This page includes information for software developers who want to modify the code and release new versions.
The programming language of this software is C#. It is hightly recommended to use Visual Studio 2022 (or newer) for software development. Instructions below assume that you have Visual Studio installed in your computer.
If you already have Visual Studio installed in your computer, you can check out and open the latest source code from this GitHub page. Before doing so, make sure that you are logged in GitHub with your account. Then, click "Code" in the top right corner of this page and select "Open with Visual Studio". Then, Visual Studio will automatically launch, check out this git repository and open the latest source code in it.
When you release a new version, follow the steps below:
Double-click and open AssemblyInfo.cs under Properties in the Solution Exprlorer.
Change the version number in AssemblyVersion and AssemblyFileVersion at the bottom.
Double-click and open Properties in the Solution Explorer, and select Publish in the left panel of the Properties pane.
Then, change the publish version to match what you set in AssemblyInfo.cs.
After that, press Publish Now button to generate an installer.
The installer is generated under publish folder in the project folder (QSBlinearEncoderReader/).
Copy all files and directories under the publish directory to somewhere else. From here on, we assume that they are copied to C:\publish.
You should be able to see directories of old versions in C:\publish\Application Files like QSBLinearEncoderReader_1_1_0_0. Remove all directories of old versions and leave the latest version only.
For example, if you are going to release version w.x.y.z, remove all directories except C:\publish\Application Files\QSBLinearEncoderReader_w_x_y_z.
Then, zip all files in C:\publish. Make sure that setup.exe and QSBLinearEncoderReader.application are included.
Finally, change the zip file name to QSBLinearEncoderReader_w.x.y.z.zip where w.x.y.z is the version number.
At this point, commit all your local changes in your local git repository. Please make sure that your commit includes all changes and new files under the publish directory.
Typically, QSBLinearEncoderReader\publish\QSBLinearEncoderReader.application is updated and a new directory publish\Application Files\QSBLinearEncoderReader_w_x_y_z is added.
The commit message should indicate that it is the new release version like "Version w.x.y.z".
Then, push your local changes to the master branch on https://github.com/tmtsoftware/m1cs-qsb-linear-encoder-reader.git.
It is recommended to confirm that your last commit appears in https://github.com/tmtsoftware/m1cs-qsb-linear-encoder-reader.git before going to the next step.
Note: Contents under the QSBLinearEncoderReader\publish directory in the master branch are referenced by the automatic application updater through raw.githubusercontent.com (e.g. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tmtsoftware/m1cs-qsb-linear-encoder-reader/master/QSBLinearEncoderReader/publish/QSBLinearEncoderReader.application). If you want to see this automatic application updater settings, double-click and open Properties in the Solution Explorer, select Publish in the left panel of the Properties pane and press Updates... button. You should be able to see Application Updates dialog as shown below.
Go to Releases page of this repository, and click Draft a new release.
In the new release page, click Choose a tag and enter a new git tag name for this release.
The tag name must be vw.x.y.z where w.x.y.z is the version number. Don't forget v at the beginning.
Enter the release title and the release description. The title should be "Version w.x.y.z" where w.x.y.z is the actual version number.
The release description should include the summary of changes from the previous version.
Then, drag and drop the zip file you created (i.e. QSBLinearEncoderReader_w.x.y.z.zip) to the bottom of the page and then press Publish release button.
Now your new released version must appear in https://github.com/tmtsoftware/m1cs-qsb-linear-encoder-reader.git.
Since version 1.4.1.0, every time the application launches, it investigates QSBLinearEncoderReader/publish/QSBLinearEncoderReader.application in the master branch and see if there is a new version. If so, the user is suggested to upgrade to a new version and new versions are downloaded and installed automatically.
Application examples and command list of QSB-D can be obtained at https://www.usdigital.com/products/accessories/interfaces/usb/qsb/
The copy of those files can be found in this repository for our records: