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 3.3?

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 3.3

This update is free to users with current VISE X licenses, but it requires a new serial number. To obtain a new serial number for use with your current license, please go to our web site at http://www.mindvision.com/MindVision/LicenseUpdate/FindOldLicense.aspx.

VISE X 3.3 RELEASE NOTES

VISE X 3.3 is a maintenance release that includes the following changes:

General

• To make our licensing process more convenient, we have added the ability to renew your current license from within the VISE X application. New licenses can be purchased online by visiting http://www.mindvision.com/pricing.asp.
• Installers now provide a “Force Scroll before Continue” feature for Read Me files, which matches the functionality that is already available for license agreements. With this new feature, you can require users to scroll to the bottom of the Read Me content before they can continue with the installation.
• Installers now write uninstall logs to the Installer Logs folder. The previous version wrote these logs to the root of the target drive for the installation.
• Installers now show a note graphic in the confirmation dialogs for actions such as renaming a file. The previous version showed a stop sign graphic in these instances.
• VISE X can now store and install files that have 512x512 pixel custom icons. Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard introduced support for the larger icons, which previously had a limit of 128x128 pixels.
• With the previous version, installers would shut down all running applications before installing a package that had the “Restart after Installing” option set. Shutting down applications in this instance is now conditional based on the “Shutdown Applications Before Installing” option on the Behavior tab of Installer Settings. If the package option is enabled but the Installer Settings option is not, the installer will install the corresponding package without shutting down applications first. (There were no changes to the conditions that determine whether a restart is suggested or forced after the installation of the package.)
• We have fixed a bug related to the Pad field in the Edit Package dialog of the builder. This fix enables installers to correctly add any specified “pad” amount when showing the disk space needed to install a package.
• The installer Debug window now correctly reports Mac OS X versions 10.4.10 and greater.
• The aliases that installers create for bundled applications now use the same custom icons as the original items.
• VCTs that are exported as XML will now include a new key, AllowUFSInstall. This key allows VISE X to retain the “Allow Installation to UFS Volumes” setting when creating VCTs from XML.
• A bug fix enables VISE X to retain Disk assignments such as “In Archive” and “Install Disk 1” when creating VCTs from XML.
• A bug fix allows VISE X to retain language settings for external billboards when creating VCTs from XML.
• This version properly retains the file paths in VISE Export Bundles (file extension .xvct) that are moved from their original location and then used to create a VCT from XML.
• Installers that are set up to prevent multiple installs will now hide the Continue button when no installation is necessary. The previous version correctly reported when no installation was necessary, but it also displayed the unneeded button.
• A bug fix enables the user to stop an installation while a search that is returning multiple occurrences is still in progress.
• With the previous version, web installers would return an error and fail to download files when using FTP protocol on Intel-based Macintoshes. We have corrected the problem with this release.
• Numeric comparisons for the Test Variable action now work as expected on Intel-based Macintoshes.
• We have updated our “Generic External Code” sample for compatibility with Mac OS X Leopard.
• Calling the same external code plug-in multiple times during an installation now works as expected. A bug in the previous version sometimes prevented running the same external code more than once per installation.
• The Alias action item can now properly handle double-byte characters when setting new names for items on the target system. The previous version sometimes ran out of space with these characters, so the new names did not display correctly in the Finder.
• The progress bar now displays when applicable for sub-launched installers. It was hidden in some instances with the previous version.
• A bug fix allows forms to display correctly on Mac OS X Leopard. With the previous version, forms displaying on Leopard did not have an Aqua interface, and there were some issues with button display.
• Installers sometimes failed to clean up a temporary file that they wrote to the ~/Documents folder when displaying RTF for Read Me and License Agreement files. We have corrected the problem with this release.
• We have changed the behavior of installers so they will no longer create an empty Desktop folder on mounted external volumes (such as volumes for USB and Firewire).
• VISE X is designed to suppress its license renewal screens during automated builds, but a bug allowed those screens to display for projects that used multiple build targets. We have fixed the bug with this release.
• We have added the filename extension “.xdf” to VISEData, the single cab file that VISE X creates for web installers that use byte-range downloads. This change makes the filename compliant with newer HTTP versions that have the option to require extensions for web server files.
• When uninstalling files, installers failed to remove files that had long UTF-8 filenames with special characters. We have corrected the problem with this release.

Localization Enhancements

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
• Czech
• Russian
• Bulgarian
• Romanian
• Ukrainian

For information on building installers for these languages, contact our support team at macsupport@mindvision.com.

Known Issues

• 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.
• On Mac OS X v10.4 or greater, if you add Spotlight Comments to a file or folder at the Finder, and then add that item to a VISE X archive, VISE X does not retain the comments. At this time, MindVision does not have a suggested workaround for retaining the Spotlight Comments of install items.
• 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