Hi,

Beta Version is now available:

Download
www.aperitto.com/media/downloads/ppcic_2.3b.exe

This is the Setup Wizard Executable from the CustomDialogsExample Project.
You can download it and take a quick look.
www.aperitto.com/media/downloads/CustomDialogsExample.rar
[It will not install anything, it is only a demonstration of the Custom Forms Support ]

Update 12/10/2007

PPCIC 2.3 now is stable enough to go to beta version. All the new features are finished and working very well. For now on, until the RC version, no new major features will be added, only bug fixing and enhancements to the added features.

Changes from the latest alpha version:

* The Form Designer and Code Editor are now completed, but \"bug hunting\" is continued.
* Code Refactoring behind the scenes. So, you can directly use the Form's controls inside your code. Also, you can use other's Form's controls by their actual names. For example \"myForm.Edit1\" and not anymore \"myForm_Edit1\". See the CustomDialogsExample project for an example of this new feature.
* Finished the Code Automation with the refactoring support. Simple press ctrl+space and all the Forms and Controls will show up with all their properties.
* Finished hint parameters support. Press ctrl+shift+space to enabled it.
* Bug fixes within Form Designer and Event Controller.
* Updated builder to support Code Refactoring.
* Update the example CustomDialogsExample project.

Update 8/10/2007

Changes from previous alpha version:

* Help File Add ( basic documentation for now, but covers the new features added within this version )
* Code Helper now have all the functions and classes used by Forms. Also search and history functionality added.
* Added all the Controls that Setup Wizard supports.
* Added all the events for all Controls.
* Added a tab to inspector for the Control's events. From this tab you can create events, disable them, _link_ events with controls.
* Event Controller now is more flexible. Now you can have the same event handler shared among many controls. Also, you can change the name of the event handler.
* Many bug fixes into Form Designer and Code Editor. Now is stable enough for the next version to be beta.
* A new example is added, CustomDialogsExample. Open this project, to see all these new features.

Still waiting for impressions about the Form Designer and Code Editor

Update 3/10/2007

Changes from previous alpha version:

* It is now safe to use this version, because finished the internal format of the Custom Forms Data. So, any project saved with this version, will be accessible from all the next versions of PPCIC.
* Bug fixes in Installation Modules handling.
* A lot of bugs fixed in the Custom Form Designer.
* New Code Editor Event's Controller.
* Added all the available events for the form's controls.
* The Code's Editor Event's Controller now can enable/disable specific events.
* Added a Helper Window in the Code Editor.
* An example project added, showing the use of the BitmapImage Control.

In the next alpha version, the Form designer will have all the available controls for building forms. Also, the helper will have more content and the Code Automation mechanism will be a bit more clever

I am hoping to get some impressions and/or suggestions about the Form Designer and Code Editor.

Initial Alpha Version

The all new features are
* Custom Setup Types.
* Parent/Child hierarchy for modules.
* New Module added, Component Container.
* 6 Flags are added for each module.
* Custom Forms support, with designer and code editor. [ This feature is at early development. Please don't rely on it, because it may change the way it saves and handles it's data ]

All the first 4 new features are tested and worked well, so it is safe to be used.

1. Custom Setup Types
It defines all of the setup types Setup will show on the Select Components page of the wizard at the top of the dialog.
The Is Custom flag Instructs Setup that the type is a custom type. Whenever the end user manually changes the components selection during installation, Setup will set the setup type to the custom type. Note that if you don't define a custom type, Setup will only allow the user to choose a setup type and he/she can no longer manually select/unselect components.

2. Parent/Child Hierarchy
Now it is possible to have your modules organized in levels. For helping better the organize, a new module, called component container, is added. This module doesn't installs anything, but can have other modules as child, and can be child of any other module.
Every module can have the following flags enabled or disabled:

CheckableAlone
Specifies that the component can be checked when none of its children are. By default, if no Components parameter directly references the component, unchecking all of the component's children will cause the component to become unchecked.

DontInheritCheck
Specifies that the component should not automatically become checked when its parent is checked. Has no effect on top-level components, and cannot be combined with the exclusive flag.

Exclusive
Instructs Setup that this component is mutually exclusive with sibling components that also have the exclusive flag.

Fixed
Instructs Setup that this component can not be manually selected or unselected by the end user during installation.

Restart
Instructs Setup to ask the user to restart the system if this component is installed, regardless of whether this is necessary (for example because of [Files] section entries with the RestartReplace flag).

DisableNoUninstallWarning
Instructs Setup not to warn the user that this component will not be uninstalled after he/she deselected this component when it's already installed on his/her machine.

Hidden ( not available for component container module )
When this flag is set, then the module is always installed, and don't shows up in Select Components Page. Also, when a module is hidden, can't have any child's or be a child module of any other module.

3. Custom Forms Support
This feature is at a very early stage of development. Try it if you want to take a \"taste\" of what I am preparing for the next version It includes a form designer for easy designing your dialogs, and a code editor with some code completion and parameters hints and syntax highlight. The language used is a pascal-like variant.
The Forms produced with the designer are automatically included into the setup wizard. So easy

Regards,
Nick Protopapas