FinalBuilder Features

Features of FinalBuilder

FinalBuilder Features:

  • Easy-to-use graphical interface - FinalBuilder's user interface has been carefully crafted to make it as easy-to-use as possible. Anyone in your team can use FinalBuilder to automate tasks.
  • 600+ built in Action Types - FinalBuilder includes a broad range of action types that cover almost any task you might need to automate. Here are just a few:
    • Compile applications from source code 
    • Compile setup/installer programs
    • Work with Version Control Systems, to get, check out, check in & label files
    • Handle versioning with ease
    • Create & edit INI files & Windows registry keys
    • Burn CD's & DVD's, or create CD/DVD images (ISO images)
    • Zip & unzip files and other archive formats
    • Run automated testing
    • FTP files to/from servers
    • Send emails, post on news servers
    • Handle errors, run multiple tasks in parallel, and dynamically change the build flow
    • Iterate over sets of files and other lists
    • Compile help files
  • Creating custom plugins. See ActionStudio below for more information
  • Scheduled Builds- FinalBuilder provides tight integration with the windows scheduling service, which allows builds to be scheduled to run daily, weekly or whatever you wish.
  • Advanced Flow control actions - FinalBuilder includes Try/Catch/Finally actions which allow localised structured error handling, and flow control actions such as If Then, Else, Switch/Case, While Loop.
  • Integration with Version Control Systems/Source Code Repositories - Almost all automated build processes require some type of interaction with a Version Control System or Source Code Repository.  FinalBuilder directly supports the following:
    • AccuRev [AccuRev Website]
    • Borland StarTeam [Borland StarTeam]
    • CVS [Concurrent Version System]
    • IBM/Rational ClearCase [ClearCase]
    • JediVCS [JEDI Version Control System]
    • QVCS [Quma Software]
    • MKS Source Integrity [MKS Website]
    • Perforce [Perforce Software]
    • PureCM [PureCM Website]
    • PVCS [Serena Website]
    • SubVersion [Tigris.org]
    • Surround SCM [Seapine website]
    • Sourcegear Vault [Sourcegear]
    • Team Coherence [QSC]
    • Team Foundation Source Control [VisualStudio Team System]
    • Visual SourceSafe (VSS 6 and VSS 2005) [Microsoft VSS 6, Microsoft VSS 2005]
    • If your version control system is not directly supported - please contact ComponentSource.
  • Email, Newsgroup, ICQ, FTP Support - Your build process can email the results of the build to you, so for example if the build fails, it can export the log, attach it to an email and send it to you. Or it can send you an ICQ message. You can announce successful builds on nntp news servers.
  • Built in Active Scripting Support - Each FinalBuilder action exposes a number of script events, where you have access to all the properties of the action using VBScript or JScript. In addition, the Run Script action allows you to perform specific tasks which might not be covered by the built in action types..
  • Detailed Logging -Output from all actions in the build process is directed to the build log. The log maintains the same tree structure as the action lists, which makes it easy to find your way in the log file. Logs can be exported in HTML, XML or text formats.
  • Variables -Using variables is the key to making your build process dynamic.  Use variables to pass information from one action to another, and also to enable actions to use user specific or machine specific values.

FinalBuilder Plugin Architecture - ActionStudio
FinalBuilder ActionStudio is an IDE for defining and developing plugins for FinalBuilder. ActionStudio is included in both Professional and Standard editions of FinalBuilder and provides an easy way for users to develop custom actions to increase the functionality of their FinalBuilder projects.

ActionStudio creates an action package, which contains one or more custom FinalBuilder Actions. The action package file defines the action properties, events, options, and property pages in an XML file format.  Actions written in Active Script are completely contained within the action package, whereas COM and .Net based actions refer to external dlls and assemblies for the implementation of the action.

Plugins can be developed in any of the following languages:

  • Active Script (VBScript, JScript)
  • COM
  • .Net languages

What are FinalBuilder Plugins?
FinalBuilder uses plugins for the implementation and definition of its actions. They can be either compiled source code or custom plugins. The compiled plugins, which are shipped with FinalBuilder, can be viewed from the Tools->Package Manager dialog, whereas custom plugins are loaded automatically from the ActionDefs directory.

Unlike compiled packages, custom plugins are defined by an XML file. ActionStudio can load and save these action package XML files, or you can edit them manually (if you really want to!). These plugin definition files (with file extension .FBAP) are stored in the directory FinalBuilder\ActionDefs. FinalBuilder automatically loads any .FBAP files in the ActionDefs folder when it starts up. Depending on the type of plugin you are creating, you may require extra files alongside the action package file; for example, for a .Net based plugin the assembly must be stored in the Assemblies directory inside the ActionDefs directory so that FinalBuilder can find the referenced assembly.

FinalBuilder Professional edition includes a license for ActionStudio Professional. ActionStudio Professional has the extra capability to import and export protected action packages. A protected action package is encrypted with a password so that others cannot view the action package source. Both FinalBuilder Standard and FinalBuilder Professional automatically load up protected action packages and allow use of the included actions.