Author - Mridul Ganga
As the name suggests this would be a Visual Basic Application manager. A program which will install, remove VB apps through a database of apps. This will keep list of applications in its database and when the user wants to install the app then the Manager will download it from the internet. The list of applications will be stored in the repository files which can be added in the app.The repositories will have the Information about the application, downloading link, rating, title, description etc. The repo files will be present online, when the user presses the update button then all those repo files will be downloaded and they will then be parsed to update the applications database. A detailed description is provided below.
The Repo
The repository files can be distributes by 3rd Party Developers on their websites, emails or whereever they like. The files will have a ".VBrepo" extension. These files will be downloaded when the user clicks the Update button in the Manager APP. The list of Repos will also be maintained offline in a RepoList which will tell the Manager which repositories to download and Check.
Following is the structure of the RepoList:
Following is the structure of the RepoList:
[Repo]
#Start
Repo1=http://somewebsite.com/repo.VBrepo
Repo2=http://someOtherSite.com/repoXYZ.VBrepo
#End
In the above example the [Repo] tells the Manager that this is a repository file. The #Start tells where to start parsing RepoNames and links and the #End tells where to end looking for them. The Name and Link to the repo are present to the left and right of = respectively. The User can edit this and add repos to the list through the Manager itself.
So once the user presses the Update button, the above repos are downloaded and saved to a temporary directory. The the Repos are parsed to get the application Details.
Following is a sample Repo Structure:
So once the user presses the Update button, the above repos are downloaded and saved to a temporary directory. The the Repos are parsed to get the application Details.
Following is a sample Repo Structure:
<repo>
<r-title>Repo1</r-title>
<appinfo appcount="3"/>
<applist>
<app
name="Title"
rating="5.5"
image="http://xyz.com/a.jpg"
pack="http://appXY.com/VBapp.zip"
desc="App Description"
author="Author"
version="1.0"
cat="1"
/>
<app
name="Title"
rating="5.5"
image="http://xyz.com/a.jpg"
pack="http://appXY.com/VBapp.zip"
desc="App Description"
author="Author"
version="1.0"
cat="2"
/>
<app
name="Title"
rating="5.5"
image="http://xyz.com/a.jpg"
pack="http://appXY.com/VBapp.zip"
desc="App Description"
author="Author"
version="1.0"
cat="5"
/>
</applist>
</repo>
So this will be the structure of a RepoFile. After downloading these files the manager will check the appcount attribute of the appinfo tag. This will tell the manager the no of entries it has to parse. Next the manager will search for the position of <app tag in the app list. Ones it gets that it will look for position of />. Then it will get everything that is present between these. The lines it gets between those can be easily parsed and those will be added to a database. Once the first app has been added then the manager will search for the next <app and />. And this will be done till all apps have been added. Once the repo if totally parsed then the next repo will be checked.
The Application DB
So from the above explanation it is very clear how the applications end up in the App Database. Later we can use the application database to search and display details of the applications. This will also include editing some details. The application link is also present in the database so it can be used to download and install the application. Additionally the application screenshots can also be added in the image attributes (repo structure). The image files can be displayed as well.
The Category
You must have noticed the cat attribute in the repo structure. It can be used to filter the apps on the basis of the categories. The attribute will provide information for the category ID and those will be assigned to the categories. This can also be used to do category search.
Ratings
The plan was making the users vote too, but that will make the program more complex. So the rating will show the developer ratings only.
Featured Banner
The featured banner will be updated directly from the internet. The image files will be downloaded and displayed as a carousel. The View button will have a direct link to the application and also the other details.
Installed Apps
If a user installs an app, then the installation folder path will be saved in the database with the application name. This will allow the manager to remove the installed app by deleting the installation folder. Not much information will be provided for removing the installed apps. Only name and install path seem to be enough.
So this is what I have thought of. This is a very big project and advanced as well. But making this will really be fun. This will allow the VB6 Developers to publish their apps and of course it will be free to use, edit and distribute. So if anyone is interested in making this application. then let me know, you can mail me directly at [email protected] or can even comment below.
Mockups
Work in Progress
I already began developing this application because I think this can be a great one. :) Just a thought. If you want to help me in developing this then let me know though comments on this post. If you want to see what I have made yet then you can check the PSC post for project.