VCLZip 4.50 ready for testing by registered users

[Kevin]

If you are a registered user of VCLZip Pro, you should be receiving an email soon letting you know that you can now test VCLZip 4.50. If you are a registered user of VCLZip 4 but do not get this email, send me an email at [e-mail] and I will make sure you get the information for downloading the new version.

Here is what is in the email except for the URL and password for the new version:

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Dear Registered User of VCLZip 4,

VCLZip 4.5 which includes Unicode support for Delphi/BCB 6 and above and also provides Delphi/BCB 2009 support is about ready to go, but it still needs a little testing before being officially considered production ready. We have uploaded the new version along with the Zip Utility Demo which has been modified to work with it.

If you are interested (or think you will be interested in the future) in Unicode support, please download and test this new version. The sooner you do, and provide feedback, the sooner it will be officially released. And remember, if you registered VCLZip 4 within the last 12 months (which you have) this is a free upgrade.

This version is compatible with WinZip 12's implementation of Unicode support. VCLZip and WinZip will read each other's archives created with Unicode filenames and paths. Also, archive names and paths can contain Unicode as well.

So now you have 3 options with this new version:

1. VCLZip without Unicode support - This option is available in Delphi/BCB 6 through 2007 and is essentially just like VCLZip 4.0. Strings are AnsiStrings and archives will not store Unicode filenames.

2. VCLZip with Unicode support in Delphi/BCB 6 through 2007 - This option (activated by defining the IMPLEMENT_UNICODE conditional) supports Unicode by compiling Strings as WideStrings and calling Unicode functions. This option requires the most changes on your part. Events that previously had String parameters will now have WideString paramteters. If you want your GUI to support Unicode you will need some Unicode GUI components such as TNT Unicode Components which can be found at www.tmssoftware.com/site/tmsuni.asp.

3. VCLZip with Unicode support in Delphi/BCB 2009. (Do not define IMPLEMENT_UNICODE) This option is the easiest way to include Unicode support. There are virtually no changes that have to be made to your application. The only change likely is the OnBadPassword event will now use an AnsiString type for the password parameter that is passed in. The password cannot be a Unicode string. However it can be UTF8 since that is stored in an AnsiString.

So please take a moment to check out the installations and the component itself. Let us know if you find any problems or something that should just be changed and we'll take care of it right away.

Thanks so much for your help. We really love working with Delphi and BCB developers. They are definitely a different breed of developer. :-)

Kevin

KpGb Software
[e-mail]
www.vclzip.com

[Kevin]

To clarify on Unicode passwords... You can use Unicode passwords if you convert them to UTF8 before handing them over to VCLZip. Do this by calling UTF8Encode first. Something like this:

VCLZip1.Password := UTF8Encode(YourPassword); // Where YourPassword is a UnicodeString

Infact you can do the same thing with FileComments and ZipComments. Just be sure to decode what VCLZip gives you as a comment. Such as...

When zipping...

VCLZip1.ZipComment := UTF8Encode(YourComment);

When Reading the comment from the zip...

YourComment := UTF8Decode(VCLZip1.ZipComment);