• Introduction
• Installation
• Uninstallation
• Usage
• Licence
• Warranty
• Download

Introduction

This is a wizard for the Delphi IDE which will automatically save all editor files at certain events.

The Delphi IDE is normally quite stable, but for some reason I can't figure out it sometimes throws an access violation in the editor just when I started to select some text. Unfortunately this access violation occurs again and again, so the only way to get out of this loop is to kill Delphi using the task manager. Unfortunately this means that I have lost everything I did since the last time I saved the source files. (The odd thing about this is, that I never experienced this before I started to work for headwork consulting, I guess it is something peculiar in our environment which causes this.)

I found this little gem on Borland's code central. The original was written by Tempest Software and the licence states that there are no restrictions, so I added a few features. This is the result which I and most of my collegues use daily.

Installation

To install the AutoSave Wizard, extract the zip archive into any directory and load one of the following .dpk files:

Delphi 5

load AutoSave5.dpk

Delphi 6 or 7

load AutoSave6.dpk

The wizard has not been tested on Delphi 6 nor Delphi 4 or earlier. It should work with Delphi 6 and is probably possible to adapt it to older Delphi versions.

You might want to adjust some of the project options, in particular the output directories.

Select "Install" from the package's window. Delphi should compile a bpl file and install it into the ide.

After that there should be a new entry in the IDE's tools menu, normally at the first position.

Uninstallation

If you don't like what you get, you can easily remove the wizard from the IDE by openening the Component/Install Packages dialog, select the entry Autosave Wizard and hit the Remove button.

To temporarily disable the wizard you can just unselect the checkbox in front of it, but please note that this setting can be overridden by the settings of any project you load.

If for some reason the IDE won't start so you can't use the methode described above, you can use the registry editor:

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\borland\delphi\<your version>\known packages Search for the entry ending in the filename AutoSaveX.bpl and delete it. After this the wizard should no longer be loaded.

Usage

The AutoSave Wizard can automatically save all editor files which have not been saved by the IDE. It does that either at configured intervals or every time the project is being compiled. By default it will save in 2 minute intervals but this can be changed using the configuration dialog.

I recommend saving on compile and not in time intervals if you don't mind the small delay it causes. You will find that Delphi compiles quite often, even if you don't hit the compile or build button: A compile also happens every time you use one of the code insight options.

It does not overwrite the original files but instead creates hidden files with a tilde prefix to it, eg. Form1.pas -> ~Form1.pas.

If the IDE should crash, just restart Delphi and reopen the files. The AutoSave Wizard will automatically detect any autosaved files and ask you if you want to restore them.

Licence

This program may be used without any restrictions. If you change the sources I request that the existing copyright notices are not removed.

Warranty

There is absolutely NO WARRANTY for this program. Since it is an IDE wizard it might cause severe problems and loss of data if I or the original developer made a mistake somewhere. You use it AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Download

The current version is

This document was generated using AFT v5.096