VISE X is quite simply the best software installer for the Mac OS X, period! With VISE X you can easily build a Universal (universal binary) installer that will reliably deliver your product to your customers. You can focus your energy on developing your software without worrying about the complicated details of writing an installer script.

VISE X builds upon the strengths of Installer VISE, but is a separate code base. The two products will be maintained and advanced separately. Separating the code base allowed us to focus VISE X functionality on Mac OS X.

Download VISE X for Mac OS X What's new in version 4.0?

How does VISE X compare to Installer VISE and FileStorm?
Check out our comparison chart .

How to License VISE X

The following forms are in Adobe Acrobat format (pdf). If you do not already have it installed, please click the button to the right to get Adobe Acrobat Reader directly from Adobe. (Acrobat and the Acrobat logo are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.)

To license VISE X, download the VISE X License Agreement . This file contains instructions on licensing, as well as pricing information.

You can download the Order Form and fax it to us along with your completed license agreement.

As soon as we receive your completed license agreement we will contact you with your serial number so you can begin shipping your installers right away.

You can also download the Renewal/Cancellation Form

VISE X Feature List:
·	Builds Universal (universal binary) installers for use on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs
·	VISE X installers display a standard Mac OS X user interface, including Aqua fonts and controls, Mac OS X property sheets and Installer background images with transparency
·	Support for custom external code (as CFPlugins)		·	Work with installer projects as XML
·	Installer builds as an application bundle		·	Automatically create updaters for application bundles
·	Support for Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger		·	Support for Mac OS X text and graphic file formats
·	Custom form editor optimized for Mac OS X		·	Destination and install locations optimized for Mac OS X
·	Zip post processing		·	Mac OS X disk image build target
·	Improved support for long filenames		·	Improved support for Mac OS X localization
·	Increased length of variables values to 255		·	Increased filename limit from 63 to 255 characters
·	New search filters in the Bring Up To Date window		·	New Mac OS X Gestalts
·	Ability to set a background graphic for the installer		·	XML translator option for localization
·	Display QuickTime movies in splash screens and billboards

What's New in version 4.0

This update is free to users with current VISE X licenses. Your existing serial number will register the new version.

VISE X 4.0 RELEASE NOTES

The new features in VISE X 4.0 include Snow Leopard compatibility, a freshened builder interface and improved overall performance.

Snow Leopard Compatibility

Gestalts and search/install locations have been updated for Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard.

You can use the new "MacOS X 10.6 or Greater" Gestalt to ensure that install actions take place only on the proper Mac OS versions.

The new search/install locations for Snow Leopard are as follows:

• System Domain
  • AppleShare
  • Developer Applications
  • Dictionaries
  • File System
  • Keyboard Layouts
  • Startup Items
• Local Domain
  • AppleShare
  • Dictionaries
  • File System
  • Keyboard Layouts
  • Logs
  • Preference Panes
  • Startup Items
• User Domain
  • Keyboard Layouts
  • Logs
  • Preference Pages
  • Receipts

Freshened Builder Interface

The Archive Window in the builder interface received several updates, including:

• A customizable toolbar
• Larger, more readable fonts for list items and the window summary
• Dynamic (live) window resizing
• Shows the progress when large items are added to the archive
• Shows the number of items selected
• Displays the close button as a dot to indicate unsaved changes

Improved Overall Performance

Save and build times with VISE X 4.0 are significantly faster than the previous version.

Other Updates and Enhancements

This release also includes the following updates and enhancements:

• The system requirements for the builder application are now Mac OS X v 10.4 or greater. As with the previous version, installers built with VISE X are compatible with Mac OS X v 10.2 and greater.
• There are new Gestalts for checking the following conditions:
  • Has Java 1.5.0_16
  • Is Processer 64 Bit Capable
• Along with the existing ability to include an Uninstall feature in installers, VISE X can now create standalone uninstallers. These uninstallers will allow users to properly remove software even if they no longer have access to the original installers. The new "Create Standalone Uninstaller" option is available on the Interface tab of Installer Settings.
• As an alternative to suppressing only certain parts of the user interface — such as Main Window, Progress Stop or Success — you can now suppress the entire interface for "silent" installs. The new "Suppress User Interface" option is available on the Interface tab of Installer Settings.
• The following functions of the Edit Text File action item will now work at any level of a .plist file: Remove plist entry, Replace plist entry and Read plist entry to variable. These functions will look until they find the first occurrence of a search item. If you need to find multiple occurrences of a search item, one option is to repeat the Edit Text File action each time that it succeeds, by looping back to it with a Jump action.
• Installers now display the names of items that they are copying, deleting or moving.
• We have added the following information to the Debug Window:
  • Machine Java Version: <version>
  • Processor <is/is not> 64 bit Capable
• Developers needing to create multi-CD installers can use the Folders/CD Segments Format option in the Build Target. We renamed this option (from just "Folders") to help clarify that it can be used to create CD segments.
• The "Don't Shutdown Running Apps on Uninstall" option has been moved to the Behavior tab of Installer Settings, under Warnings.
• This update allows you to localize the installer interface for additional languages. By localizing your own language files and adding them to VISE X, you can build installers to support these additional languages:
  • Greek
  • Turkish
  • Croatian
  • Thai
  • Polish
  • Hungarian
  • Russian
  • Romanian
  • Czech
  • Bulgarian
  • Ukrainian
  • Portugal Portuguese
  • Brazilian Portuguese
  For information on building installers for these languages, contact our support team at macsupport@mindvision.com.
• There were no file revisions for this release. Therefore, you should be able to switch your VCTs between VISE X versions 3.3 and 4.0 without difficulty. There is also no need to recompile external code that you used with the previous version.

Bug fixes

• In the dialog that asks you to locate a missing file or folder for the Validate Paths function, VISE X now displays the item's Long Name (up to 255 characters) when applicable.
• VISE X 3.3 would crash when opening the Info window for an alias file in the VCT. This was an issue on Mac OS X v 10.5 only.
• Installers will now honor the "Wait for sub-launched item to complete" setting when sub-launching Apple packages (file extension .pkg or .mpkg).
• Some installers downloaded from the web would hang after the user dismissed Apple's web quarantine message. This was an issue for installers that used a default install location, which includes those that are built with the Updater interface.
• The "Export VCT as XML" feature was leaving out the minimum CPU setting "Pentium".
• The "Create VCT from XML" feature would fail when checking an .xvct file out of source control on a new machine, and any of the source files and folders had long filenames (between 32 and 255 characters).
• Variables that were reused multiple times during an uninstall would always return the first value assigned to them, rather than resetting for subsequent actions.
• For installers built with VISE X 3.3, the text displayed for Read Me and License Agreement content was editable.
• For an installer that suppresses the Main Window, choosing the Quit option when the installation was complete would restart the machine, rather than simply quitting the installer.
• For authenticated installers running on Mac OS X v10.6, going to the installer's <AppName> menu and selecting Services would require the user to authenticate a second time. Our fix for this issue was to disable the Services options for authenticated installers.
• When a variable in a Message action contained a value with a diacritic (such as for an umlaut), the message text would not display correctly. The fix for this was to apply the current encoding before the variable substitution occurs. Caveat: This fix is applied only when the length of all the message text including the variable is less than 256 characters.
• We removed unneeded blank lines that appeared in the default Easy Install text for some languages.
• The installer dialog that requires users to agree to the terms of the software license agreement was blank for some languages. This was an issue for some localized installers that included license agreements for multiple languages.
• There were some localization issues with VISE X 3.3, including the following:
  • Button sizes in Message actions were incorrect under Czech, Polish or Russian.
  • The Swedish translation for "Close" was incorrect.
  • Slovak, Croatia and Russian license agreement dialogs were blank or had typos.

Known Issues

• When authenticated installers are running on Mac OS X v10.6, the OS requires users to authenticate a second time before printing or saving license agreements or Read Me files.
• If you use the Post Processing section of build targets to create a Tarball (.tar.gz) version of your installer, you should restrict the Tarball file name to 29 characters or less for compatibility with Mac OS X versions prior to 10.4. Otherwise, if you make the Tarball name longer than 29 characters, the uncompressed installer will not launch on the earlier OS versions. (If you are confident that the installer will be used on Mac OS X versions 10.4 or greater, you can use up to 31 characters for the Tarball file name.)
• VISE X supports installing to iDisk volumes on Mac OS X versions 10.4 or greater only. On earlier OS versions, the installers' Select Destinations dialog will not show iDisk volumes (in most instances).
• For installers running on Mac OS X v10.4 or greater, using the Dock/Startup Items action item to add to or remove items from the Dock does not work the same as on previous Mac OS versions. On the newer OS versions, when a VISE X installer makes changes to the Dock, the changes will not be visible until the user restarts the computer or logs out and then logs back in. If your installers add or remove Dock items, MindVision recommends that you precede the Dock/Startup Items action with a Message action to inform the user that changes to the Dock will be visible after the next restart or login. Be sure to use a Gestalt check so that the Message action displays only on Mac OS X versions 10.4 or greater.
  
  MindVision modified the Dock/Startup Items action as a workaround to API changes that Apple made for Mac OS X v10.4. Installers that you create with VISE X will automatically recognize Mac OS X v10.4 or greater and handle Dock functions differently for those OS versions. The way that VISE X installers handle Dock functions on earlier Mac OS versions has not changed.
• When creating Read Me and License Agreement files with embedded graphics, you should not use Microsoft Word RTF format. The reason is that there are compatibility issues with displaying these files from VISE X installers.
• Some RTF formatting will not display on system versions prior to Mac OS X v10.2.6.
• VISE X uses UTF-8 encoding to allow installers to display text in double-byte character set languages. You must use the translator XML file to enter the UTF-8 characters.

Download VISE X for Mac OS X