Can you import web app from a previous build? Also, a complaint about xojo ide

So, I’ve noticed this annoying issue yet I am still lax with my backing up because I am dumb. It is ridiculously easy to delete stuff from xojo! There is not even any warning, often when I am searching or even editing code, focus will change without noticing and pressing backspc or delete causes different resources to be deleted without a warning. Well this time it’s deleted a resource without noticing right away and lost hours of work. I made a build this morning, so at least there’s that otherwise it is a pretty costly and annoying error. Anyway to import stuff from a build back to the designer?

The build is a binary executable file. It can’t be decompiled into the original source code, if that’s your question.

Cool. That is some incredibly stupid behavior.

Maybe…
On Mac, CTRL-click on the app, and ‘Show Package Contents’
Navigate inside what then looks like a folder, and look in the resources folder

There all your images and other resources are available to you (and everyone else)

In Windows, there is a Resources folder that does the same.

Not sure about a web build though…

[quote=376777:@Jeff Tullin]Maybe…
On Mac, CTRL-click on the app, and ‘Show Package Contents’
Navigate inside what then looks like a folder, and look in the resources folder

There all your images and other resources are available to you (and everyone else)

In Windows, there is a Resources folder that does the same.

Not sure about a web build though…[/quote]

Thanks for the reply. Im on windows but can borrow a mac if need be. On mac, are you ctrl clicking just in the finder or where?

Edit: ah actually I see the resources folder you are talking about. I mean xojo resources like methods and controls. Seems as I am screwed. But thanks anyway.

Any developer needs to lose the source of a project once to learn how to backup :wink:

Do you mean it is incredibly stupid to not be able to simply convert a compiled Xojo project back into source code? If so, I beg to differ because I, for one, do not want people to that easily reverse engineer applications that I sell or that have proprietary business logic.

Or do you mean it is incredibly stupid behavior to not save often and either have a continuous real-time backup which lets you restore to any previous save, or at least make frequent commits to a version control system?

Even storing your project source in a Dropbox or similar folder (and doing frequent saves) would let you use the “version history” feature to restore a copy of a previous save.

I strongly suggest you implement backup strategies and version control software too. And then bear in mind the old adage of never working longer between saves and backups then you are willing to lose. The cost of not backing up is far greater than the cost of backing up…

[quote=376789:@Douglas Handy]Do you mean it is incredibly stupid to not be able to simply convert a compiled Xojo project back into source code? If so, I beg to differ because I, for one, do not want people to that easily reverse engineer applications that I sell or that have proprietary business logic.

Or do you mean it is incredibly stupid behavior to not save often and either have a continuous real-time backup which lets you restore to any previous save, or at least make frequent commits to a version control system?

Even storing your project source in a Dropbox or similar folder (and doing frequent saves) would let you use the “version history” feature to restore a copy of a previous save.

I strongly suggest you implement backup strategies and version control software too. And then bear in mind the old adage of never working longer between saves and backups then you are willing to lose. The cost of not backing up is far greater than the cost of backing up…[/quote]

I usually use github and push often, but xojo makes it too easy to use bad practices. And I meant that the stupid behavior is being able to delete resources without a confirmation, because that is practically abnormal behavior. Regardless of my practices.

Also, you can encrypt the xojo build, so that covers your first concern and seems to suggest you may be able to access somehow

Of course, if you realize you just deleted something, you can just Cmd+Z or Ctrl+Z and undo the delete. So you have to be talking about cases where you don’t realize you deleted something until later. And I still maintain the saving often and having an automatic backup with version history is a good idea regardless of the IDE. There are just too many possible ways to lose data, ranging from hardware failures to file system corruption to disaster scenarios.

If you can’t afford to lose hours of work, then you need to have a plan to safeguard that work from more contingencies than just accidentally deleting too much in the IDE.

this is a behaviour not unique to Xojo… actually in my experience there are very few IDE centric apps that require a confirmation everytime you delete a resource (Xcode being one of the few that does, and sometimes it is annoying to be honest)

Uh… no you can’t. You can encrypt a Xojo PROJECT file… .but the build is a compiled exe/app bundle… The “source code” does not exist, just the compiled binary… and any “resources” such as icons and graphics can be found in the bundle resource for Mac, and required a 3rd party tool for Windows…

I’m one of those developers that hates confirmation messageboxes for every action. If Xojo started prompting me for every change? Forget it, I’m going elsewhere.

As far as being able to easily reverse-engineer binaries back to code? Again, adios. As someone who remembers the days of VB reverse-engineering (and again there for a bit with .NET IIRC), this would cause Xojo to sink like a stone in a pond.

Nick, your first sentence isn’t true: You’re not dumb for making that mistake–whether a writer using a word processor or a developer coding in Xojo (or another environment) or a graphic artist in Photoshop, most everyone who spends days at a time working on a computer will at some point lose hours of work because their process didn’t account for unexpected hardware failures, power outages, or their own mistakes.

The first time it happens, it’s a major lesson to be learned.

That said, if you don’t change your process to include some form of versioning or frequent saves of individually recoverable versions stored in multiple locations, you WILL lose hours (or days or weeks or months) of work again at some point.

If it happens to you a second time, then yes–at that point–people will agree if you want to call yourself dumb.

Making a mistake isn’t dumb. Not learning from it is.

P.S. If the project was still open in Xojo, you could probably Control-Z all the way back to before the deletion, save the reverted project under a new name, copy the deleted item from the reverted project, and paste it back into the original project. It’s too late to do that now if you’ve already closed and re-opened the project since the UNDO history is lost when a project is closed.

Unfortunately this is one of those "hard lessons to learn"… I think most of us have been in this same situation at some point using this or any other IDE (or app for the case).

Even one of the hardest lessons to learn is not having fully confidence in backups that you don’t check regularly!

Besides backups, I think that Git, Mercurial, SVN… or any other compatible platform is a must!

I think Xojo is even very good responsive in these cases where you can recover your project after and unexpected crash the next time you execute the IDE.