ALV Version ERC.1.1.1 (Beta)
Last Updated: January 30, 2001
Contact Info: Maglazar@cs.com
----------------------------
****************
* What is ALV? *
****************
ALV Stands "Aircraft Listing Viewer". When Lee Swordy
released his excellent Traffic Tools, I immediately
started changing around the AI traffic to use only
real-world airlines. As I began adding different
aircraft to the Aircraft.txt file, I found that I
was constantly browsing through tons of aircraft
folders, opening each aircraft.cfg file, and copying
and pasting the "Title" line into the new entry I was
making to the Aircraft.txt file. I download a good deal
of planes, and my hangar is quite full, and digging
through folders and .cfg files was really starting to
get on my nerves. To try and make my life a little
easier, I figured I'd write a little program that would
do that for me... scan all the folders located in the
Aircraft folder, and give me a list of aircraft titles
that I could easily copy and paste the titles of the
planes I wanted into the Aircraft.txt file. After using
it (in a rather ugly form... it was for just me originally)
and enjoying the fact I didn't have to have a hundred
windows and files open, I've come to rely on it as a
handy helper tool when adding aircraft for AI. I've
since, continued development to make it more and more
functional with each new release.
- Windows 98/ME/2000 (Hasn't been tested on XP,
but it should work, it's just a text scanner
after all =P.)
- MS Flight Simulator 2002 (It will also extract
aircraft names from CFS2, but I don't know
what good that would do anyone.)
- Lee Swordy's Traffic Tools (If you're not messing
around with the AI traffic, then this utility
will be pretty useless to you.)
----------------------------
********************************
* Known Incompatibilities/Bugs *
********************************
- Duplicate Entries: If you specify the folder
that you installed FS2002 for the path, AND
have a hangar folder within the FS2002 folder,
duplicate entries may appear. If this happens,
make certain that ALV's path points to
FS2002's 'Aircraft' folder, AND that no
hangar folders exist within the 'Aircraft'
folder. Also, some users download aircraft
directly into a subfolder located within
one of their aircraft folder. This will
also cause duplicate entries to exist.
to make sure that you won't get any
duplicates, you should create a folder in
your main FS2002 folder, and name it
'Hangar'. Download and extract aircraft
only to that folder, and make sure that
ALV points to the 'Aircraft' folder. This is
the only way to eliminate the duplicate
entries at this time.
- Column Widths: When you resize the columns
in the grid, the positions are not currently
saved. Also, the final column (which holds
the path to the current AC's aircraft.cfg
file) currently cannot be stretched to view
all the information on the line. You can
select the field, and press the "END" key
on your keyboard to reveal the remainder
of the path. I'm looking into auto-resizing
the columns based on the data contained in
them, but currently the control isn't being
very cooperative.
If you encounter any bugs, please copy the bug report
at the bottom of this file, fill it out, and email it
to me at Maglazar@cs.com (with the words 'ALV Bug' in
the subject line.)
Installing:
Unzip the contents of the .zip file to a temporary
directory on your hard drive. Run Setup.exe from
the temporary folder that you extracted the zip
file to.
Reinstalling:
Should you need to reinstall ALV (for example, if
you deleted or modified the database file), you
will need to uninstall prior to performing the
installation procedure. If you don't uninstall
prior to reinstalling, an error will occur and
setup may not complete.
Uninstalling:
Use Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel to
uninstall ALV. Note that an error will arise
when uninstalling, telling you that the folder
couldn't be deleted and that uninstall could
not be completed. Uninstall actually *does*
complete, but doesn't remove the .stg file that
ALV uses to store the path information. If you
are reinstalling or upgrading to a newer
version, you can leave the file so that the
new version will be aware of the old path
settings. If you are completely uninstalling,
you may delete the file and folder from your
hard drive AFTER you run the uninstall procedure.
When uninstalling, you may be asked to remove
shared files. If you are uncertain that other
programs may use these files, you may leave
them installed, they will not hurt anything.
Note on shortcuts:
If you create a Windows shortcut to launch
"ALV.EXE", be sure the "Start in:" line in the
shortcut's properties points to the folder that
"ALV.EXE" resides in. To make sure, right-click
on the shortcut and select properties. Find the
text box labeled "Start in:" and make sure it
points to the folder that "ALV.EXE" resides in.
----------------------------
*************
* Using ALV *
*************
ALV was designed from the start to be compact,
efficient, and easy to learn and use. This
section of the document will focus on the
basics of using this program.
On the main toolbar, there are five buttons.
We'll start with the three on the left. These
buttons control the program's functions. To
see any button's name, move your mouse over
the button and let it sit there for a second
or two. The name of the button will pop-up
over the mouse-cursor in a tool tip window.
The first button from the left is the 'Change
Path' button. Click on this button to change
the path that ALV begins its search in. It
is HIGHLY recommended that you point the path
to FS2002's 'Aircraft' folder, but it is not
required that you do so.
The second button from the left is the 'Find
Aircraft' button. Clicking on this button
will cause the program to start retrieving
information about the aircraft installed to
the folder specified in the 'Change Path'
window (and any and all subsequent sub-
folders). The program creates a list of
valid paths to aircraft.cfg files, then
opens each file that it found to retrieve
the data from it. This data is then stored
in a database so that it doesn't have to
be refreshed every time you load the program
(Enhanced Interface ONLY. Classic Interface
still requires an aircraft scan each time
the program is run).
(Note: Any time that you add/modify any
aircraft, you will need to rescan for
aircraft to update the information in ALV.
The third button from the left is the 'Edit
Selected Aircraft' button. This button is
only usable from the Enhanced Interface.
This button will open the Aircraft.cfg file
that belongs to the aircraft that is
currently selected in the data window.
(NOTE: Changes made to an aircraft.cfg file
are NOT visible to ALV until you update the
data by re-scanning for aircraft.)
The fourth button from the left is the
'About ALV' button. Click on this button to
open a new window with information about
ALV. The bottom section of the About
window contains this document. This window
can remain open while using ALV so that
you may access the contents of this file
as reference material while getting
acquainted with ALV.
The fifth and final button is the 'Quit'
button. Click on this button to exit ALV
and return to Windows. (Conversely, you
may also click on the "X" on the top
right-hand corner of the main window to
close ALV.)
The bottom portion of the main screen is
the data window. In the Enhanced Interface,
this shows a table-like grid providing
easy access to most of each aircraft's
information. Simply highlite and copy the
data that you want to paste into your
Aircraft.txt file, and just paste it in.
In Classic Interface mode, the data
window is a single listing of all the
aircraft titles ONLY. No extra data
or features are available when the
Classic Interface is enabled.
Below the data window, on the left side
of the interface, is the option group
to let you toggle between Enhanced and
Classic Interfaces. Click on the option
you want to make that interface active.
(Note: Currently, these settings are
not saved by ALV. ALV will default to
the 'Enhanced Interface' each time
you start it.
If using the Enhanced Interface, below
the data window on the right are the
record selectors. You can use these
arrows to navigate through the data
displayed in the data window.
----------------------------
**************************
* Current Revision Notes *
**************************
- Version ERC.1.1.1 ((Beta) Engine Release
Candidate)
- Added a new text box to the About page
that opens and reads ReadmeALV.txt
(this file). I haven't spent any time
developing (or even trying to develop)
a help system. The program is pretty
self-explanitory, and I add all the
info I can think of to this file, so
time spent developing a help system
is better spent in the development and
advancement of the program. Maybe some
day, when I feel there's nothing left
for me to add to this program, I'll
try getting a help file together.
Until that time (and don't hold your
breath) pretty much everything you
need to know should be found in this
file somewhere.
- Added a new routine that checks to ensure
that the aircraft.cfg file currently being
checked is formatted correctly.
Aircraft.cfg files that were edited using
some text editors would cause the end-of-
line character to be a Carriage Return as
opposed to a Carriage Return/Linefeed. This
would cause aircraft.cfg files that were
saved this way to display invalid data in
the listing box. If the new routine encounters
an improperly formatted text file, it will now
give you the option of automatically fixing
the file. If you choose not to fix the file,
any aircraft in that aircraft.cfg file will
NOT be listed. The routine simply steps
through each character in the aircraft.cfg
file, and replaces each Carriage Return with
a Carriage Return/Linefeed, and then saves
the file back to disk. "Fixed" files are
backed up before any changes are made. You
can find the backed up version in the same
folder as the aircraft.cfg that was fixed.
The filename for backed up aircraft is
aircraft.cfg.alb.
- Added preliminary database support. More
fields/options will be added in the future as
the need arises (and as my coding skills
permit... sorting through all the data in
these files is much more of a task than I
initially thought.) The Viewing Options can
be found at the bottom of the screen. You
can toggle between 'Classic' and 'Enhanced'
interfaces. The classic is the traditional
unsorted listing in a single text box. The
enhanced is a database-driven table-like grid
and will be the default interface. Aircraft
listed in the enhanced interface are sorted
alphabetically, and then are stored in a
database file so that they are still there the
next time you start the program. Additional
information is now viewable in the enhanced
interface, including ATC Name, ID, Airline,
Flight Number as well as the ui (user-
interface) options such as Manufacturer and
Type. Note that when you click the 'Find
Aircraft' button when using the enhanced
interface, all the existing data in the table
is purged prior to performing the new search
and repopulating the database's underlying
table. Do NOT open the database using MS-
Access unless you open it read-only. Making
any changes to the table/database (including
converting it to a newer version) will make
the database inaccessible by ALV. You will
have to reinstall ALV to recover the
database in order for the program to function.
- Removed path display from the main listing
form. It really served no purpose except for
displaying the path that serves as a base
for the search. While it seemed a good idea
in theory, in practice, it really was more
of a waste of space than anything else. I'm
continuously trying to make modifications to
the interface in order to maximize the
amount of data that is visible while not
taking over a significant amount of desktop
space. The path information can be viewed
when you change paths.
- Added 'Edit Selected Aircraft.cfg' option.
When using the 'Enhanced' interface, you
can select any aircraft in the listing and
click on this button. This will open the
currently-selected aircraft's aircraft.cfg
file in Notepad. (Note: Changes made to
any aircraft.cfg file will not be visible
in ALV until you rescan for aircraft data.)
- Changed the buttons on the main interface,
changing out the text for more appropriate
icons. I've also enabled "Tool Tips" for
the buttons, so just move the mouse over a
button and leave it there for a second or
two to see the name of the button. This
was done to keep the interface minimal
while still giving me the opportunity to
add new buttons as the program needs
them.
Note: Items in this section may differ than
what is currently available. Please check
the Current Revision Notes for information
on the version you are using. This information
is included simply for archiving purposes, and
for anyone interested in how this application
develops over time.
- Version b.1.0.3 (Beta Release)
- Completely reworked aircraft search
function. Now a list of valid paths
to each aircraft.cfg is verified prior
to an attempt to open it. By searching
for the files themselves as opposed to
the old method (directory exclusion,)
the search should be much more robust,
and any aircraft that the old engine
may have 'skipped' should now be
included. This rewrite should also
elminate the remainder of the 'hang'
bugs when trying to search for
installed aircraft. The original
versions used a method I call
directory exclusion, which retrieves
the names of all the subdirectories
on the specified path, and then
removes known invalid folders (like
the panel, sound and texture folders.)
This method sometimes allowed an
invalid directory to be included in
the search, which would cause the
program to attempt to open and read
an aircraft.cfg file that didn't exist.
The new method now retrieves a list of
folders that actually have an
aircraft.cfg file located in them, and
then it opens and reads the information
from the file for use in the program.
This *should* resolve any and all hang
issues when trying to scan for
installed aircraft.
- Pathing changes. Unlike previous
versions, you can now specify the folder
you installed FS2002 to OR FS2002's
'Aircraft' folder. In fact, the
'Aircraft' folder is now the preferred
folder to specify for the search. The
old versions required you to specify
ONLY the FS2002 install path. If you
choose the 'Aircraft' folder instead
of the FS2002 install folder, the
search should complete more quickly
(as it has less sub-folders to scan.)
- Fixed version information and page titles
on the About page and added new title/
splash graphics.
- Made minor adjustments to the 'Aircraft
Search' dialog, including removal of
'Cancel' button that was introduced in
b.1.0.2.
----------------------------
- Version b.1.0.2 (Beta Release)
- Installed Error-handling code to *hopefully*
eliminate the error 76 'Path not found'
problem some people were having. Now if
the folder/drive that it's trying to open does
not exist, the program will use the current
path as it's default.
- Modified storage of Aircraft Title data from
an array to a collection. Note that the
aircraft still show up in the list in the
order the program finds them (unsorted).
This may change in a future release.
- Eliminated 'kill' commands. Originally, the
file that stores the path info (ALVPath.stg)
was killed prior to writing a new version
(ie: when selecting a new install path, etc.)
Now all 'kill' commands have been removed and
the settings file is simply overwritten.
- Modified the folder search slightly to
hopefully fix the hang that some people were
experiencing when they clicked on the "Find
Aircraft" button. The problem seemed to be
with the 747-400/texture folder. The program
seemed to think this was a valid aircraft
folder, and as such was trying to open and
read from it's aircraft.cfg file. Obviously,
the file didn't/doesn't exist there, and the
program would "hang" while trying to read
data that didn't exist. The new folder
search should eliminate this problem, but if
it doesn't, please use the bug report form
to let me know and I'll see what else I can
try. Strange how this bug only affected
certain people (with no real common
denominator) even though there was definitely
a problem in the code.
- Added Search Aircraft dialog that displays the
current file being examined, along with the
name of each aircraft that it finds as it
finds them. I also added a "Cancel Search"
button to the dialog to let users cancel out
if it does hang on them. (Note: I haven't been
able to repeat the hangs, but the cancel key
does seem to function as intended. Please let
me know if there are any problems with the
cancel if you do try to use it to escape out
of a hang.
----------------------------
- Version b.1.0.0 (Beta Release)
- First release build. Should be fully
functional. This is BETA software. Errors
and bugs may still be present. If you
do encounter any bugs, please use the
form at the bottom of this document to
report them to the author.
- Unsorted listings: Aircraft are currently
listed as the program finds them. I'm
considering moving the names into an
array and sorting the alphabetically for
the final release version.
----------------------------
**********************
* Credits and Thanks *
**********************
Programming............George Trovato
Lead Beta Tester.......Bill Molony
Very special thanks to Bill, for being my
guinea pig and helping to make ALV more
useful for everyone.
This utility is released as Freeware.
Copyright (C)2002 George Trovato.
As freeware you are permitted to distribute this
archive subject to the following conditions,
- The archive must be distributed without modification to
the contents of the archive. Redistributing this
archive with any files added, removed or modified is
prohibited.
- The inclusion of any individual file from this archive
in another archive without the prior permission of the
author is prohibited. This means, for example, that
you may not upload an archive that contains this
package or any part of it, without first obtaining the
authors' permission.
- No charge may be made for this archive other than that
to cover the cost of its distribution. If a fee is
charged it must be made clear to the purchaser that
the archive is freeware and that the fee is to cover
the distributor's costs of providing the archive.
- The authors' rights and wishes concerning this archive
must be respected.
This is free software, and is distributed with my only
desire being that it can be of some use to some of you
out there. However, I have to cover my butt, so here's
the legal crapola. This software is copyright (C) 2002
George Trovato, all rights reserved. It may be
distributed as long as the guidelines specified in the
"Freeware Statement" section of this document are
followed. This software is distributed "as-is" and the
author makes no claims or warranties guaranteeing the
functionality of this product. By using this software,
you agree that the author cannot and will not be held
liable for any damages incurred from the use of this
software, including, but not limited to, data loss or
system instablity. Ok, I think that's everything. I
hope someone else out there gets some use out of this
thing, it's been pretty helpful to me. Enjoy!
-George
----------------------------
********************
* About the Author *
********************
Well, I'm from the Boston area and have been into
Flight Simulator since the good old DOS days. I
do some web design, web graphics and some
programming, along with overclocking and system-
building as hobbies. (Note programming means
Javascript, Visual Basic, and some MS-Access. C++
and game design are waaaay beyond my knowledge.)
;) I frequently visit the boards at SurClaro
(bbs user: Deathboy96) but I don't tend to post
unless I've got something useful to add.
Please fill out this form, then copy
and paste it into the body of an email addressed
to Maglazar@cs.com. Please include the words
"ALV Bug" in the subject line. Make sure to
include your email address or I won't be able to
get back to you.
Name:___________________________
Email:__________________________
ALV Version Used:_______________
OS:_______________________
RAM (Amount and Type):___________________
Mainboard Model/BIOS:____________________________
CPU Type/Speed:_______________________
Video Card/Driver Version:________________________
Soundcard:_____________________________
Please describe what kind of a bug you encountered:
