Dependency Scanning
VersionStamper includes a Dependency Wizard that allows you to create a component dependency list for your Visual Basic projects or other applications. This utility uses several proven scanning techniques which may be combined together to generate a comprehensive list of all modules required by the application.
- DLL Dependency Analysis - Scans a DLL, OCX, or other EXE-style format files to retrieve a list of the direct dependencies for these files using the file's import tables.
- Visual Basic Project Scanning - Scan a Visual Basic project for a list of the ActiveX controls and components used by the project and a list of all DLLs referenced by the Declare statements in the project.
- Installation Script Scanning - Scans Wise Installation and InstallShield installation script files to for a list of files distributed by your installation.
- Process Memory Scanning - Monitor a running application and obtains a list of modules loaded by that application.
- DEP File Analysis - Recursively parses Dependency (.DEP) files to retrieve a list of all the dependencies for a particular file.
Keep in mind, you are not limited to finding dependencies for your own applications and components - you can use these tools to determine the dependencies of third party applications and components, allowing you to build a complete distribution/update solution.
Component Verification
An application needs the correct versions of dependent files in order to work correctly. So all you need to do is check the version number of each dependent file to know that everything is ok, right?
Wrong. What if the file does not have a version number? Or what if the file's version resource is not consistently updated when a new version is released? Or if the version number does not match the version string? What if you need to check for some other file condition, such as whether a component is registered correctly?
VersionStamper supports the following types of verifications:
- File Version Verification - Examines the version resource for a component. Can detect both older and newer components (important in cases where later components broke backwards compatibility).
- File Date and Time Verification - Used primarily with files that do not have a version resource. VersionStamper can verify based on an older or newer date and time.
- Other File Verification Options - You can also compare files by file size, file version string, type library version.
- Registration Verification - You can verify that a file is registered.
- Custom - You can write VB code that performs any additional verification you wish.
Automatic Updates and Reporting
VersionStamper offers numerous options for what to do when component conflicts or incompatibilities are detected.
- Automatically update via HTTP or FTP (HTTP and FTP components are included).
- Updates may be generated using version lists obtained from a web or FTP site, making it easy to use VersionStamper to automatically deploy updates even in cases where no compatibility issues exist.
- Report to User - Generate a report to display that includes information such as which components caused problems and why, and whether other copies of those file was found elsewhere on their system.
- Log File Report - Create a file conflict report to an external file. This can include information such as the time the scan was performed, files that failed and the reasons for those failures, and whether other copies of the failed file were found on the system (and if so, where).
- Email Response - You can send an email to your help desk that describes the file conflicts found on your end user's systems.
- Custom - Results of verifications can be passed to your own Visual Basic code to do with as you wish.
Dependency List Management
Once you have used VersionStamper to determine the component dependencies for an application or component, the product offers a number of ways to work with lists of dependencies.
- Embed Component Lists into Executables - The dependency list can be imported by a VersionStamper control and then compiled into your executable for use during verification.
- External Verifications scripts - The dependency list can be used to create a VersionStamper Script file (VSF) for use in detecting file conflicts. These files can be distributed via Email, the web, or with your application.
- FTP or Web based Dependency Scripts - Allows end-users to access an updated dependency list from a web site, report component conflicts via Email and even automatically update their components via the web or from an FTP site.