Visual Build Pro 5

•	Existing projects created in Visual Build Pro 5 (and earlier versions) can be loaded by Visual Build 6. The file schema has changed, so projects saved in the new version will not load or build correctly in earlier versions.

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Visual Build Pro version 6 can be installed side-by-side with previous versions. The default installation path is C:\Program Files\VisBuildPro6 rather than C:\Program Files\VisBuildPro. Scheduled tasks, command (.cmd) scripts, batch (.bat) files, and Windows shortcuts that specify a full path for launching Visual Build will need to be adjusted for the new installation path (operations that do not specify a path [i.e., start VisBuildPro, double-clicking a .bld file, etc.] will launch the most recently installed version of Visual Build Pro).

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The default application data folder is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 6 rather than C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional. During installation, any configuration files in the version 4/5 application data folder or install path will be copied to the version 6 folder. Also, the registry key to override the default application data path is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 6\ConfigFilesPath rather than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional\ConfigFilesPath.

Additional command-line options for specifying the location of application configuration files are available.

•	Several obsolete system script functions are no longer included in system scripts. Either convert your projects to use the replacement actions documented here, or copy the script code from that topic into your global script code.

•	The following obsolete global macros will be copied from an earlier installation but are no longer automatically created: WINZIP, VB, MSDEV, DEVSTUDIODIR, DEVENV. Replace their use with an equivalent built-in action or create and initialize as appropriate if needed on a clean install.

Macro

Visual Build Pro 6+ Equivalent

WINZIP

UNZIP Files/ZIP Files actions

VB	Make VB6 action

MSDEV

Make VC6 action

•	The build status of the Run Program action will always be a value from BuildStatusEnum and not the exit code of the process. The exit code is available in the RUNPROGRAM_EXITCODE temporary macro.

•	For performance reasons, v6.3 introduced changes to the default threading model of the Builder component and custom actions.

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All Visual Build COM components, type libraries, ProgIDs, and interface GUIDs are different in version 6. User action components will need to be updated to reference the Visual Build 6 Server type library and recompiled in order to work with version 6. Script code that uses ProgIDs of "VisBuildSvr.Application" and/or "VisBuildSvr.Builder" will need to be modified to use "VisBuildSvr6.Application" and/or "VisBuildSvr6.Builder" instead.

•	Actions are now registered under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 6\Actions rather than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional\Actions. The COM Register action in version 6 registers actions at this location.

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User actions are now always identified by their filename (without extension). In previous versions, the filename was used by default, but this could be overridden by adding a Name attribute to the action element of the .action file. In version 6, the Name attribute is ignored and the filename is always used for the action name. To convert existing actions that have a Name attribute which differs from the filename, use the ConvertActions.bld project (located in the Samples\User Actions folder within the Visual Build installation path). This project processes all .action files in the path where it is located to identify actions whose Name does not match its filename. Then it will update all .bld files in the same directory from the old to the new action name. To process .action and/or .bld files elsewhere, change the %PROJDIR% value in the Process .action files and Process .bld files steps (and check the recurse flag to process subdirectories if desired).

•	Custom logging components are now registered under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional 6\Logging rather than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Kinook Software\Visual Build Professional\Logging.