sorry, had to undo this suggestion. - Added a troubleshooting section the Help file. It discusses options for COMCTL32.OCX problems. Either install IE4 or later; or download the latest version from Microsoft and register it. VER 1.01, BLD 9 - BUG FIX / NEW FEATURE LIST -------------------------------------------- - Added Preferences Form to Scheduler window. Two new preferences are: (A) Maximum Number Backup Jobs max count for Backup Job Definition Wizard drop-down; and (B) Yes/No for whether to stop and wait for user intervention or proceed with next backup when error occurs during auto-scheduled backup job. User suggestion. - Altered code so that auto-scheduled backup jobs will run even if the scheduler window is up. User suggestion. - Altered Help file to reflect new changes. Also added EasyZip to the list of zip shells from which user can choose. VER 1.01, BLD 7 - BUG FIX ------------------------- - Ver 1.01 Build 5 introduced multi-select Backup Execution from the scheduling agent. Unfortunately, it also gave way to a new bug (now fixed) that ran every job that was selected, never clearing a job once executed on timer; thus, jobs would run multiple times a day/night. - A beta tester found a bug where clicking OK after selecting a directory did not return focus to the Pick File dialog, but rather to a random form. Now focus is forced back to the correct form after selecting from the directory browse dialog. - The View button was not displaying the proper message box if user had not setup a zip utility. Now, if API call indicates no association is returned OR returns a bogus executable associated with the extension, the message box will be displayed (pre-empting the ugly untrapped error message). Beta Tester found it. VER 1.01, BLD 5 - BUG FIX / NEW FEATURE LIST -------------------------------------------- - Incremental backups no longer error out if there is nothing new to archive. Instead, they just shift the older copies down one notch (backup.zip -> backup_1.zip; backup_1.zip -> backup_2.zip, etc.). Sometimes there will be gaps on days/weeks/months where there is nothing new to archive. - Because Incrmental Backups may have nothing to backup, and archive zip file may not exist, but the previous archive copies will (backup_1.zip, backup_2.zip, etc.). Clicking 'View' from the Scheduler will now look for the most current zip file archive, even if it is an older copy. - Hopefully the listview icons no longer appear in every column on some Windows 95 boxes (re-coded the way icons are assigned from imagelists). If this bug still exists for some users, please let me know. VER 1.01, BLD 3 - BUG FIX / NEW FEATURE LIST -------------------------------------------- - Now supports Incremental Backups in addition to default Full Backup sets. Incremental backups copy just the files whose date/times have changed since the date of last backup. Note that an Incremental backup should be scheduled daily and should be built in conjunction with a second backup set that is a Full Backup that runs weekly or monthly. See documentation for further details on limitations and how to... - Added new File Selection Dialog box, replacing the older duo File + Directory common dialog boxes. Can now select multiple files, click Ok and quickly assign them all to the backup job. Also, this dialog supports two types of wildcards: *.* for all files in the directory and subdirectory; or *.ext where you specify the extension (sorry zip.exe does not yet support more complicated file specifications). - Fixed bug where files without extensions were treated as directories. - At Scheduler window, user can now multi-select several batch jobs; then delete or execute them all at once. - Job Definition Wizard form now centers on screen (was at upper left corner). - Fixed a bug where non American date formats caused erroneous dates to occur so that backup jobs never ran (esp. with Monthly backups). - Increased maximum number of copies of backup to maintain from 12 to 99. - Hopefully fixed bug where users with Win95 had taskzip icon displayed in every cell, and 2D checkbox at leftmost column. If not fixed, let me know as I cannot reproduce it at home or work. - Fixed NT install bug by forcing reboot if installed dll was in use. - Updated Help file.