Pre and Post requisites are things to check/run before (pre) or after (post) the patch system has run.
So you can make a list of things to check conditions. If that condition is true, it will perform the action. It is the same system for both prerequisites and postrequisites. Here we will list all the available conditions and actions available for you to use, along with instructions on how to write those instructions.
You can click ‘Add’ to add a new requisite or you can click ‘Edit’ or ‘Remove’ at the side of an existing one to edit or remove it, respectively.
REMEMBER: You MUST click ‘Compile’ every time you are finished editing your requisites, otherwise they will not be saved to your account.
Available Conditions
Registry File Exists
This asks the patch system to check the registry to get the path and then check that path to see if a file exists. You must write the string in this format (separated by ~)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER~SOFTWARE\ByteBox Media\Test Game~InstallPath~mygame.exe
The above example instructs the patch system that the path should be located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ByteBox Media\Test Game and in a string called InstallPath. This gives the patch system the path, then the file command is the filename to check in that path. So if InstallPath returns:
C:\My Test Game\ then it will look at that folder to see if mygame.exe exists there.
If it does, it will return true and it will run the action you specify. If it is not true, it won’t perform any actions.
Registry File DOESN’T Exist
This is the same as above but the opposite. So you are asking the patch system to perform an action if the file from the registry path is NOT found.
A .NET Framework is installed
You can test to see if a specific version of the .NET framework is installed on the user’s computer. You should just write the specific .NET framework version number required. As an example, for .NET 4, you simply write 4 in the condition parameter box.
A .NET Framework is NOT installed
This is the test (same as above) but to detect that the specific framework version is NOT installed. You should just write the specific .NET framework version number required. As an example, for .NET 4, you simply write 4 in the condition parameter box.
A Local File Exists
This tests if a file local to the patch executable exists or not. It will have to be in the same folder as the patch system. If it is in a sub-folder from where the patch executable is, then you can prepend that at the beginning.
— Example for same folder
launcher.exe
— Example for sub-folder
subfolder\launcher.exe
A Local File Does NOT Exist
This is the same as above but now the condition will be true if the file does NOT exist and the actions will perform.
Run Once
This instructs the patch system to run the action specified no matter what. It will always run, every time.
Available Actions
These are the available actions you can perform for the requisites based on whether the condition is rendered true. These will only run if the condition is true. Unless you select ‘Run Once’ as the condition then the action will always perform.
Run the Registry File
If you selected ‘Registry File Exists’ as the condition and this condition is true (the file does exist), you can instruct the patch system to run/execute this file. You don’t need any ‘Action Parameters’ unless you want to specify command line parameters. If you do simply write the command line parameters here. If you use any spaces inside any of the arguments, you must wrap your command line arguments in “” speech marks.
Run a Local File
You can choose to run a file local to the patch executable here. You can run it with or without optional command line arguments.
The format is filename:command line arguments. So for example, if you want to run a local file with the command line argument -S1 and -Y1 then you would run it like this
install.exe:-S1 -Y1
If you wish for the patch system to PAUSE or WAIT until this executable process has finished running, then simply start your command line arguments with (wait) like this
install.exe:(wait) -S1 -Y1
This will halt the execution of any further requisites until this process has ended.
Download and Run
This instructs the patch system to download a file from a webserver and run it. It HAS to be an executable file. The patch system will not run any other filetype. You should separate your arguments with ! instead of : like so
https://mywebsite.com/files/thisfile.exe!(wait)
Using (wait) as the command line argument will stop the execution of the patch system runtime from processing any further requisites until this file has downloaded and run and the process has ended.
Open URL
This simply opens the user’s default web browser and navigates to the URL you specify. Don’t forget to use http/https:// as the protocol.
https://launchboost.io
Show a Message
This will display a message to the user inside a Windows Message Information Box. Just simply write out your message to display here.
Exit Patch System
This instructs the patch system to stop everything it is doing and exit.
Write a Registry Value
Using the same data structure as above, use ~ to separate your registry information to write to. It should be in this format:
Registry Root~Registry Path~Registry String~String to Write
So as an example, if you want to write ‘installed’ to the registry you would do this
HKEY_CURRENT_USER~Software\ByteBox Media\Test Game~Version!Installed
If you want to write the currently installed version to the Registry, simply type the word version in lowercase and the patch system will write out the current version number to the registry, like so
HKEY_CURRENT_USER~Software\ByteBox Media\Test Game~Version~version
Write to Local File
This will write the data you specify to a local text file. It should be written in this format:
myfile.txt!hello
The ! separates the filename (first) and then the data to write to the text file. If you want the patch system to write the version number, simply type ‘version’ in lowercase like so
version.txt!version
Write to INI File
This will write out the specified data to an INI file that is local to the patch executable. The format should be written like this:
myinifile.ini!group*.*item*.*hello
The ! separates the filename and the *.* separates the data which is group name followed by item name followed by data to write to that item.
If you want to write the version number to the INI file, just specify version in lowercase as the data to write. For example
version.ini!version*.*number*.*version
