D3/D4 to D5: Tips for upgrading to Delphi 5; General Install Tips

The information on this page is accurate as of WebHub v1.773.

How to organize directories for two different builds
The same answer applies whether you want to have files for two versions of Delphi or two versions of WebHub...

There are only a few directories whose files differ between versions of Delphi, and versions of WebHub. Those are:

• ht\lib32 (different in all cases)
• ht\htfrm (usually only different between versions of WebHub)
• ht\pkg (see note; files in here are compatible)

Side note:
The package and wizard files have been renamed (as of approximately v1.7) so that they can co-exist in the same directory. e.g. whub30.dpk is for Delphi 3 and whub50.dpk is for Delphi 5. All of those files can safely co-exist in the ht\pkg directory.

Therefore, one option for working with multiple versions is simply to have two copies of the lib32 and htfrm directories. Use a BAT file to rename one pair of directories to the default active names, and then another BAT file to rename them back.

If you want to be more conservative, you can have two copies of the entire ht\ and htdocs\ trees.

Note that it is your ht\hubmain.ini file that defines all your AppIDs; that is what you most want to share across versions.

General tips about Delphi
You will probably need to have different project DPR files for different versions of Delphi.

DFM files are upward compatible, but definitely not downward compatible in Delphi. D5 DFM files will give an "invalid stream error" if you try to open them in D3.

WebHub uses a unit called dsgnintf. Under Delphi 1,2,3 and 4 this was included in with the rest of the Delphi libraries. In Delphi 5, it has been moved to the source\toolsapi directory. You need to either (a) compile with WebHub packages; or (b) copy dsgnintf.pas to the Delphi lib directory; or (c) copy dsgnintf.pas to the ht\lib32 directory. Option (b) means that you won't have to do it again until you reinstall Delphi, i.e. recommended.

Delphi 5 Standard does not include dsgnintf.pas. Download from ftp://href.com.

Other Release Notes
HREF maintains release notes for each iteration of the WebHub VCL. In the more recent ones, items in red are the ones that you should strongly consider taking action on.

If you have errors about the WebHub Packages...
If you get an error in Delphi 3, 4 or 5 when opening a project saying that the WebHub packages can not be found, it may just be that the automatic compilation did not work on your system for some reason.

1. Exit Delphi
2. Run the BAT file in the ht\pkg directory
3. Watch for errors or signs of completion.
   That BAT file will compile all required package files.
   • WHub50.bpl - main WebHub 1.x Package
   • WHubDB50.bpl - WebHub 1.x database components
   • WHLite50.bpl - only for WebHub 1.x Lite users
   • WHDemo50.bpl - only for the 1.x Fish Store demo project
   • Etk50.bpl - for the WebHub 1.x Wizard; not needed when building projects.
4. Restart Delphi. Note that Delphi uses the Windows Registry to determine which packages to load.

5. If that still does not work...
   1. Start Delphi (3, 4, or 5)
   2. Close any project that opens.
   3. File|Open c:\ht\pkg\whub##.dpk where ## is your Delphi version
   4. Set the package options - Directories
      • Search path must include c:\ht\lib32;c:\ht\pkg;
   5. Compile
   6. Install
   7. Repeat for c:\ht\pkg\whubdb##.dpk
   8. Optional: repeat for c:\ht\pkg\whdemos##.dpk only if you need to run the Fish Store demo

Last updated 30-Nov-2006 Pacific Time