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RealBasic

Proud Recipients of the REALbasic Design Award!

Designer:
Best Cross Platform
Honorable Mention 2004

Classic:
Best Utility 2000

How to make your screensaver available for download



If you have built a screensaver and are trying to make it available on the web for download, these instructions should be useful.

Things you will need
  1. A place to Host your web page.
  2. A way to Compress your installer program for faster and easier download.
  3. A way to Upload your screensaver Installer to your web page
  4. A Link on your web page to the download file

Hosting your web page
Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers -- the people that you pay to access the Internet via Dial Up Modem, DSL, or Cable Modem) provide a rudimentary homepage service along with your account, for example here are some information pages about hosting for various ISPs:

If you don't have an ISP, or you want a more professional service, you may want to check out some of these companies which offer inexpensive hosting:

Compressing your Installer file
In order to save space, reduce download time, and make sure your friends and/or customers can properly download the file, you may want to Compress the file before uploading it to the web site.

  • Special Instructions for those using iScreensaver Designer on Windows XP or Vista, producing a Macintosh screensaver:
  • On your Windows PC, build the screensaver installer as usual. The Mac version will be created as a .BIN file.
  • Copy this .BIN file to a Macintosh running OS X 10.4 or later
  • On the Mac, right click the .BIN file, and choose "Open With..." and choose "Stuffit Expander". If "Stuffit Expander" is not one of the choices, then Download the Free Stuffit Expander and repeat this step.
  • This will un-pack the BIN file, leaving you with a normal Macintosh Screensaver Installer. Double-click it to test it and make sure it works. Follow the rest of the steps below...

  • For Macintosh Installers
  • Right click the Installer and choose "Compress" (on Mac OS X 10.4, this option may be called "Create Archive" or "Archive...")
  • This will create a ZIP file, which is what you should make available to your customers.
  • NOTE: as of Mac OSX 10.4, Apple no longer includes Stuffit Expander by default. If you are delivering your product to older machines (OS 9 or OS X 10.4 or earlier), you may want to make two different downloads available (one using SIT, the other using ZIP or DMG).

  • Stuffing an Installer under pre-Mac OSX 10.4 systems:
    We recommend you compress the Macintosh Installer file into a "SIT" StuffIt file:
    Click here for information about Stuffit

  • Zipping an Installer under Mac OSX 10.4:
    Control-click, or right-click the mouse, on the installer in the Desktop, and choose 'Create Archive'...

    ...which creates a ZIP file in the same folder. (Note: on OS X 10.5, this option is now called "Compress"). Provide this .zip file on your website to download.

  • For Windows Installers
    We recommend that you compress the Windows installer into a Zip file. Tools that can help you do this include:
    Click here for information about Stuffit
    Click here for information about WinZip
    Click here for information about PkZip

Uploading the Installer program to your web page
There are many ways to upload the installer program to the web, and the method you use will depend entirely on your hosting service (see above). The most common ways are HTTP upload and FTP.

Help for some common ISPs:

Creating a Link on your web page
Finally, you will need to create a link on your web page that when clicked, will automatically download the Installer program. If you are not a HTML code programmer, please feel free to use the following example :
<table border="1">
<tr>
   <td width="300" align="center" align="center"><b> for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7</b></td>
   <td width="300" align="center"><b> for Macintosh OS 9 and OSX</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
   <td width="300" align="center" valign="top">
     <a href="MyWindowsInstaller.EXE">Download My Screensaver for Windows</a><BR>
     <i>When you click the link, be sure to choose "Open" (or "Run") instead of "Save".</i><br>
     <a href="http://iscreensaver.com/dlhelp.shtml#win"><font color="#FF0000">Click Here if you are having Problems Downloading or Installing.</font></a>
   </td>

   <td width="300" align="center" valign="top">
     <a href="MyMacInstaller.zip">Download My Screensaver for Macintosh</a><BR><BR>
   </td>
</tr>

<tr>
   <td colspan="2" align="center">
     <a href="http://iscreensaver.com/" target="_blank">
     <img src="http://iscreensaver.com/images/iScrPowLogo.gif" alt="Powered by iScreensaver"><br>
     Powered by iScreensaver</a>
   </td>
</tr>
</table>

NOTE: the items listed in RED, above, will need to be edited to correspond to the name and filename / location of your actual screensaver. If the screensaver is being placed in a folder on your website, then you may need to include a path name, or even a full URL, for example http://mywebsite.com/myfolder/MyMacInstaller.zip

When completed, this will look approximately like this on your web page:

for Windows 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7 for Macintosh OS 9 and OSX
Download My Screensaver for Windows
When you click the link, be sure to choose "Open" (or "Run") instead of "Save".
Click Here if you are having Problems Downloading or Installing. 		Download My Screensaver for Macintosh
Powered by iScreensaver
Powered by iScreensaver

Copyright ©1995-2011 Xochi Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Xochi™, XochiMedia™, iScreensaver™, iScreensaver Designer™, iScreensaver Classic™, and the DoubleRing logo are trademarks of Xochi Media Inc. Apple®, Macintosh®, and QuickTime® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Adobe® and Adobe Flash® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Adobe, Inc. Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. ENERGY STAR® is registered trademark of the Enivronmental Protection Agency. ScreenTime™ and CineMac™ are trademarks of ScreenTime Media. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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