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Thread: Distributing a lot of Data

  1. #1

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    Question Distributing a lot of Data

    I am getting ready to launch my application which has a lot of data file (100+) in about 20 folders. Normally this would be in a database but it is not for good reasons

    What is the best way of doing this - I am likely to be using Advanced Installer?
    Last edited by wavering; Jan 19th, 2013 at 10:01 AM.

  2. #2
    MS SQL Powerposter szlamany's Avatar
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    Re: Distributing a lot of Data

    If you take a standard EXCEL or WORD file (.XLSX or .DOCX - newest versions of OFFICE) and rename the file extension to be .ZIP you will see that these files are really just .ZIP files - and you can see folders and files and various aspects of the EXCEL or WORD document.

    Is this something that might make sense for you? At least you get a single "file" for INSTALL purposes - and it's packaged nicely and hidden from the users in a slight way.

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  3. #3

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    Re: Distributing a lot of Data

    Sitting here thinking about the problem, it looks to me that the best way may be as follows:

    A. Bundle all the data files and their folders into the Installation Package (likely to be created by Advanced Installer) so that the user starts life with a working package - albeit somewhat out of date (otherwise there would be lots of versions, which I wish to avoid).

    B. When the user starts my application it offers to check if further files are available or existing files need updating (the data files may well change and increase in number)

    So, the detailed logic may well be:

    1. If the user is a New User (eg in first two hours of use or some similar metric) OR he is NOT connected to the web, then don't bother him at this point.

    2. If he IS connected and is an experienced user, then "Would you like to update these files? All your existing data files will be moved to a backup folder so you can revert to previous versions if you wish. If not, then no big deal you can do it another day"

    How does that sound? Any comments much appreciated!
    Bob
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  4. #4

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    Question Re: Distributing a lot of Data

    This has moved on a bit and my problem now is

    1. Whether to use zip, rar or some other packaging?

    2. How can I build in an "unzip" into my application so that the exe file installed by the user automatically downloads the zip file from the web (I have got that part covered, I think) and then automatically installs all of the 100 or so files in the zip (or rar, or whatever) in maybe 20 different folders?

    All help appreciated!
    .

  5. #5
    Smooth Moperator techgnome's Avatar
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    Re: Distributing a lot of Data

    what is your program based on? VB? .NET? VB6? Java? Cobol?

    if you're using .NET (Vb/C#) then you can use SharpZipLib or some other similar library to read/write/extract zip files...

    -tg
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  6. #6

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    Re: Distributing a lot of Data

    Sorry! It is VB6 application

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