CrossPackage Portability

CrossPackage.exe

The key objectives of PlugLab are:

- Ease of plugin setup for the user.

- Portability of plugins between the popular BartPE packages:

  plain BartPE - Reatogo - UBCD4Win

 

However, certain plugins may require package features that may not be included in a particular package like e.g. postprocessing, localisation, proper user profile handling etc., or the plugin may depend on files that are not present in a basic BartPE.

 

Unfortunately, to this date, it has not been possible to establish a standard for all essential functions in the BartPE community.

As the PlugLab evolved from the original "Reatogo AutoHelp Plugin" concept, their standard has been adopted whenever there was a lack of general standard.

 

As a plugin category system, however, the UBCD4Win standard has been adopted to ensure that all users have a consistant listing in their PEbuilder plugin dialog if they mix PlugLab plugins and UBCD4Win plugins in their setup. This applies to UBCD4Win users integrating PlugLab plugins as well as to other users integrating UBCD4Win plugins into their setup using CrossPackage.exe.

 

NOTE: this desicion about the category system is strictly based on the need to standardise and obviously does not reflect my personal preference. But I guess weŽll never get anywhere if everyone expects his own way to become the standard. The same applies to the UBCD4Win way of having the plugins in category subfolders within the folder "plugin". That has also been adopted for the sake of consistancy, although "processing sequence" is the ruling factor in the folder "plugin" and not "plugin category". Should be easy enough for the user to rearrange it to his liking, though.

In essence:

-all PlugLab plugins should function in Reatogo,

-most plugins will work without modification in UBCD4Win

-many plugins only require a plain BartPE.

 

NOTE: potential limitations only apply to the function of the program on the recovery CD.

The PlugLab itself and the setup scripts for the plugins are standalone and work in any BartPE package.

• Run CrossPackage.exe in the folder "plugin" of your non-UBCD4Win setup

  (target for the plugins).

• Integrates all freeware plugins from a UBCD4Win package to any other BartPE setup

• Adds XPE shortcuts to all plugins

• Creates a plugin "UBCD4Win_Deps" with the files required for configuration and update of the plugins in their new environment.

Download and run CrossPackage.exe

Run CrossPackage.exe in the folder "plugin" of your setup and follow the prompts.

You will be prompted to navigate to the folder "plugin" of a UBCD4Win setup.

 

During the CrossPackage transfer all items are created or copied that are required for the plugins to function outside a UBCD4Win setup.

 

Md5: 1468ae65300e6223a8d3c493e6b9f363

Vers.: 1.0.0.2  Last change: 2007-02-18

 

Result:

1. The plugins are all in the folder "PEroot\plugin\CrossPackage_Transfer\".

2. Update/configuration of the plugins require Download.exe and unzip.exe in "PEroot\OEM1\update\".

3. The files required for the apps to run on CD are copied to CD by CrossPackage.inf

PEroot\plugin\CrossPackage_Transfer\

PEroot\plugin\CrossPackage_Transfer\UBCD4Win_Deps\

CrossPackage.inf

; PE Builder v3 plug-in INF file ; CrossPackage.inf ; PlugLab autoHelp plugin created by Siegfried ; Last Revision 2007-02-03 ; Tested on: 3110a-104 [Version] Signature= "$Windows NT$" [PEBuilder] Name="Basics: CrossPackage Integration - UBCD4Win" Enable=1 config= Help="\" ; During the CrossPackage transfer the following items have been created/copied ; that are required for the plugins to function outside a UBCD4Win setup: ; 1.) the plugins are all in the folder "PEroot\plugin\CrossPackage_Transfer\". ; 2.) Update/configuration of the plugins require Download.exe and unzip.exe in "PEroot\OEM1\update\". ; 3.) The files copied to CD by this INF are required for the apps to run on CD [WinntDirectories] a="Programs\Runscanner",3 ; Reatogo has runscanner in system32. ; UBCD4Win plugins expect it in "Programs\Runscanner" ; (PlugLab plugins automatically adapt to both locations) [SourceDisksFiles] RunScanner.exe=a,,1 RunScannerDLL.dll=a,,1 ; required for prog start by some plugins [SourceDisksFiles] runhide.exe=2,,1 ; required for update on CD by some AV and Malware apps [SourceDisksFiles] download.exe=2,,1 unzip.exe=2,,1

PEroot\OEM1\update\

NOTE:

The files "Download.exe" and "unzip.exe" must be present in this update plugin in OEM1 for the configuration and update of the plugins. Because the folder "OEM1" is not parsed for plugins by the regular (non-OEM) PEbuilder, the plugin that copies these and other files to the CD is located in the folder "plugin".   However, if CrossPackage.exe is run in a Reatogo setup (that has an active OEM1 folder) it is all in OEM1\update (no seperate UBCD4Win_Deps folder in "plugin"),

PlugLab Concept (c) 2007 Siegfried Benthin