install4j Changelog

What's new in install4j 10.0.7

Jan 26, 2024

New features:
Enabled control flow guard (CFG) for Windows binaries generated by install4j
Support new Windows 10 DPI awareness settings in the executable manifest. This fixes problems when moving windows between monitors with different DPI settings.
Show strong configuration and build warnings for macOS single bundle media files which do not work on macOS 14+ anymore and will be removed in install4j 11
Support Alt-+/- on numeric keypad as secondary keyboard accelerators for the enable/disable actions
Report bean IDs in annotated stack traces
Bugs fixed:
If a variable was entered for the JRE bundle version that resolved to non-digit characters, an NPE was thrown
Executable processors for Windows media file: Fixed tools like smctl from DigiCert ignoring input files
Zulu hotfix releases with identical version number were not used
Calling context.getWizardContext().setControlButtonEnabled/setControlButtonVisible for the cancel button in unattended mode with progress bar did not work
Fixed a problem with a JRE bundle not being used when a media file had an overridden JRE bundle with a major version larger than the one configured under General Settings->JRE bundles
UpdateChecker.executeScheduledUpdate is now executed in a background thread to avoid blocking
A SecurityManager deprecation warning was shown when running with an OpenJ9 JRE
Redirection files with installer variables in the file name caused an error in the uninstaller
Proxy auto-detection for URLs without host name and protocol threw an exception

New in install4j 10.0.6 (Jun 19, 2023)

New in install4j 10.0.5 (Feb 20, 2023)

New in install4j 10.0.4 (Nov 28, 2022)

New in install4j 10.0.3 (Sep 29, 2022)

New in install4j 10.0.2 (Sep 15, 2022)

New in install4j 10.0.1 (Sep 15, 2022)

New in install4j 10.0 (Jul 26, 2022)

New features:
Support for Windows on ARM
Support for Apple App Store submission
"Add a Windows firewall rule" action
Undo/Redo functionality for all modifications in the install4j IDE
Support for default values for bean properties with a gutter marker for non-default values and a context menu action to reset the default value
Static configuration of file associations and URL handlers for macOS
Optionally global single instance mode
On Windows, the per-user single instance mode now optionally covers all active sessions
Configurable Unix desktop file settings for external launchers
When building on Linux/macOS, the existing file and directory modes can now be used
Detection if JREs are headless on Linux machines to avoid failures for installers and GUI launchers
If only a headless JRE can be found on Unix/Linux, force headless mode for the installer
Unified logging for background updates with the -Dinstall4j.updateLog=true system property for launchers
"Schedule update installation" action: Added a "Retry inhibition in minutes" property to make the inhibition time between failed installer invocations configurable
Improved documentation for auto-update functionality and background downloaders
"Change Windows file rights" and "Change access rights for a key in the Windows registry" action: Added an "Access mode" property to grant, set, deny or revoke rights. Previously rights could only be granted.
Dark mode for documentation
"Hyperlink URL label" and "Hyperlink action label" form components: Added a new property category "Hyperlink label" to make font and link colors configurable
"Read text from file" action: Added a "Save as string array" property
"Stop a service" action: Added a "Minimum wait time in ms" property to make the timeout configurable
Find installed Microsoft, Azul Zulu and Temurin JREs on Windows
Screens, actions and form components that have a comment are now shown with a comment badge in the configuration tree
Show number of configured version-specific VM parameter entries in the "Java invocation" step of the launcher wizard
Added an optional dialog for editing launcher VM parameters and version-specific VM parameter entries in the "Java invocation" step of the launcher wizard
The icon compiler can now create ICNS icons with Retina images
Support for switching between light and dark mode on the fly in the IDE
API changes:
Added WinServices#stop with a timeout parameter
Added com.install4j.api.windows.WinFirewall for programmatically configuring Windows firewall rules
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ActionBeanInfo#setWindowsOnly to tell install4j that an action will only run on Windows. The install4j IDE will take this into account when changing properties of the "Request privileges" action based on the value set with ActionBeanInfo#setFullPrivilegesRequired.
Bugs fixed:
Replace text in XML files" action: With Java 10+, there were additional empty lines after element nodes
Launcher configuration: "Additional content for .desktop file" and "Options for service launchers" were not included in the project report
In the Java search sequence, the newest matching JRE in the registry was not always used
Adoptium was not the default JDK provider for new projects
Fixed a memory leak when running custom installer applications in a new process multiple times
Code editor had wrong cursor offsets in multi-monitor setups where some monitors have integer scale factors
Per-user MSI uninstaller did not work correctly without an already installed per-machine MSI that was created with install4j
MSI files did not work without a configured publisher entry

New in install4j 9.0.7 (Jul 26, 2022)

New in install4j 9.0.6 (Feb 9, 2022)

New in install4j 9.0.5 (Sep 13, 2021)

New in install4j 9.0.4 (Jul 9, 2021)

New in install4j 9.0.3 (Jun 17, 2021)

New in install4j 9.0.2 (Apr 20, 2021)

New in install4j 9.0.1 (Mar 18, 2021)

New in install4j 9.0 (Feb 19, 2021)

New features:
Cross-platform Look & Feel with dark mode
Auto-detection of dark mode and automatic switching between light and dark mode
Added a "Dark mode switcher" form component that can also be used in styles
Support for IntelliJ UI themes
Added support for custom look & feels with look and feel handlers in custom code
Added Amazon Corretto and Azul Zulu JDK providers
Universal binaries architecture selection in the "Installation options" step of the macOS media wizards. Launchers then work with both x64 and aarch64 (Apple Silicon) architectures.
Universal JRE bundle generation on macOS. If the Universal binaries architecture is selected, the generated JRE bundle will include universal binaries for both x64 and aarch64 if the selected JDK release contains those architectures.
JRE bundling is now the default for new projects. The default JDK is set to the latest AdoptOpenJDK release in the LTS series at the time of the install4j release.
The Java project version is now primarily taken from the selected JDK. Minimum and maximum versions can be overridden in the "Search sequence" step.
Added support for using the latest JDK release in a selected major release with the syntax 11/latest or by selecting the major release folder node in the JDK release dialog
Added a "Show all modules" button on the JRE bundles step to inspect all modules provided by the selected JDK. The "Show included modules" buttons continues to show only those modules that will be included in the JRE bundle.
Use the selected JDK for the script editor and script compilation with automatic configuration of the Javadoc URL
Introduced sharing IDs for shared JREs to limit the scope of sharing. In this context the installation directories for shared JREs have changed.
Show a warning count at the end of the build with a hint on how to disable selected warnings
In verbose mode, show warning suppression hints after each warning with hyperlinks to add the corresponding compiler variables
Added a --fail-on-warning command line option for the compiler as well as corresponding properties for Gradle, Maven, and Ant tasks
Script compilation warnings are now printed during the build
Added a Maven plugin with the same functionality as the Gradle plugin
The "hello" sample project now has a Maven POM that shows how to work with the Maven plugin
Configurable setup application for macOS single bundle archives
Configurable post-installation and pre-uninstallation applications for Linux RPM and DEB archives
Request privileges" action: Added support for Linux
Search for IDs, names, property values and comments in the Screens & Actions view, form component dialogs and styles
The file mode of additional top-level files in DMGs on the "Installer options->DMG files and options" step in the macOS media wizards can now be overridden
Added an "Extracted archive" entry type for additional top-level files in DMGs on the "Installer options->DMG files and options" step in the macOS media wizards
Gradle plugin: Added a CreateBundle task to pre-create JRE bundles from installed JREs
Separate JDK providers for AdoptOpenJDK with HotSpot and OpenJ9
MacOS code signing: Added a field for directories that should be excluded for macOS code signing, such as pre-signed application bundles
Added an option to preserve internal symlinks for non-Windows media files on the Files->File Options step
Request privileges" action: Implemented encrypted communication between the installer application and its elevated helper process
Install a service action": Added the "Restart after milliseconds", "Maximum number of restarts" and "Reset failure count after seconds" properties to control the restart behaviour of execution failures. These are child properties of the "Restart on Failure" property
Optional display of alerts in unattended mode with progress dialog. This new mode can be activated with the "Show alerts" property for installer applications or the -alerts command line parameter.
The Unix default directory mode is now used for manual directory entries in the distribution tree and can be overridden when editing a manual directory entry
Custom installer applications: Added a "Create executable" property to prevent the creation of executables. In this case, the custom installer application can only be launched through the ApplicationLauncher API and launcher integrations.
Write timestamps to the build log after build has finished and to the installation log before the installer exits.
Installation type" screen: Descriptions of installation type descriptions can now be shown in console mode
When a file that is already present in the distribution tree is overwritten by another entry, a warning is printed at build time
Using ~ for the home directory is now supported for launcher redirection files
Install4j config files, JRE caches and pre-created JRE bundles are now stored in platform specific directories
The custom base directory for installer media files now supports installer variables, making it easier to install into locations like ${installer:sys.localAppdataDir}.
Check project errors when saving, offering an option to save anyway
JDBC actions: Added a "Log warnings" property
Register Add/Remove item": Show installation size in "Apps & Features"
API changes:
The callback in ApplicationLauncher.launchApplication/launchApplicationInProcess can now override Callback#createProgressListener to receive all progress information
Added com.install4j.api.UiUtil to help with the look and feel, for example to find out if the desktop or the installer application is in dark mode
Added com.install4j.api.laf.LookAndFeelEnhancer to help with custom UI creation. The singleton instance is available from UiUtil.getLookAndFeelEnhancer().
Added com.install4j.api.laf.LookAndFeelHandler to integrate custom look and feels
Added com.install4j.api.windows.SpecialFolder#LOCAL_APPDATA_LOW/PROGRAM_FILES/PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON
Added com.install4j.api.Util#isArchive to check whether the installation is an archive media file
Added FormComponentBeanInfo#setHideVisibilityScript to hide the visibility script configuration for form components that manage their own visibility
Added com.install4j.api.contextProgressInterface#isUnattendedProgressDialog and ProgressInterface#isAlertsShown to detect the unattended mode with progress dialog and whether alerts are shown or not in that mode
Com.install4j.api.windows.WinRegistry could not read or write QWORD values
Bugs fixed:
Install files" action: Removed "Update bundled JRE" property. Deselecting this property had the potential to create problems during updates, especially if the minimum Java version number changed
HTTP request" action: The installer variables configured with the "Variable name for response code" and "Variable name for response headers" properties were not set if the HTTP request failed.
Execute launcher" action: The launcher was always executed without elevation, even if the "Action elevation type" was set to elevate privileges.
Ant task: disableNotarization attribute did not work
The --add-modules option of the createbundle application did not support comma-separated lists of modules as claimed by the documentation
New frames were not opened on the same monitor as the last active frame
Installer applications now set the system property jdk.lang.Process.allowAmbiguousCommands=false to avoid cmd.exe injections. In unattended mode as well as in console mode, installers already behaved this way in previous versions.
Pressing Ctrl+C did not work correctly when questions were asked while running an action
Fail if the timestamp server returns an HTTP error code
Unix launchers could fail when they were started repeatedly in quick succession

New in install4j 8.0.11 (Feb 12, 2021)

New in install4j 8.0.10 (Jan 7, 2021)

New in install4j 8.0.9 (Nov 26, 2020)

New features:
Support for ARM macOS (Apple M1). The desired architecture (x64 or arm64) can be chosen in the media wizard.
Added a "Custom fragment for Info.plist" property for installer applications
API changes:
Added FormEnvironment#scrollComponentToVisible(FormComponent) to scroll the form panel to the specified form component
Bugs fixed:
"Installation type" screen and "Installation components selector" form component: If descriptions were expanded initially, the layout of the description could be broken
"Default execution mode" property of installer applications: Compiler variables were not replaced.
"Create program group" action: Modified settings could get lost when saving while the program group entries tab was visible
"Install a service" action: On Unix, if systemd is not used and the link in /etc/init.d could not be created, the action did not fail
"Console handler" form component: When hitting CTRL-D, instead of cancelling during a terminal prompt, an exception was printed and the installer application continued
"Require installer privileges" action: Wrong failure message was displayed in the uninstaller (Regression in 8.0.8)
Fixed layout of form components that are made visible and are not within the displayed viewport
Dissolving a bean group did not mark the project as modified
Changing a variable in the dialog for pre-defined installer variables did not mark the project as modified
Regression: Changes in coupled form components would no longer be saved
When using the dialog to insert a form component ID, the saved form components instead of the current form components were used
When cancelling installer applications with CTRL-C in console mode while input was read from the console, execution continued for a short time in some cases
In generated install4j launchers, runtime messages were always in English and not in the auto-detected locale
When the installer icon was customized and no cross-platform images or ICNS file was specified, the fallback to the default macOS icon was announced in a warning, but the build failed subsequently
In the Japanese translation, the product name install4j was translated by mistake
"Choose" button in file chooser was not translated anymore
Specifying relative path names to createbundle did not work

New in install4j 8.0.8 (Aug 1, 2020)

New in install4j 8.0.7 (May 27, 2020)

New in install4j 8.0.6 (May 5, 2020)

New in install4j 8.0.5 (Mar 16, 2020)

New features:
In development environments, the API runtime dependency now automatically provides the native libraries that are required by some API calls
In development environments, the .install4j runtime directory can now be specified with the system property -Dinstall4j.runtimeDir. This allows all API calls to work, including those that require access to the config file, such as Variables.getCompilerVariable(...).
Multiple timestamp signing services are now tried in the case of a failure. The default is now DigiCert with a fallback to GlobalSign. This can be changed on a per-project basis as explained in the documentation.
Bugs fixed:
"Download file" action: If the digest file was created with an external tool that produces upper case letters, the check would fail
"Execute SQL script" action: Regexp delimiters and compound delimiters with a line break like ";n" did not work
"Check for running processes" action: Prevent closing the process dialog with the window close button
"Set the owner of files and directories" action: Leading and trailing spaces in the "owner" property were not trimmed and lead to an unhelpful error message
The native log files of Windows installers was not deleted
Fixed deadlock during auto-save or while saving the project when the floating license server connection was lost
Fixed memory leak when running in-process installer applications multiple times
When using the filter text field in the certificate selection dialogs, the wrong certificate was selected
The check whether modules are used by launchers was not made for merged projects, so a non-modular runtime library could be generated leading to a runtime failure in a merged launcher
Text mode overrides for bean properties did not work for elevated actions
Installers could throw an LzmaException for large data files
Arguments in .vmoptions files were not trimmed on macOS
API: If a scheduled version has already been installed manually, return false for UpdateChecker.isUpdateScheduled()
Windows: The -manual command line option for selecting a JRE did not work as expected when the direct JRE download options was selected for the media file
Windows: Could not use absolute locations for the Windows JRE search sequence when the build was not performed on a Windows machine
Windows: PKCS11 code signing for multiple Windows media files could fail

New in install4j 8.0.4 (Jan 9, 2020)

New in install4j 8.0.3 (Dec 20, 2019)

New features:
Notarization on macOS and the associated Apple ID can now be configured on the "General settings->Code signing" step. The notarization option in the "Build" step was removed.
Added a "Provider short name" configuration option on the "General settings->Code signing" step to select the team for the notarization call if the credentials are associated with multiple teams
Correctly handle Java 14+ where Pack200 compression has been removed
Support for JDK releases that target only selected platforms. When linking a JRE bundle and the current platform is not found in an overridden JDK release of a media file, the compiler now checks the project configuration for the JDK release.
Added a "Convert spaces to underscores" option for the media file name pattern on the "General Settings->Media File Options" step
"Upload file" action: Added an "Upload method" property that can switch the HTTP request method between POST and PUT
Bugs fixed:
Regression in 8.0: "Write properties to file" action: Deselecting the "Replace installer variables" property had no effect.
"Log file viewer" form component: Relative files were not resolved with respect to the installation directory
"Log file viewer" form component: Write-protected log files could not be displayed
"File associations selector" form component: In Unix media files, no file association actions were shown. As a consequence the "File associations" screen was always hidden.
Additional entries for desktop and service files were not saved
macOS notarization did not work with folder archives that included a JRE bundle
Checksums were not updated after macOS notarization info was stapled to media files
A custom application ID could lead to an bundle identifier that was invalid for macOS notarization
Fixed JRE bundle creation for AdoptOpenJDK 9.x releases
The JRE bundle creation wizard did not work for Amazon Corretto 8
Only use packages from the java.base module for the core functionality for generated launchers
Fixed a problem when unpacking JAR files packed with Pack200 on embedded Linux systems with BusyBox
Fixed compatibility issues with systemd on Ubuntu LTS releases
When an undefined installer variable with an elvis operator was used in a bean property, it was always resolved to the fallback at startup.
Properties of type java.io.File that had an initial non-null value were not serialized
Fixed out of memory problems when building large MSI files

New in install4j 8.0.2 (Sep 23, 2019)

New in install4j 8.0.1 (Jul 19, 2019)

New in install4j 8.0 (Jun 28, 2019)

New features:
Support for notarization on macOS
Support for PKCS#11 hardware tokens and the Windows keystore for code-signing on Windows
MSI wrapper for Windows installers
New on-demand JRE bundle bundle creation with automatic download from the OpenJDK providers AdoptOpenJDK, Liberica and JetBrains Runtime
Cross-platform linking of Java 9+ JRE bundles with the modules requirements of all modular launchers together with additional configurable requirements and external JMODs
SPI for writing new JDK providers that can be used by the JRE bundle creation
Cross-platform support for registering URL handlers
Added a cross-platform "Register a URL handler" action. This allows you to start a launcher from a link in a web browser and facilitates migrations from Java Web Start to install4j.
File associations and URL handlers for macOS archives
File associations for Linux/Unix desktop environments
Improved support for Linux .desktop files
Linux/Unix: Task bar items of AWT/Swing applications now show the icon from the .desktop file. install4j now generates unique main class wrappers for Linux/Unix media files, so the WMClass property of AWT windows is unique.
"Create start menu entry" and "Add a desktop link" action: Additional entries for the created .desktop file can now be specified.
Linux/Unix: Additional content for the .desktop service file can be configured on the "Executable info->Unix options" step of the launcher wizard. This is important for archives and also applies to the "Create program group" action.
Explicit systemd support
"Install a service" action: If systemd is detected on Linux/Unix, a .service file is written. Additional content for the systemd service file can be specified on the action.
systemd support for RPM and DEB archives: Additional content for the systemd service file can be configured on the "Executable info->Unix options" step of the launcher wizard.
Many new features for compiler variables
Added an "Overrides" tab to the compiler variable definition where overrides for all media files can be configured in one place for a single variable
Compiler variables from merged projects are now shown in the compiler variable selector
Compile-time environment variables are now available from the compiler variables chooser dialog
Added "Insert file" and "Insert directory" path menu items in the variable chooser popup for compiler variables and other appropriate text fields
Compiler variable syntax ${compiler:file("<path>")} to insert contents of text files
Added compiler variables "sys.mediaFileId", "sys.mediaFileName", "sys.install4jVersion", "sys.jreBundleArch" and "sys.jreBundleVersion"
Added the installer variables "sys.date", "sys.time", and "sys.timestamp" containing the start time of the installer application. The format is the same as for the corresponding compiler variables containing the build time.
Improved configuration of installer variables
Non-text properties in configuration of screens, actions and form components now have "Switch to text mode" action in the context menu where installer variables can be used.
Default values for missing variable values in the variable text field syntax of the type ${installer:variableValue?:defaultValue}
Improved live binding of installer variables
"Html or text display" form component: The component can now show changing content of an installer variable
"Html or text display" form component: Added a "Caret position after update" property
"Run executable or batch file" action: Added "Update variable after each line" child properties for the variable redirection setting
If the same text is logged repeatedly, only output it once together with the number of times it has been logged.
Live installer variable text binding on "Label" and "Key-value pair" form components
Live installer variable text binding for the window title of custom installer applications
Live installer variable text binding for the "Help text" property of form components
New form components
Added a "Text file editor" form component
Added a "Log file viewer" form component
Improved log file handling for the installer
Improved alternative log file mechanism: With the VM parameter -Dinstall4j.log=<file> a log file is written at the specified absolute or relative path, and is not deleted or moved to the installation directory. Installer variables can be used in the path.
Configurable error log file for Windows installers with the new "Log file for stderr" property of the installer
New documentation that has been rewritten from the ground up
Documentation is now also available as an eBook in epub and Kindle formats
Context-sensitive help relating to UI elements is now available directly in the UI
New light and dark look and feels based on IntelliJ IDEA with HighDPI support for Windows and Linux
Less verbose and more human-readable project file format that does not write default settings
Support version ranges in version-specific VM options for launchers
File installation failures in unattended mode are no longer ignored unless the -nofilefailures command line option is set
"Download file" and "Install files" actions: Check SHA-256 instead of MD5 checksums. SHA-256 checksums are written to the file sha256sums in the media file output directory. The old md5sums file is written as well.
API changes:
Added UpdateChecker.isVersionLessThanOrEqual and UpdateChecker.isVersionGreaterThan to cover the use cases of checking whether a version falls into a range and whether an upgrade is available
Added Util#moveLogFile
Added ApplicationInfo#getCompilerVariable(String) and ApplicationInfo#getInstallerVariable(String)
Added Install4JPropertyDescriptor#setEmptyMessage to show an in-place explanations for significant empty property values
Added Install4JPropertyDescriptor#setSuggestedValues to provide auto-completion for text properties
In properties with an array type, installer variables with collection values are expanded as separate array elements. Previously this was only implemented if the installer variables had array values. In the API, this new behavior affects the AbstractBean.replaceVariables() methods with array parameters.
FormEnvironment#getId(FormComponent) now returns the display ID instead of the automatic ID
Bugs fixed:
"Read text file" action: Relative paths were not supported
"Write text to file action": A trailing line feed was always written
"Redirection" step of the launcher wizard: Launcher runtime variables were not offered in the variable chooser for the redirection files
Response files could override the persisted result of the "Request privileges" action so that the "Require admin privileges" action in the uninstaller and in installer applications assumed the wrong state contained in the response file
Do not print title of form screens in console mode if a console screen change handler is set.
Launching executables on Windows no longer involved an intermediate batch file in the %TEMP% directory which could lead to problems with anti-virus software
For OSGI applications, the method to hide the splash screen could not work due to classloader issues
Linux/Unix launchers: Command lines are now considerably shorter, because "Scan directory" entries in the class path are now implemented with the wildcard expansion of the standard Java launcher
Executing launchers in a macOS folder archive with a packed JRE directly from the DMG failed silently
macOS: Argument files (@<file>) were not supported for launchers
IDs of ActionList properties were not migrated when a bean was copied and pasted. This affected the "JDBC container" and the "Modify ZIP file" actions as well as the "Button" and "Hyperlink action label" form components
If a screen class could not be loaded, the bean selector became unusable for all beans
Accessibility helpers on macOS could slow down mouse interaction with installers so that they became nearly unusable
Version-specific VM parameters were not included in project report
Windows launchers: If the best Java installation from the registry cannot be loaded, continue with the next possibility from the registry
Message boxes did not show the installer icon in the task bar if no other window was shown
Password dialog was always shown on the primary screen in multi-monitor setups

New in install4j 7.0.12 (Jun 25, 2019)

New in install4j 7.0.11 (Apr 15, 2019)

New in install4j 7.0.10 (Mar 14, 2019)

New features:
Windows launchers now support OpenJ9 JVMs
Added the compiler variables sys.mediaFileSeparator and sys.mediaPathlistSeparator containing separators specific to the target platform of the current media file
"Update alert" form component: Added an "Initially selected choice" property
API changes:
Added Context#gotoScreen(Screen, boolean, boolean) for navigating to a screen while optionally checking the condition of the target screen and executing actions, similar to Context#goForward(int, boolean, boolean)
Added InstallerActionEvent#getActionId() returning the ID of the action that triggered the event
Added Context#getId(Action) and Context#getId(Screen)
Added Context#isGui()
JVMSelector#setPreferredJVM now also works in custom installer applications
JVMSelector#getJVMLocations could not handle JRE locations ending with "jre" on macOS, so passing System.getProperty("java.home") as an additional location did not work
JVMSelector#getJVMLocations now also considers the JRE set with the environment variable INSTALL4J_JAVA_HOME
Bugs fixed:
Security: Prevent DLL hijacking for Windows installers with Java 11+ on Windows 8.1 and earlier
Regression in 7.0.9: When using merged projects, overriding a compiler variable in the main project with another compiler variable threw an exception
Regression in 7.0.9: Compiler variables in styles could be replaced with their values if the preview functionality was used for a screen and the style was subsequently edited
"Download file" action: Installer variables were not replaced in the "Optional md5sums URL" property
"Windows user selector" form component: Show a more specific error message when a Windows user cannot be created because the user name is invalid
"File associations selector" form component: The displayed file associations depend on which launchers are contained in the the selected installation components. Going back to the installation components screen and changing the installation components would not update the list of displayed file associations.
File and directory chooser form components: In console mode, if the initial value was set to an installer variable with an empty value, the suggested value was not empty but the working directory
Form screens: If the "Screen can be reached" property was set to "Only with Back button", the screen was not shown when the user used the back button on the next screen
Windows: Invoking the uninstaller directly from a mapped drive did not work correctly
Windows: Fixed problems with Java 11+ and DLL loading when other JREs are in the PATH environment variable
Windows: Java 11+ 32-bit installers did not work for users with different long and short path of their home directory
Windows: Installers now try to write temporary files to %ProgramData%install4jtemp if the user-specific temporary directory is not usable
Linux/Unix: Made the workaround for running installers on systems where no fonts are installed more reliable and also cover custom installer applications as well as the the uninstaller

New in install4j 7.0.9 (Jan 9, 2019)

New features:
Spinner form components: Added a "Value change script"
Layout groups: Added a "Border title" property
"Modify ZIP file" action: The ZIP method of existing files is now preserved. A "ZIP method for new files" property was added.
"Create a ZIP file" action: Added a "ZIP method" property
Bugs fixed:
Regression in 7.0.8: Default icon for installers was not used anymore on macOS
Regression in 7.0.8: Migrated projects with updaters that were not saved in the UI threw an NPE during compilation
Regression in 7.0.5: Installer did not work in the Turkish locale
Regression in 6.0: When using compiler variables in executable names, they were expanded in the file selection trees for installation components
The -help command line option did not work for installers on headless systems
Fixed an IllegalAccessError when using static script methods
Using the -splash command line option for unattended mode or a "Progress interface creation script" property caused an exception on headless machines
MacOS: Versions of recent openJDK installations were not always compared correctly in the search sequence
File modification actions: If ".." was used in a path, the action could fail when intermediate directories did not exist
Passing unsupported values for the messageType parameter in the message display methods of com.install4j.api.Util could produce an NPE
Added a workaround for an InternalError when a bundled JRE could not find fonts on Linux
RPM archives now include SHA-1 and SHA-256 digests to avoid warnings on recent Linux distributions
If the environment variable _JAVA_OPTIONS was set, the version check for Java 9+ did not work on Windows
Some actions without rollback functionality still wrote to the log during rollback and could trigger a rollback dialog even if otherwise unnecessary
Compiler variables in linked installer elements that existed only in the merged project were not replaced
Compiler variables from merged projects were not available from Context#getCompilerVariable at runtime

New in install4j 7.0.8 (Oct 16, 2018)

New in install4j 7.0.7 (Aug 27, 2018)

New in install4j 7.0.6 (Jun 11, 2018)

New in install4j 7.0.5 (May 12, 2018)

New features:
Support OpenJDK installations when creating JRE bundles
API changes:
Added UnixFileSystem#getShell and UnixFileSystem#findExecutableInPath
Bugs fixed:
Regression in 7.0: Changing text as well as enabled, visible or focus state of control buttons via the WizardContext in pre-activation scripts of a screen threw an exception
Regression in 7.0: The argument -help for the installer in GUI mode showed a message with HTML tags
Regression in 6.1: "Replacement script for language code" of the installer did not work anymore, throwing a ClassNotFoundException
Overridden styles were not used if the base style was used directly as well
Scripts in styles and their form components did not work in the uninstaller because a parameter of type InstallerContext was expected. Now a parameter of type Context is expected.
Images from merged styles were not displayed in the preview dialog unless the merged project was in the same directory as the main project
If a style from a missing merged project was used for a screen, the property panel was broken
Compiler variable overrides in the media file wizard were not propagated to merged projects
Styles were not resolved correctly when adding new installer applications or pasting screens from other projects
When including a merged project that merged extra files sets, the compilation of archive media files failed
The --release arguments had no effect for merged projects
Merged launchers were not supported for macOS single bundle media files
Fixed the exception that was thrown when an installer event listener is added in another listener
Fixed hanging UI when editing form components
•"File chooser" form component: The select button in the file chooser displayed an English text in all locales
•"Installation type" screen: In console mode, the variable "sys.installationTypeId" was not set
On Debian-based Linux distributions, the installer is now started in the default terminal emulator instead of in an xterm
The insets of all buttons in the installer were too small with the GTK look and feel
The directory chooser showed an ugly focus border for the selected element with the GTK look and feel
Windows: All actions that recursively operated on directories followed symbolic links
Pre-defined installer variables in installer and uninstaller of merged projects were not present at runtime
The "Failure strategy" property "Return to parent screen" added a navigation step to the screen history
If an i18n message with arguments was overridden by a message without arguments, an exception was thrown
In the preview dialog for screens, installer, compiler and form variables in an i18n message could lead to an exception
On Windows, stderr was written to error.log in the uninstaller. If that file was writable, its existence would block the success of the uninstallation.
Updating a bundled Java 9+ JVM with the update downloader did not work because lib/modules was locked
Chmod expressions with multiple subjects were rejected
The installer did not work when started from certain non-platform encoding paths
The message that is shown when the removal of a previous program was not completed was always shown in English
Control characters were expanded when editing custom localization files with a ".properties" extension
Not all redirects were processed by HTTP downloads
Progress bars were just one pixel high on Windows 2016
Fixed the invalid signature error when .DS_Store files were included in a single bundle archive
Under certain circumstances, an update installer that was started via a call to UpdateChecker.executeScheduledUpdate was terminated prematurely on Linux/Unix

New in install4j 7.0.4 Build 7118 (Jan 31, 2018)

New features:
The install4j IDE and compiler can now run with Java 9
Java 9 JREs and JDKs can now be used for code-completion and compiling scripts
Form screens: Added a "Screen can be reached" property that allows the screen not be shown when the user reaches the screen with either the Back or the Next button. This is analogous to the isHiddenForPrevious() and isHiddenForNext() methods that are available in the custom screen API.
Added the ability to specify dependencies for RPM archives on the "Installer options" step of the media wizard
Added the VM option -Dinstall4j.helperDebugPort=nnnnn for debugging the elevated helper process
Added a compiler variable "sys.timestamp" that contains the Unix epoch of the build time
For non-OSGI SWT applications, the splash screen is now hidden automatically when the first window is shown
API changes:
Added com.install4j.api.windows.WindowInfo with methods to get the top level windows, detect tablet mode and wait for a maximizable window on Windows
Added com.install4j.api.formComponents.FormEnvironment#isInitialized to check if the form panel has been fully constructed
JVMSelector#setPreferredJVM did not work in the installer if a "Request privileges" action had been previously executed
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ActionListPropertyDescriptor#setConfigurableElevationType to suppress the "Action elevation type property" for actions in action lists
Added com.install4j.api.update.UpdateDescriptorEntry#getMd5Sum. MD5 sums are now written to updates.xml, if MD5 sums calculation is enabled for the project.
Added the constructor com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ScriptParameter(String, ParameterizedType) to support script parameters with generic types, like List<String>
Bugs fixed:
Regression in 7.0: The selection script in "Radio button group" and "Single radio button" form components was called while the form panel was being constructed
Regression in 7.0: When an action with a confirmation checkbox was added to the "Installation" screen, the checkbox was added to the same screen instead of the "Additional confirmation screen"
Regression in 7.0: "Update alert" form component: In console mode, the variable "sys.confirmedUpdateInstallation" was set to true even if the question to update the existing installation was answered with no
Regression in 7.0: Setting -Dinstall4j.clearProxyCache=true produced an NPE
Custom watermarks for the installer and installer applications were not migrated from install4j 6.x projects
Compiler variable entries in the distribution tree could not be overridden externally
Code completion in the static code section did not show other static fields and methods
Calling HyperlinkLabel.setPassiveColor did not change the color of existing labels
Classes produced by the Kotlin compiler can now be compressed with Pack200
The main class selector in the launcher wizard did not search JAR files that were in file sets other than the default file set
Unix scripts did not work if the "which" command is not installed. This is the default case for some Linux distributions.
The message in option dialogs for file overwrite confirmation and other instances was incorrectly split into title and message body
i18n messages were shown as replaced in form component properties while the preview dialog was being displayed
The wizard index could not be updated for the same screen, only for screen changes. Calling WizardContext#setWizardIndexKey and WizardContext#setWizardIndex in actions or form component event handlers now has the intended effect.
When using a large number of custom code JAR files together with Pack200 compression, unpacking of some JAR files could fail
"Program group" selector form component: Fixed an exception when shown on non-Windows platforms
"JDBC container action": The action does not work in elevated mode, so elevation has been disabled, also for contained actions
"Fall back to console mode on Unix" property for installer did not work under some circumstances
macOS: For signing, only the Developer ID Application certificate is now accepted, for other certificates the build will fail. Gatekeeper does not accept third-party certificates, while it is technically possible to use them, it makes no sense and nearly always an error. Should you really want to continue using other certificates, set the compiler variable "sys.ext.macosAcceptAllCerts" to "true".
macOS: The "Add VM options" and "Modify classpath" actions did not work for included command line executables in single bundle archives

New in install4j 7.0.3 Build 7072 (Oct 6, 2017)

New in install4j 7.0.2 Build 7058 (Sep 19, 2017)

New in install4j 7.0.1 Build 7043 (Jul 20, 2017)

New in install4j 7.0 Build 7030 (Jul 10, 2017)

New features:
Support for running with Java 9. Only the "java.desktop" module is required for installers.
Launchers can define a Java 9 module path in addition the the class path
Support for using and creating Java 9 JRE bundles
Support for the new multi-resolution features in Java 9 for Windows and Linux, including multi-resolution splash screen support
In the "Windows manifest options" of the launcher wizard, the new default "Java 9+" makes launchers DPI aware if Java 9+ is used as a minimum version
Background auto-update functionality
Flexible styling for installers
Added a "File associations selector" form component
Added an "Installation components selector" form component
Added a "License agreement" form component
Added a "PDF display" form component
Added a "Program group selector" form component
Added an "Update alert" form component
Added a form variable system for coordinating between form components or its enclosing screen
"Button" and "Hyperlink action label" form components: Script properties of actions contained in the action list now receive a formEnvironment parameter
All form components can now export named sets of properties to the screen configuration to make them more easily discoverable
Layout groups: Added "Background color", "Foreground color", "Image file" and "Border sides" properties
Label and text components: The "Font" property now allows setting a derived font that just changes the style or the relative size of the font
Separator component: Added a "Show enabled text" property
"HTML display": Added "Variable name" property with the same functionality as the "Variable name" property on the pre-7.0 "Display information" screen
"Directory chooser" form component: Added "Border title", "Standard directory" and "Only accept writable directories" properties like for the pre-7.0 "Directory selection" screen
"Directory chooser" and "File chooser" form components: When the bound variable changes, the selection is updated accordingly
"Progress display" form component: Added "Initial status message" and "Initial detail message" properties
Added "Horizontal anchor" and "Vertical anchor" properties to form screens that are shown if "Fill horizontally" or "Fill vertically" are not shown respectively
When double-clicking a form screen or a style, show the form component dialog
Live text binding on labels and text component for text with unresolved variables
Form templates instead of fixed customizable screens
Form functionality in standard screens
Native file chooser and alert dialogs on Windows and macOS
Single instance mode for Linux/Unix launchers
Suggest user-specific installation directory on Windows and macOS if the installer is run without "Request privileges" action
"Request privileges" action: Added a "Fall back to user specific installation directory" property in order to set a user-specific installation directory if the installation directory is not writable after the action has run
macOS: Added support for environment variable classpath entries
macOS: Show installer in front even if a Gatekeeper dialog window was shown
macOS: Implemented the "Execute previous uninstall" action for single bundle installers
macOS: The gradle plugin now also correctly handles the installation directory /Applications/install4j.app in addition to /Applications/install4j.app/Contents/Resources/app
Unix installers now run on macOS as well, macOS JRE bundles can be used for Unix installers
"Stop a service" action: Implemented rollback on Windows, macOS and on systems with systemd
"Install a service" action: Added a "Delayed Auto Start" property in the Windows section
Added a "Extract a DMG file on macOS" action
Added an "Extract a TAR file" action
The "Rollback barrier" property of actions and screens now has an "Exit code" child property that can be used to set the exit code if the installer application terminates at that point due to an activated rollback barrier
Improved the start mode for installer applications that are automatically started via a launcher integration: For services, unattended mode is used, on headless machines, console mode is used unless there is no associated console
API changes:
Added com.install4j.api.formcomponents.FormEnvironment#getFormComponents(Class) and #getFirstFormComponent(Class)
Added com.install4j.api.launcher.ApplicationLauncher#isNewArchiveInstallation() for determining if a newly extracted archive is used for the first time
Added com.install4i.api.Util#isWindows2016()
Added com.install4j.api.windows.service.WinServices, an API for querying and modifying Windows services
Added many classes in the com.install4j.api.styles package for programatically developing styles
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ScriptBeaninfo#setDefaultPreActivationScript and #setDefaultPostActivationScript
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ActionListPropertyDescriptor#setExtraScriptParameters for supplying fixed parameters to all scripts in the contained actions
com.install4j.api.beans.AbstractBean#executeActionListSync and #executeActionListAsync now have trailing vararg parameters for fixed script arguments
Added com.install4j.api.update.UpdateChecker#isUpdateScheduled and #executeScheduledUpdate to support background updaters
Added com.install4j.api.update.UpdateDescriptorEntry#isSingleBundle and #isDownloaded
Added com.install4j.api.context.WizardContext#setWindowSize to set the size of the window either before it is shown or while it is shown
Added com.install4j.api.beans.VisualContainerBean as common parent for screens and styles with a new #getAnchor method
Bugs fixed:
Regression in 6.1: "Installation directory chooser" form component: Property "Validate application ID" was named "Check if directory is writable" and property "Check if directory is writable" was not configurable but always selected
Regression in 6.1: Windows installer did not included shrunk and packed i4jruntime.jar
Proxy handling did not work for actions that performed HTTP downloads and whose "Action elevation type" property was set to "Elevate to maximum available privileges"
Properties of type "Anchor" without value restrictions did not show icons anymore (since install4j 6.0)
macOS: Do not use the AppleScript scripting engine in the JRE anymore, which could lead to runtime errors because of broken installations
"Bundled JRE" step of the media wizard: The "Start download without user confirmation" option did not work as expected if "Disable JRE bundling" was selected as a build option
i18n messages were shown as replaced in form component properties while the preview dialog was displayed
FormComponent.formDeactivated() was not called in GUI mode for any form components
Scrollable forms could shrinks to zero width if there was not enough space for the preferred width of the contained components
Calling screen change methods like context.goForward(...) from anywhere but the validation script had no effect in console and unattended modes
Custom bean development: Exceptions from missing properties in BeanInfos were not printed
"Add VM options" action: The VM parameters "-agentlib:", "-agentpath:" and "-javaagent:" could not be specifies multiple times
"Create program group" action: The action did not work with the default property values if the "Create program group" screen was not present
"Radio button group" and "Single radio button" form components: The "Selection script" was not executed if the radio button was selected with the arrow keys
"Request privileges" action: For debug and test installers, the action could not start the elevated helper process on macOS

New in install4j 6.1.6 Build 6457 (Jun 22, 2017)

New in install4j 6.1.5 Build 6349 (Feb 23, 2017)

NEW FEATURES:
"Password field" component: Added property "Show icon to toggle password visibility"
"Create start menu entry" and "Add a desktop link" actions: Added an "Icon file" property in the "Unix" category that sets the icon for the generated desktop file
Updated ICEpdf to 6.2.1 for PDF actions
Windows services: Added a /restart command line option
BUGS FIXED:
Regression in 6.1.4: It was no longer possible to use compiler variables in the executable directory for generated launchers
Regression in 6.1: Overriding Screen.hasDefaultInsets() to return false did not remove all horizontal insets anymore
"Add a desktop action": Links to launchers on Mac OS X did not work without appending .app to the file name.
"Extract a ZIP file" and "Modify a ZIP file" actions threw an exception if they were used in the uninstaller
macOS: Launchers did not correctly check patch version of newer 1.8 JRE installations
macOS installers: Dynamic JRE downloads from non-TLS URLs did not work anymore
macOS: JRE bundle creation wizard only worked for JDKs and not for JREs
Unix launchers: Spaces in environment variable values were not supported for JRE search sequence
Windows launchers: If a JRE could not be loaded, more than one error message was shown in sequence
Windows services: Command line arguments were not passed correctly when starting a service from the command line with the /run option
Windows: Detect and reject privilege elevation when users in the obsolete power users group elevate with their own account
Windows: Add-on installer updated the file .install4j/i4jinst.dll
If a non-existing compiler variable was used for an icon customization, the icon customization dialog could not be opened again.
The context class loader of the startup notification thread was the bootstrap class loader instead of the system class loader
Unix desktop files always called the executable by prefixing with /bin/sh which does not work for non-shell script executables
Fixed context class loader problems for custom screens (e.g. when using Log4j)
Startup failure in headless mode did not produce an exit code of 1
With the "Keep original file modification times" option, time zone differences between the compile locale and the runtime locale were added to the modification time
com.install4j.api.windows.WinFileSystem#createShellLink only worked once

New in install4j 6.1.4 Build 6320 (Dec 6, 2016)

New in install4j 6.1.3 Build 6299 (Sep 19, 2016)

New in install4j 6.1 Build 6225 (Feb 19, 2016)

New features:
Major compilation performance improvements
RTL support with 2 new languages: Arabic and Hebrew
Added a "Modify ZIP file" action
Added a JDBC container action
Configurable action lists for "Button" and "Hyperlink action label" form components
Added a "Compiler variable" class path entry that can add an externally passed list of archives to the class path. Added the compiler variables sys.fileSeparator and sys.pathlistSeparator.
Added a "Compiler variable" entry type for the distribution tree that can add an externally passed list of files.
Windows installers: When an error occurred while extracting the installer to the temporary directory, fallback strategies are now attempted
Windows installers: No extraction of DLLs into the temporary directory to reduce problems with anti-virus software
"Uninstall previous installation" action: Log files from multiple instances of this action are now saved as .install4j/uninstallPrevious.n.log.
"Uninstall previous installation" action: Added "Don't uninstall services" and "Installer variables" properties
HTTP actions: Added a "Network failure script" property that is executed when the URL connection cannot be established
"HTTP request" action: Support for custom request body when the request type is set to POST or PUT. For example, it's now possible to send JSON request bodies and not just form parameters.
Improved system proxy detection, support for Windows proxy auto-config (PAC)
Java version-specific VM parameters for launchers
The JRE search sequence is now implemented on Mac OS X
The "Suppress initial progress dialog" property for installers now also works on
API changes:
com.install4j.api.update.UpdateChecker#getUpdateDescriptor now has a version with an ErrorHandlingCallback argument that allows you to take corrective actions like applying proxy settings or canceling the connection before the built-in proxy dialog is shown
Added com.install4j.api.Util#isDirectoryWritable to check if a directory can be written to with the current privileges
Added com.install4j.api.macos.MacProcesses#areInstalledLaunchersRunning()
Added com.install4j.api.beans.ActionList
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ActionListPropertyDescriptor
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ActionValidator
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.Install4jPropertyDescriptor#setActionListHiddenKeys, #setActionListShownKeys and #setHiddenInActionLists
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ActionBeanInfo#setActionListInitializer, #setActionValidator
Bugs fixed:
Run executable or batch file" action: Wide character output was not readable in stderr/stdout redirection
"Uninstall previous installation" action: The log file uninstallPrevious.log was not saved to the .install4j directory on Mac OS X
"Register Add/Remove item" action" and "Install files" action did not work when used in a merged project
"Horizontal separator" form component: Background had the wrong color on tabbed panes
"Reboot computer" action did not work for an uninstaller with a bundled JRE on

New in install4j 6.0.4 Build 6130 (Sep 3, 2015)

New features:
Text components: Added a "Key listener" script property that is executed each time a key is pressed. The "text" parameter contains the modified text unlike for the "Key validator" expression.
It is now possible to use installer variables with array values in the arguments for launchers. Empty array elements are omitted.
API changes:
Added a version of com.install4j.api.windows.WinFileSystem#createShellLink with a parameter of type "ShowCommand" that allows you to open a link with maximized or minimized window state
Bugs fixed:
"Single radio button" form component: If all radio buttons in a group were disabled, an exception was thrown in console mode
"Single radio button" form component: In console mode, the selection script of the first radio button in the group was executed and not the one of the selected radio button
"Load a response file" action: Non-string variables were not registered automatically as response file variables again and the "Overwrite strategy" did not work for them
"Label" form component: & characters followed by a non-space character were not shown
"Execute SQL script" action: Non-standard statement delimiters did not work
Installation directory selector: Several settings were not respected in console mode
PDF action and screen produced a file named error.log next to the installer
Unix service launchers: Not all possible arguments were reported in the "usage" message
Unix service launchers: More robust implementation for stopping the service
Unix launchers: Use exec where possible to replace the shell script process with the java process
Unix launchers: JRE search sequence entries that start with $ or ~ were interpreted as relative files
Windows launchers: The current directory was appended to the end of the class path
Mac OS X: Running process check did not work for single bundle installer
Mac OS X: Installers did not pump stdin
Mac OS X: Console and unattended mode were not set to headless for the Oracle JRE
i18n: Single apostrophes were doubled in formatted messages
Adding imports to the static members script marked the same imports in all other scripts as unused and broke auto-import and test compilation
For wildcard classpath entries of type "archive", the shortest available match is now used

New in install4j 6.0.3 Build 6091 (May 22, 2015)

New features:
The "Downloadable components" step in the media wizard is now also available for archive media files
The "Downloadable components" step in the media wizard has a new option to statically include all downloadable installation components, which is selected by default for archive media files
Bugs fixed:
"Run executable or batch file" action: On Mac OS X, installer variables were not replaced in the "Specific environment variables" property
"Selection change script" property of list form components: The "selectedIndex" parameter had an unspecified type
"Display license agreement" screen: In console mode, "No" was the preselected answer. For multi-page agreements that could lead to an easy termination of the installer. Now no answer is preselected.
"Add an executable to the dock" action did not work on Mac OS X 10.10
The install4j API did not work with the eclipse "jar in jar" class loader
Default Unix directory mode was not always used if the directory mode was not overridden
Posix permissions for backed up files were not restored in the case of a rollback
Invoking the go... methods in the context object did not work reliably in screen validation scripts
ApplicationRegistry.getApplicationInfoById did not return all installations of the other bitness (32-bit/64-bit) on Windows
New compiler variables did not appear in the selection dialog until the project was saved
Windows: The installer could crash if a very large number of custom code files were included
Windows: When no JRE was found by the installer and then one was manually located, a subsequent language restart or elevation action failed
When console mode did not work due to a misconfigured DISPLAY environment variable, an unhelpful error message was displayed
When copying a launcher, the Unix options, Mac options and VM options were shared between the original and the copy until the project was reloaded
Fixed problem with AppleScript scripting engine throwing an NPE on some Mac OS X installations
The output directory for downloaded component files was reused for media files with the same base name but different suffixes, creating multiple issues
Append _32 or _64 to the shared JRE directory in the user home directory to avoid conflicts between 32-bit and 64-bit installers
In-process installer applications could add the current directory to the class path

New in install4j 6.0.2 Build 6071 (Mar 24, 2015)

New features:
Added a "properties" sample project that shows how to use the "Properties files" actions
"Read a properties file" action: Added the "Merge into existing variable" property
"Execute SQL script" action: Gzipped files are now automatically detected and uncompressed on the fly
Incremental test execution is now also available from the command line compiler with the command line option "--incremental"
If the install4j command line compiler does not use a bundled JRE, print Java version and home directory
Bugs fixed:
"Execute SQL script" action: If "Script source" is set to "File", the entire file was read into memory
"Download file" action: If the parent directory of the selected file did not exist, it was not created
"Installation location screen": The displayed required disk space did not include the safety margin added in the validation
"Single radio button" form component: Console mode did not work correctly if some radio buttons were invisible or disabled
Externally packaged files were still packaged even if the property was hidden, for example by a check box parent property
Wildcards in archive names did not work on the "Installer->Custom Code & Resources" step
RPM archives did not contains MD5 signatures
When a build was canceled, temporary files were not deleted
After running an installer application, a temporary file was not deleted
If import statements in static fields and methods were used, the code editor for all other scripts showed an error bar in the gutter
When calling JVMSelector.setPreferredJre, the installer variable sys.preferredJre was not updated
Windows launchers: Fixed crash for very large classpaths
Mac OS X: Do not write JRE bundles into the directory [app directory]/jres, but only into $HOME/.install4j6/jres
Mac OS X: Update installers could not be unmounted from the desktop under Mac OS X 10.10
Mac OS X: The "Start a service" action printed an error message in the log file even if the action was successful
Linux/Unix: The launcher variable launcher:sys.jvmHome was sometimes not correctly resolved
Linux/Unix: Print launcher name in daemon status messages instead of using "daemon". This is useful if several status commands are executed.
Linux/Unix: A logging message from the java.util.prefs subsystem could be printed at the beginning of the installer

New in install4j 6.0.1 Build 6049 (Jan 16, 2015)

New in install4j 6.0 Build 6030 (Nov 11, 2014)

New features:
Added a gradle plugin
Added properties file actions: "Read a properties file", "Remove keys from properties file" and "Write properties to file"
Added JDBC actions: "Check JDBC connection", "Execute SQL query" and "Execute SQL script"
Added XML modification actions: "Insert XML fragment into XML files" and "Remove nodes from XML files"
Added HTTP and network actions: "HTTP request", "Upload file" and "Wait for Socket"
The new "Test installer" tool bar button just recompiles scripts, screens and actions and updates an existing media file for a fast edit-compile-test loop.
Support for very large installers: 4GB on Windows, no limitations on Mac OS X and Unix and on all platforms with external media files
Ability to write compressed DMGs, Mac OS X archives are now written as DMG by default
The DMG volume name and the installer name in the DMG are now configurable in the media wizard
Ability to add additional top-level files into DMGs making it possible to style the Finder window
I18N for launcher names on Mac OS X by using installer variables in launcher names
Installer applications: Added properties to specify a different executable name for Mac OS X. Uninstaller name on Mac OS X is not hard-coded anymore.
Possibility to configure a different application bundle name for Mac OS X on the "Mac OS X options" step of the launcher wizard
Command line and service launchers are now generated for Mac OS X single bundle media file types as well
Debug log for Mac OS X launchers can be created by specifying the environment variable INSTALL4J_LOG=yes
ICNS icon for Mac OS X launchers is now generated from cross-platform images if no ICNS icon is specified
Retina icons in installers, image properties also support retina resolution
JRE bundle creation wizard and command line executable on Mac OS X, with the option to create unpacked JRE bundles.
"Check for running processes" action now works on Mac OS X as well
Updater templates have been adjusted to support archive media file types on Mac OS X
Many UI fixes for Mac OS X
"Reboot computer" action and com.install4j.api.context.Context#triggerReboot now work on Mac OS X as well
The installer variables "sys.appDataDir", "sys.localAppdataDir", "sys.docsDir", "sys.fontsDir" and "sys.programsDir" are now also implemented on Mac OS X
Util#showPath now mounts and opens DMG files on Mac OS X
Support for comments on variable definitions in response files, configurable in the IDE and via the API.
Installer variable configuration: Added a "Response file" tab to configure response file properties.
When loading a response file, all variables are now registered as response file variables. For the "Load a response file" action, a "Register variables for response file" property has been added to make it possible to revert to the previous behavior of not registering any variables as response file variables.
"Load a response file" action: Added an "Overwrite strategy" property that allows you to select in what cases existing variable definitions should be overridden. New is the option for not overwriting the variable definitions that were passed on the command line.
Response files are now sorted alphabetically
Added a "Modify response file" action.
"Create a response file" action: Added a "Variable selection mode" property to either exclude or include response file variables
Java editor: Add stubs for abstract methods when completing an interface or abstract class
Java editor: Optional auto-import during code completion
Added a script that contains static fields and methods for all scripts, configurable under "Installer->Custom Code & Resources"
Show line numbers of user input in compile errors and stack traces, lines outside user input in generated source are prefixed with "*"
install4j script classes are not in the default package anymore. This fixes problems with in-process installer applications and signed jar files that contain classes in the default package
Support DPI scaling for Windows launchers with a setting on the "Executable info->Windows manifest options step" of the launcher wizard
Added "/run" and "/run-redirect" parameter for windows services, "run" and "run-redirect" parameters for Unix services to start a service in command line mode from a terminal
Windows launchers no longer poll the file system for the internal single instance and splash screen communications
Splash screen API now works for the Java splash screen as well
Use the Java splash screen on Mac OS X and Unix instead of the fallback implementation necessary before Java 6
Optimized JRE search sequence for Unix launchers
"Download file" and "Check for update" action: Added "Connect timeout", "Read timeout", "Accept all SSL certificates" and "Request headers" properties
"Wait for HTTP server" action: Now supports HTTPS. The URL configuration is now a single string, eliminating the common problem of a variable port.
"Installation location" screen, "Installation directory chooser" form component and "Installation components" screen: Added a "Standard validation" property that allows you to switch off the default directory validation.
"Register Add/Remove item": Added an "Icon source" property. The installer icon is now used by default.
Native file choosers and alerts in the install4j IDE
New failure strategy for actions: "Return to parent screen"
Installer variable configuration: Added a check box for not writing variable values to the log file (same as Context#registerHidden)
Replacement for PDF action and screen based on ICEpdf
Added cross-platform installer variables "sys.desktopDir", "sys.docsDir" and "sys.downloadsDir"
Linux RPM media files: Added "operating system" and "architecture" settings
Required and free disk space are now displayed in GB if the size is large enough
Added a "Disable JRE bundling" build option, also available from the command line and the ant and gradle integrations
If an exception occurs while instantiating a custom screen, action or form component in the install4j IDE, show the stack trace in the configuration panel
Added a "Rollback on failure" property for all installer applications that makes rollback optional
The installer variable selector now shows on which platforms installer variables are defined if they are not defined for all platforms
There now is a global "Show IDs" tool bar buttons which toggles ID display in all views instead of multiple view-specific buttons
Scripts can now use Java 8 language features if the minimum Java version or the project is set to 1.8
API changes:
Added com.install4j.api.macos.MacProcesses
Added WinEnvVars#getFromRegistry to get environment variable values as set in the registry which is especially useful for retrieving the raw value for PATH
Added com.install4j.api.context.Context#registerResponseFileComment
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.FailureStrategy#RETURN_TO_SCREEN
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ActionBeanInfo#setDefaultMultiExec
Bugs fixed:
Window menu was always empty on Mac OS X
Windows registry actions: Show an error at compile time if there is a leading backslash in the key name
Never access system preferences root if the installer is not running as root on Unix
If an out of bounds proxy port was specified on the command line, the resulting failure did not show the proxy dialog
In formatted i18n messages all apostrophes were removed
Sort order in directory chooser did not take localized names into account
It was not possible to use the context parameter in a RemoteCallable passed to Context#runElevated
The selected principal language could also be added as an additional language
FormComponent#checkCompleted is now only called for visible components. Invisible form components are not checked anymore when the user clicks on "Next".
"Run executable or batch file" action: Some special characters in the user name would cause the action to fail
Removed usage of a method that is removed in Java 9
A 64-bit installer should not suggest the previous installation directory of a 32-bit installation and vice-versa
Warnings were displayed during compilation if the launcher classpath contained JAR files that were compiled with target 1.8.

New in install4j 5.1.15 (Oct 24, 2014)

New in install4j 5.1.14 (Sep 2, 2014)

New in install4j 5.1.13 (Sep 2, 2014)

New in install4j 5.1.12 (Jun 9, 2014)

New in install4j 5.1.11 (Mar 20, 2014)

New in install4j 5.1.10 (Feb 20, 2014)

New in install4j 5.1.9 (Jan 30, 2014)

New in install4j 5.1.8 (Jan 14, 2014)

New in install4j 5.1.7 (Nov 11, 2013)

New features:
Launchers: expand launcher variables and environment variables in the configured working directory of a launcher
Added the HTTP header "X-Client-Application: install4j" for all HTTP request made by install4j
"Install a service" action: Added a "Windows Custom Display Name" property for setting a different display name than the name of the launcher
Bugs fixed:
Spaces in the value of the -dir command line arguments to an installer were not trimmed
Add-on installers did not certain files referenced by screens, actions and form components, such as icon images
Custom code was not on the classpath for elevated actions in the startup node of the uninstaller
Custom icon configuration for launchers and installer applications: If compiler variables were used in the file name, the size was shown as "unknown"
If a code signing certificate file did not exist, the compiler reported that the password was wrong
Form components with leading labels could not be hidden completely, they always took up some space
The tree in the directory selector scrolled when a directory was selected
Version numbers with number parts larger than Integer.MAX_VALUE could not be compared by install4j
Long file names in JRE bundles were not supported on some platforms
An in-process installer application that was canceled could not be called again
Fixed warning when description was not specified for DEB archives
Fixed formatting of DEB archive description
Fixed wrong height of progress bar on Windows 2012
Could not use Context#gotoScreen in startup node
Fixed a crash with the no_NO_NY locale
Launchers with an install4j splash screen showed the splash screen again when invoking an in-process installer application
Instances of InstallationComponentSetup could not be modified from elevated actions
"Wait for HTTP port" action did not replace installer variables
File chooser component: File filter was not selected by default, installer variables were not replaced for file filter name and extensions
The console screen change handler that can be configured for the entire installer application was not called for customizable screens
Custom code: Associated actions and screens could not be loaded if the bean was added on the Installer->Custom code & Resources tab
"Show URL" action: No error was displayed if an URL could not be shown

New in install4j 5.1.6 (Jun 21, 2013)

New features:
"Directory selection" screen and "Directory chooser" form component - Added a "Standard validation" property that can be used to switch of basic validation of the directory name
"Welcome" screen - If the update question is visible, show a tooltip icon that displays the installation directory
Debian media files - Added an "Architecture" option on the "Installation options" step of the media wizard
API changes:
API - added Util#isWindows2012
API - FormEnvironment#makeParentGroupVisible did not work if the form component was contained in nested layouts
Bugs fixed:
"Install a service" action - Spaces after commas in the comma-separated list of Windows dependencies were not supported
For scripts of form components in uninstaller screens, the editor assumed a context parameter of type InstallerContext instead of UninstallerContext
Fixed an NPE when installer variables were used in archive launchers
Increased window sizes of the "Running processes" window and the native installer splash dialog on Windows
Debug installer did not work if external installer data files were selected
Fixed an exception when Pack200 was used and no user scripts where present in the installer
Custom code was not added to the elevated helper process of the uninstaller
Running services could block unattended update installer
Fixed problems with old Xerces implementations in java extension directories
Config files could be garbled when opening and saving multiple config files on certain Linux systems
Updater templates - In console and GUI mode, the updater template did not adjust the installation directory to that the invoking installation. This could be a problem if there were multiple installations with the same application ID.
Mac OS X - Fixed exception when an application bundle directory was used as an external launcher
Mac OS X - Messages installer splash dialog (Java 7 only) were not displayed correctly in some languages
Mac OS X - Installed Oracle JRE was not found for recent JRE versions
Linux/Unix - Return 0 when stopping a non-running service
Linux/Unix - The directory lib/ext in bundled JREs was not used as an extension directory
Linux/Unix - Logging from the java.util.prefs subsystem was printed on the command line for installers running with Java 7

New in install4j 5.1.5 (Jan 16, 2013)

New in install4j 5.1.4 (Dec 18, 2012)

New in install4j 5.1.3 (Sep 21, 2012)

New in install4j 5.1.2 (Jul 28, 2012)

New features:
Project compilation now produces a file "output.txt" that list all generated media files, their IDs, display names and platform types
"File chooser" and "Directory chooser" form components: Added a "Initial browser directory" property
API changes:
Install4JPropertyDescriptor.CONTEXT_NO_INSTALLER_VARIABLES now also works for properties of type java.io.File
In addition to .utf8 files, .properties files are now supported as extension localization files
Bugs fixed:
context.getInstallationComponents() could not be called from an elevated action (regression in 5.1)
Moving back and forth through through screen groups could cause the installer to fail (regression in 5.1)
"Install files" action: Fixed exception when "delay if necessary" was used for elevated install files action (regression in 5.1)
"Hyperlink action label" action: variables in the hyperlink text were not replaced in console mode
"Hyperlink action label" form component: Show label text in console mode if defined
"Install files" action: If "Show file names" is deselected, the unpacking progress for packed JAR files was still shown which did not make any sense to the user
"Leading label" form component: If only an icon and no text was configured, the icon was not shown
"Start a service" action on Mac OS X: Removed printing of an uncritical exception
"Single radio button" form component: In console mode, the installer could hang under some circumstances
Mac OS X code signing: Automatically add Apple certificates if .p12 file contains no chain. The "certificate export" functionality is no longer necessary and has been removed.
Mac OS X code signing: Fail during build if an unsuitable certificate is provided
Mac OS X: com.install4j.api.JVMSelector did not return the real home directory of the JRE bundle
Mac OS X: Mark all launchers as high resolution capable for retina displays
Linux/Unix: Fixed problem where file modes could not be changed during update installations
Linux/Unix: com.install4j.api.unix.UnixFileSystem.setMode did not work under some circumstances
Updaters would throw an NPE in the "Finish" step if the downloaded media file was an archive
Custom installer applications: external files (such as icons) in were not loaded
Custom installer applications: An empty working directory lead to an error during build
Progress operations would not work if a screen with a progress interface was executed through a link
Compiler variables could not be used in custom localization files
Linking to screen groups in the same installer application was broken
In console mode, when cancelling an installer, the subsequent prompt on the terminal could be indented
Using links in custom installer applications that were contributed from merged projects did not work
The ID of the uninstaller launcher at runtime was not "uninstaller", but a generated and non-configurable ID
Do not add custom code jar files to the class path more than once in the installer
Cached proxy information was never used if the auto-detected browser config was wrong
Unbalanced quotes for arguments were not handled correctly by launchers

New in install4j 5.1.1 Build 5452 (Jul 8, 2012)

New in install4j 5.1 Build 5435 (Jun 18, 2012)

New features:
New privileges architecture where the installer GUI always runs in unelevated mode and actions are elevated on demand, depending on the new "Action elevation type" property of installer applications, screens, groups and actions
"Run executable or batch file" action: "Timeout" property that can be set if "Wait for termination" is selected. If the timeout is exceeded, the process is killed.
"Run executable or batch file" action: Added a "Use rollback executable" property to optionally specify an executable that is invoked in the case of a rollback
"Run executable or batch file" action: In addition to file redirection, the action now supports stderr and stdout redirection to installer variables or to the log file and stdin redirection from a string
Added a "Require installer privileges" action that is now used in the "Startup" node of uninstallers for new projects by default
"Add a desktop link" and "Create start menu entry" actions: Added a "Run as administrator" property
"Directory chooser" form component and "Directory selection" screen: Added an "Allow empty input" property to disable validation if no directory is selected
Added a "Leading label" form component with no central component
"Label" form component: Added an "Add empty leading label" property
Define distribution tree: In the wizard for adding and editing single files, the file names can now be edited
Launcher wizard: Added the "Executable Info->Mac OS X options" step where an additional fragment for the Info.plist file can be entered
Loop index for screen and action groups: Loop index variable in loop expression, configurable start index and increment, optional loop index installer variable
Log execution times of all actions
Added "Count nodes in XML file" action
Much faster LZMA compression during build
Faster installation of large files
Better implementation of Util.showPath on Linux that uses the default file manager if possible
API changes:
Added com.install4j.api.beaninfo.ActionBeanInfo#setUninstallerStartupAction
Added InstallerContext#installDirectory(File, UninstallMode) to create empty directories that will be removed by the uninstaller.
Added com.install4j.api.events.InstallerActionEvent
Bugs fixed:
Multiple directory choosers on the same form screen did not work correctly
"Display text" screen: Installer variables were not replaced in title, subtitle and info text properties
Mac OS X: Generated launchers did not work in installation directories with parentheses
Customizable forms: Pressing CTRL-End would move the form contents for scrollable forms that were not large enough to show a scroll bar
Project file contents were not stable when saving under some circumstances
Windows: When removing a service dependency, the change was not propagated to the installation during an update
"Run executable or batch file" action: If "Wait for termination" is selected, the redirection streams might not have been fully read after the process had finished
Windows launchers: Remove temporary files if no JRE can be found
Screens: "Background image" property for wizard index did not have a variable selector
Compiler variables in external launchers were not replaced during compile-time
New projects were opened in the background
Fixed exception when uninstalling file associations
Windows launchers: Temporary directory creation is now more robust
Fixed wrong behavior when going back in the screen history where screen loops were present
"Delete file or directory" action: The action could be unsuccessful under some circumstances
Fixed XML-related AbstractMethodError on Java 6

New in install4j 5.0.11 (Jun 18, 2012)

New in install4j 5.0.10 (Jun 18, 2012)

New features:
Added progress feedback for unpacking JAR files that were packed with Pack200 as a percentage number after the file name in the status line
Windows: The auto-detected language is now the "Display language" setting defined in the "Region and Language" Windows control panel, independently of the used JRE
Support Java 7 for the install4j IDE and the command line compiler (launchers and installers have already supported Java 7 before)
API changes:
Added ProgressInterface#setSecondaryPercentCompleted to add progress feedback for secondary tasks in the status line
UpdateChecker.getUpdateDescriptor threw an NPE instead of an IOException if the connection could not be made to the server
Bugs fixed:
"Directory chooser" and "File chooser" form components: The validation script was not executed when the user clicked on the Next button, so manual changes were not validated
"Installation type" screen: If custom IDs were defined for the installation types, the installer variable "sys.installationTypeId" was still set to the numeric ID of the selected installation type in console mode
"Write text to a file" action: Line separators of the runtime platform were not always used in the written file
"Installation directory chooser" component: A duplicate existing directory warning was displayed in console mode at the end of the form
"Installation directory chooser" form component: Validation was run even if the component was not visible or not enabled
"Download and install component" action: The action could only be added once to a project
All "Spinner" and "Text field with date format" form components: Value initialization was broken for response files
"Add Windows file rights" and "Add access rights for a key in the Windows registry" actions: Installer variables were not replaced in the "SID or account name" property
"Display progress" screen: Installer variables in the "Initial status message" property were evaluated at startup and not when the screen was activated
"Hyperlink URL label" form component: Installer variables in the displayed URL were nor replaced in console mode
"Add a desktop link" action: The specified icon had no effect for links to a .url file
ant task: If the "buildids" parameter was specified with an empty value, no media files were built
Creating a file association could throw an exception
A hidden installation component that was initially selected was not installed in console mode
Surrounding white space in answers to multiple choice questions in console mode was not ignored
Generated service launchers were not compatible under Red Hat Linux
Mac OS X: Packed custom code jars that are not in the distribution tree were not used for the uninstaller
Updater applications did not work if they were launched in the same process
Launchers on Mac OS X and Linux: Native library path entries containing environment variables to an absolute path did not work
The update descriptor file could contain duplicate elements for the principal language if it was also added as an additional language
Mac OS X: A preference store bug in Mac OS X 10.7 broke the detection of previous installations
Some operations in SWT applications could be slow due an application manifest entry
Automatic launcher integration did not work in MAC OS X single bundle media files
Single instance mode for launchers was broken if there were spaces in the name of the executable
Updaters that were started by launcher integration in the same process at startup did not switch to the native look and feel
Language auto-detection did not work in unattended mode
Fixed a Debian package warning
Linux/Unix installers: If the environment variable GREP_OPTIONS was defined, the installer could break
Closing the language selection dialog with the window close button could leave the installer hanging
"Bundled JRE" step in the media wizard: A change in the 32-bit/64-bit selection in the previous step was not considered for the choice of bundled JREs

New in install4j 5.0.9 (Jun 18, 2012)

New features:
Installer applications: Added a "Progress interface creation script" property to customize the display of progress information for unattended installations
Installer: Added a "Replacement script for language code" property. This can be used to change the auto-detected language or to implement custom auto-detection of the language that should be used.
Installer applications: Added a "Help customizer" for modifying the displayed help on the available command line arguments
"Set a variable" action: Added a "Register for response file" property
Added a "Hide help button" option on the "Description" tab of the installation component property sheet
Added a launcher variable "sys.tempDir"
Added a compiler variable "sys.time"
API changes:
Added com.install4j.api.context.UnattendedProgressInterface and com.install4j.api.context.DefaultUnattendedProgressInterface for the "Progress interface creation script" property of installer applications
Added Context#getVersion() to get the version of the installed application
Added Context#getMediaFileId() to get the media file ID of the installer
Added Context#getExtraCommandLineArguments() to get command line arguments that were not processed by the installer
Added FormEnvironment#reinitializeFormComponents() to re-run the initialization of all form components
Variables#getInstallerVariable(String) and Variables.getInstallerVariables() do not throw IOException anymore. If the automatically created response file cannot be read (as is the case for archives), system variables are still available from these methods
Calling UpdateChecker.getUpdateDescriptor with ApplicationDisplayMode.GUI would throw an NPE if the proxy dialog had to be displayed
Script properties could not have array return types
Bugs fixed:
Prevent PCA mitigation ("This program might not have installed correctly”) for Windows 7
Fixed exception when running an installer with certain layouts with Java 1.5
"Help text" tool tip labels in customizable forms were focusable
Text form components on tabbed panes: If validation failed with an error message, the parent tab of the text form component was not shown
Encoding in displayed HTML files was not detected correctly
"HTML display" form component and screens showing HTML text: For direct entry, installer variables were not replaced in the HTML
"Installation components" screen: Fixed flickering when toggling the help buttons in the tree
"Installation components" screen: Only show tree lines if the the component tree has component folders
"Create program group" action: On Unix, the default value of the "Directory for links" property did not use the user input from the "Create program group" screen
For a wizard index that was defined in the IDE, installer variables were not replaced in the keys and step names
Fixed NPE when writing a response file with a string array variable value containing a null value in one of the array elements
Util.showOptionDialog did not show default value in console mode and numeric keys were displayed. This was inconsistent with questions from form components. Keys are now taken from the first letters of the supplied options and can be set explicitly by prefixing the letters with '&'.
Links to screens or actions in merged projects could fail at runtime under some circumstances
For certain network errors, downloads would not time out and hang the installer
If no initial text was set for the status and version lines in the splash screen configuration of a launcher, subsequent updates via the API has no effect on Unix and Mac OS X
Generated .vmoptions files were not preserved by the "Uninstall previous installation" action
Installer variables could no longer be used when overriding system messages (regression in 5.0.8)
System installer variables were not available for archives
PDF screen and actions did not work anymore
Using installer variables with numeric values as arguments to i18n keys in expressions like ${i18n:myMessage(${installer:myNumericValue})} did not work
For launchers in archives, installer variables in system properties and arguments were not replaced with "null" if no response file was available. This was inconsistent with the behavior of launchers in regular installers
The error output of install4j command line tools was redirected to a file and not displayed on the terminal (regression in 5.0.8)
If an error occurred during script compilations, lots of warnings regarding serialVersionUIDs were printed as well (regression in 5.0.8).
Media wizard: In the "Exclude components" screen, if a folder was excluded, the component tree was not displayed the next time that the project was loaded
Media wizard: When pack200 compression was activated, file exclusions did not work for JAR files that were also used in custom code
The "createbundle" command line tool did not work in headless mode
File exclusions for directory entries in the distribution tree were not saved when "Add to subdirectory" was selected for the entry
Windows registry: Strings stored without null termination were not read correctly
Windows service shutdown did not work correctly when user code redirected System.in
Windows user creation failed under certain circumstances
Mac OS X: An unnecessary test file remained when the installer process was elevated
Mac OS X: It was not possible to use very long installer names
Mac OS X: No text field was shown for certain file chooser dialogs in the install4j IDE
Unix: Installers and launchers did not work if the $HOME directory was not writable
Unix: Several actions would fail to operate on files whose names contained a dollar sign

New in install4j 5.0.8 Build 5311 (Apr 14, 2011)

New features:
"Install files" action and "Download and install component" actions: In console mode, file names are now shown on the same line to avoid a long scrolling list of file names
In console mode, HTML tags are now removed in all text output. Multi-line messages use an HTML to plain text conversion that conserves line breaks, lists and similar layout tags.
"Create program group" action: Windows program group entries now have an additional "Run as administrator" option
API changes:
ProgressInterface#setDetailMessage: In console mode, repeated invocation of this method overwrites the current line. This prevents a long scrolling list of temporary information.
Added Screen#hasDefaultButtons() for hiding the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen
Context#isUpdateInstallation was not updated when the installation directory was changed by the "Installation location" screen in console mode
Added WinFileSystem#createStartMenuEntry method with an additional runAsAdministrator parameter
Bugs fixed:
Regression in 5.0.7: File selection for installation components was not saved
Regression in 5.0.7: Using installer variables in custom localization files did not work as expected anymore, all variables were replaced at startup instead of at the time of usage
In console mode, "Downloading ..." was displayed even if no component data files were actually downloaded
"Multi-line HTML label" form component: In console mode, blank lines were printed before and after the text
"Fix line feeds" action: The file property was lost when reading a project saved by install4j 4.x
"Uninstall previous installation" action: An already installed JRE bundle was deleted, which could cause problems
It was not possible to insert i18n messages which contained installer or compiler variables by using the variable selector
Windows launchers: Error messages about invalid environment variables in the search sequence contained an unresolved variable
"Fix line feeds" action: In console mode, exceptions were printed if a file or directory did not exist
"Directory selector" and "File selector" components: In console mode, if the bound variable was defined before the screen was shown, the selector did not show the defined value as the default value
Updater templates did not force unattended update installers to use the current installation directory which could be a problem if multiple installations of the same product existed.

New in install4j 5.0.7 Build 5284 (Mar 22, 2011)

New features:
Windows installer: Language auto-detection is now also implemented in the native initial progress dialog. If the user language is configured for the installer, it will be used with a fallback to the principal language.
Windows launchers: Make executable name available for JVM discovery, for example in VisualVM
Support for .properties files in the editor for custom localization files (ISO-8859-1 encoding and java.util.Properties-style escaping)
Improved version comparison for auto-updates. Sequences like 2.0 beta 2 -> 2.0 rc 1 -> 2.0 are now compared correctly
"Uninstall previous" action: The log file of the uninstaller is now written to .install4j/uninstallPrevious.log
API changes:
Added com.install4j.api.screens.Screen#hasDefaultInsets which makes it possible to develop custom screens that take up all available space
com.install4j.api.context.Context#runElevated(...) and #runUnelevated(...) were broken
UpdateChecker#getUpdateDescriptor did not ask for proxy information if a connection was refused
AbstractBean#replaceVariables methods did not replace installer and compiler variables when called during the initialization phase of a bean
InstallerContext.isUpdateInstallation() returned true for any installation if it was called for the first time after the "Install Files" action had already run
Bugs fixed:
"Vertical spacer" form component: No space was added in console mode
"Welcome" screen: Form components with a horizontal size that exceeded the available space broke the layout
"Windows user selector" form component: Any SIDs already contained in the bound variable were not displayed in the user selector and discarded on "Next". This prevented the pre-definition of SIDs with response files.
"Run executable or batch file action": Redirection files were not closed immediately after a successful execution
"Welcome" screen: Form components were not displayed in console mode
"Finish" screen: No message was printed in console mode
"Hyperlink label" form component: Nothing was printed in console mode
"Create program group" action: The "Display icon" property of URL links did not have any effect in modern Windows versions
Windows: Fixed UnsatisfiedLinkError during some installations
Windows launchers: In the fixed VM parameters for launchers and installers, a "\n" was replaced with a newline character
Windows: When running processes were detected in console mode, an exception was thrown
Windows: When starting an installer with the -h argument, a corruption warning was shown for the next start
Windows services: Do not report an error for service uninstallation when the service is already marked for deletion
Windows services: Do not report an error when stopping a non-active service
Windows services: The /status command line argument did not work under some circumstances
Some classes from the install4j API could not be used in scripts, because the compiler did not find them
Hosts name exceptions in browser proxy configuration were not respected for downloads in install4j
Proxy information for downloads was not always applied immediately when changed in the browser
Proxy information in the browser was used even if the proxy was disabled in the browser
Proxy dialog was not shown in unattended mode with progress dialog
The variable "sys.programGroupDir" was not available if the "Create program group" screen was not displayed
Excluding file sets in the media wizard from merged projects caused an NPE in installer
vmoptions files: "-include-options" command did not work correctly with relative files
If the "Do not delete temporary directory" build option was selected, generated script sources were still deleted
At runtime, missing keys in custom localization files did not fall back to the principal language
Prevent multiple error dialogs if auto-saving does not succeed
Quick search in list of bound installer variables did not work
HTML tags were shown for some messages in console mode
Some file modification actions printed exceptions in console mode
Hiding an installation component had no effect in console mode
The language selection in console mode was not presented in the user language, but always in the principal language
Non-error messages were printed to stderr instead of stdout in unattended mode

New in install4j 5.0.6 Build 5219 (Dec 21, 2010)

New features:
"Install a service" action: Added a "Windows arguments" property for arguments that are passed to the main class
"Write text to a file" action: Added a "Log text" property for preventing the replaced text to be written to the installation.log file
"Run executable or batch file" action: In the redirection properties, /dev/stdout, /dev/stderr and /dev/stdin connect to the default streams of the installer application
"Check for running processes on Windows" action: For relative files in the "Additional executables" property, only the names of the executables are used for comparison. This enables checking for executables with an unknown location.
Installer applications: Added a "Disable console mode on Windows" property
Use a better file choose dialog in the install4j IDE on Mac OS X (from the Quaqua Look and Feel)
API changes:
Added Context#unregisterResponseFileVariable(String) to reverse the effect of Context#registerResponseFileVariable(String)
Added WinUser#getUserName(String sid) to get the unqualified user name
Added Win32UserInfo#getUserProfileDirectory(String sid, String password)
Added WinFileSystem#getDriveType() to check for removable drives
Bugs fixed:
"Run executable or batch file" action: On Windows, use less quotes for arguments to avoid issues with programs that do not expect quoted arguments
"Run executable or batch file" action: If the .exe extension was missing, the executable was not launched on Windows under certain circumstances
"Run executable or batch file" action: In the installation log file, the values of the redirection files properties were reported without variable replacements
"Run executable or batch file" action: If a redirection file was set to an installer variable, and that variable contained the empty string, the execution failed
"Run executable or batch file" action: On Windows, AutoRun commands defined in the registry were not ignored
"Request privileges" action: On Windows, the action did not work with normal users when UAC was disabled
"Install Files" action: Files were extracted before the user was asked whether an existing file should be overwritten. For large files, this would waste time for the user.
"Uninstall Files" action: The file classes.jsa of a bundled JRE was not deleted for server VMs
"Uninstall files" action: In certain cases, shared files were not uninstalled as expected
"Read a key from the Java preference store" action: The property "Preference root" could not be changed in the install4j IDE
"Installation components" screen: If multiple hidden installation components were on the same level in the component tree, only the first one was actually hidden.
"Delete files and directories" action: The action resulted in an error if a file did not exist, which conflicts with the behavior in install4j 4.x. Now the action returns with success even if the file that is to be deleted could not be found.
"Set a variable" action: Exceptions were not reported in the installation.log file
Add-on installers installed their own install4j runtime, which could lead to broken uninstallers if runtime library shrinking was enabled
Regression in 5.0.5: project reports were not opened immediately in browser
It was not possible to exclude the uninstaller in the "Customize project defaults->Exclude installer elements" step of the media wizard
Fixed a FileNotFoundException when JAR files were used in the custom code and multiple media files were built
Windows: The silent installer did not automatically download a dynamic JRE bundle when the direct downloading option was selected on the "Bundled JRE" step of the media wizard
Windows: When msvcrt71.dll was not present in windows\system32, a bundled jre was used, and a launcher was started after installation, the installer always asked for a reboot
The "Global exclude" pattern under Files->File Options was not saved to the project file
When changing between different project windows, the file chooser could show the wrong distribution tree under some circumstances
Fixed a rare string corruption problems with installer settings that were saved to the Windows registry
Public JREs on HP-UX were not found
Using links in the same installer application led to ClassCastExceptions at runtime under certain circumstances
The "preserve" option of the command line compiler was not available on the ant task
If a download URL was specified on the "Bundled JRE" step of the media wizard, it was used even if the "Don't bundle" a JRE option was selected
The -wait command line option did not work with unattended mode on Windows. Unattended updaters were mainly affected by this bug.
Form components: The tool tip help label from the "Help text" property was not shown under some circumstances
Unix launchers: Using installer variables for redirection files broke the launcher script
Choosing the "According to update schedule registry" mode on the "Launcher integration" tab of installer applications did not work
Windows: Services were uninstalled when the service path was changed during an update
A rollback could leave the file .install4j\response.varfile in the installation directory
Partially downloaded files were not deleted
Compiler variables could not be overridden for merged projects from the command line or the ant task
AIX: Exceptions were printed when an installer was executed
Do not write the default chkconfig info to unix daemon scripts if the custom script for the launcher already contains a chkconfig header

New in install4j 5.0.5 Build 5151 (Oct 23, 2010)

New features:
Installer applications: Added new execution mode "Unattended mode with progress dialog" and child property "Title for progress dialog". This is the same functionality that is available from the command line with the -splash [title] arguments.
System installer variables such as "sys.userHome" are now available for launchers, e.g. in redirection file names and the in com.install4j.api.launcher.Variables class
The build options in the Build step of the IDE are now persistent
Bugs fixed:
Under some circumstances, the proxy dialog was not displayed and an exception was thrown instead
Installer variables could not be used for redirection files of generated launchers
Installer variables were not resolved when executing a launcher from the installer, because the response file was not yet written
Update detection did not work for Mac OS X single bundle installers
Custom code entries with spaces in the path could not be found by script compiler
If -Dinstall4j.keepLog=true was passed to the installer, the temporary log file was not preserved if the installation was successful
Windows launchers: Service arguments embedded in the registered binary path did not work correctly
unpack200 failed on some Windows machines
Fixed NPE with launcher integration
Generated vmoptions files were not included when launcher was selected directly in the component selection
Custom code jars were not copied to the final destination when selected directly in the component selection
-Dinstall4j.debug=true was not set in debug scripts, so stack traces were not printed to stderr
installer variables: In properties with array values (like the arguments of a "Run executable" action), empty array values resulting from empty installer variables were not pruned from the resulting array
Unix launchers: Installer variables in fixed VM parameters and arguments were always replaced with empty strings
If there was a fatal error while writing the update descriptor, the build process in the install4j IDE would hang
Unix installers: Since JRE 1.6.0_17, the workaround for hiding annoying messages from the java.util.prefs subsystem did not work anymore