Roy's Visual Basic Project Archiver

I developed this simple but useful piece of software for my own purposes because I needed it.

It is designed primarily for the individual Visual Basic Developer who has several projects in hand or at least in maintenance at the same time.

This software creates an Archive of all of your VB Projects and associated .MAK, .VBP, .FRM, .BAS, .VBX and .CLS files in an archive folder called VB_Backup_Dir in a sub-directory structure corresponding to the hard disks on your computer.

For example,

suppose you have a VB4 project file D:\VB\PROJECTS\STOCKS.VBP which uses a form D:\VB\DEVEL\STOCKFRM.FRM and a set of VB routines in

C:\VBSTUFF\ROUTINES.BAS.

and you have chosen to archive your files on to Disk F:\.

The following archived files and sub-directories would be created:

and all other projects, whether written in VB2, VB3, or VB4, similarly archived.

You can then simply compress the entire archive folder using Winzip or similar software and transfer it to a safe place such as a ZIP drive or even FTP it to another machine via the Internet.

VB Archiver is a 32 bit application and requires Windows 95 or Windows NT to run.

If you have already installed Visual Basic 4 on your machine, then all you need to do is to unzip the compressed file VBARCHIVER32.ZIP copy the executable file VBARCHIVER32.EXE and the help file VBARCHIV.HLP to a suitable directory on your hard disk and run it.

If you haven’t got VB4, it is likely you will need some or all of the various run time routines necessary which should be copied into your WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory.

They comprise the following:

MSVCRT20.DLL

MSVCRT40.DLL

VB40032.DLL

OLEPRO32.DLL

CTL3D32.DLL

VB Archiver works in two phases both of which are invoked by clicking on the "Start" button. Successively selecting "Cancel" in the series of simple dialog boxes will exit the program without any processing.

Firstly, it examines all directories and sub-directories on all hard disks you specify and creates a list file called PROJFILS.TXT in the directory containing the program. This file contains a list of all VB project files (.MAK or .VBP) found on the specified disks. Of course, it ignores the directory VB_Backup_Dir which is used for holding the Archive itself.

You are then given the opportunity to edit the list file to remove any unwanted projects.

This is highly desirable as there are inevitably many projects such as those in VB\SAMPLES which you would not wish to archive. Also, any .MAK files which are actually C project files should be removed although all you will get is a set of errors when Phase 2 tries to make sense of the .MAK file and fails.

When VB Archiver is run again, it identifies the PROJFILs.TXT file and gives you the opportunity to go straight on to the second phase using the list files as a basis. Clearly, this is the option to take.

In Phase 2, VB Archiver reads through all of the project files listed and places a copy of all VB Project Files and their associated .MAK, .VBP, .FRM, .BAS, .VBX and .CLS files in an archive folder called VB_Backup_Dir in the structure explained above.
It also places a text file called FAddmmyy.ARK in the archive folder containing the date archived, where ddmmyy represents the date in terms of day, month, year.

VB Archiver also produces a comprehensive error listing on a text file called VBBAKUP.ERR. Typical errors are missing files which are referenced in older project files which have been moved or deleted. Also, incomprehensible lines in corrupted project files will also be flagged. If, like me, you have many old projects scattered over your computer, the error messages can be most useful.

The way I use this software is as follows:

1. I run VB Archiver weekly and normally create a new list file PROJFILS.TXT unless I know that no VB projects or associated files have been created

2. I delete all of the VB projects which are not mine from the new PROJFILS.TXT.

3. I run VB Archiver again and update the archive which has previously been created on my C:\ drive. Only the updated files are copied across of course.

4. I compress the entire directory C:\ VB_Backup_Dir using Winzip with the "Recurse Folders" option selected into a file I call VBPROJS.ZIP

5. I store the archive off-site on a convenient FTP site where I have access. Ask your ISP if you can use his storage.

I detail the above as a method that suits me. You may wish to vary this, especially if you are really short of local disk space when you would probably delete the entire Archive directory and / or .ZIP file as soon as you have transferred it to another machine.

VB Archiver is a Freeware program and is supplied "As is" both as an .EXE file which is a 32 bit application compatible with Windows 95, and the Visual Basic source code which you may modify as you wish for your own purposes.

I am not aware of any bugs in the software and disclaim any responsibility to anyone for the consequences of any unknown errors in it.

If you find it useful and continue to use it I would appreciate your comments.

Email me at roy@low.net.au.