https://www.ugmfree.it/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=331 SyMenu - General discussion & questions - New SyMenu version 4.06 - Messages en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Thu, 05 Mar 2015 09:04:03 GMT Thu, 05 Mar 2015 09:04:03 GMT https://www.ugmfree.it/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=331
I finally released a version with some visible features.
All the versions from the 4.00 and the 4.05 were little improvements for the SPS working so you hardly may have noticed anything new. In fact in these months I worked a lot on the SyMenu backstage.

These are the 4.06 new features:

• Sysinternals suite has been enabled to SPS Suites
• SPS programs could be filtered with a search tool
• Management of the SPS suites trash
• The freshest released SPS programs (10 days) are highlighted with a label
• SPS programs folder paths are now unchangeable despite the programs version
• SPS create _CacheCustom folder for every suite to host che users' custom SPS
• Bug fix

Some features need a little comment to be well understood.


Management of the SPS suites trash
When you delete or update an SPS installed program the old files are copied inside a special folder that I called _Trash.
You can find a _Trash folder into every SPSSuite folder.
Inside the _Trash you can find a backup of the old sps files too. So every time you check for new apps online the old sps collection is moved inside the _Trash. Well it is evident that the _Trash folder can grow quickly.
With the new button you can monitor and eventually empty the folder.


SPS programs folder paths are now unchangeable despite the programs version
Until version 4.05 SPS program folders contain the version number.
It means that when you update from a version to another, the program folder changes. For example the Notepad++ folder can changes from Notepad++_minimalist_package_sps_6.7.1 to Notepad++_minimalist_package_sps_6.7.4.
This is not a problem for SyMenu because at every update it retraces the new path and you have all the SyItems linked to the program old version relinked to the new one.

But there are two great problems.

The first one occurs when you have your program linked through a command parameter.
I use this kind of solution when I have jar programs that I want to execute with my portable Java version.
To understand better think about a SyItem with this path:
.\ProgramFiles\JavaRuntimeEnvironment\bin\java.exe
and with this parameter:
-jar #:\SyMenu\ProgramFiles\SPSSuite\SyMenuSuite\JCloisterZone_-_Carcassone_clone_sps_3.1.0\JCloisterZone.jar
In that way I can execute JCloisterZone even in a machine without the Java environment installed.
The drawback is that SyMenu is not able to relink a command parameter in case of an update of the program.

The second problem occurs when you use SyMenu as a stable program in your PC. In this case you probably want to map some SPS programs with the Open with.. Windows feature.
A simple example.
In my PC I use a stable version of SyMenu, located in the fixed drive D:, and I want to open all my .pdf files with a double click without using the SyMenu extension manager because it is too slow. So I map the .pdf extension with this SPS program:
D:\SyMenu\programfiles\spssuite\symenusuite\pdf-xchange_viewer_sps_2.5.312.1\pdfxcview.exe
What happens when I update the program?
It happens that the path will change because the version changes and a double click on a .pdf file fails and Windows asks me to locate a new program to open the .pdf. Boring!

With the unchangeable folder path name this problem will go.
Well your already installed SPS programs won't automatically change their paths but if you remove and reinstall a program or if you wait for an available update the path will be fixed automatically.


SPS create _CacheCustom folder for every suite to host che users' custom SPS
Inside every suite folder you will find a subfolder called _CacheCustom. You can put your personal SPS files here inside and they will be listed with the official program list.
How can you build your personal SPS? Naturally with the SPS Builder http://www.ugmfree.it/SyMenuSuiteSPSBuilder.aspx

Enjoy!]]> Thu, 05 Mar 2015 09:04:03 GMT