What's new in FinalBuilder 7

See also What's new in FinalBuilder 6.

New Actions


NDepend Actions

Automate the analysis of an NDepend Visual project file. More »

Git Actions
Actions to clone, push, pull, merge and automate other interaction with the Git Version Control System (msysgit). More »

Plastic SCM Actions
Check In, Check Out, Add, Update and automate other interaction with the Plastic SCM version control system during your build. More »

Check If Host Exists Action
Query a DNS server to determine if a host exists. More »

SetupBuilder Actions
You can now compile a SetupBuilder project file to create an Installer executable and run the installer using the new SetupBuilder actions in FinalBuilder 7. More »

SecureZIP Actions
Perform archive operations using the SecureZIP Command Line Interface (CLI) as part of your automated build process. More »

Signtool Actions
Automate digitally signing files, applying a timestamp to signed files and verifying signatures of signed files as part of your build process using the new Signtool actions. More »

Hyper V Actions
Control virtual machines hosted on a Microsoft Hyper V Server during your build process with the new Hyper V actions. More »

Mercurial (Hg) Actions
Perform push, pull and other standard Hg commands during your build with the new Mercurial support. More »

SSH Actions
With the new SSH actions, you can connect to an SSH server and execute standard SSH commands during your build process. More »

XML Node Exists
Check if the node specified by an XPath exists in an XML document. More »

Core Improvements

Unicode Support

FinalBuilder is now compiled with a unicode aware compiler. The native internal string type is UTF16, and all actions that work with files respect the original files encoding. The user interface also supports unicode. Note that while FinalBuilder may support unicode, many of the tools it calls do not.

Variable Types

In FinalBuilder 6 and earlier, all FinalBuilder variables are implemented as variants - a variable that can store values of various types. Variants are very useful in many cases, but are not without their problems. For example, if you want to store a string "03" in a variant, you will have to put the double quotes around the 03, otherwise we have no idea it's not a number. FinalBuilder 7 allows you to choose a variable type from the following:

  • Variant
  • String
  • Integer
  • Float
  • Boolean
  • DateTime

When you specify a variable type, that is how the variable will be treated. Typed variables also allow you to specify a format string, which will be used when the variable is evaluated in an expression.

Local Variables

In addition to the existing variable scopes (environment, application,user, project) and action list parameters, FinalBuilder 7 now offers a local variable scope. The Action Group Action has a new property page that allows you to define the local variables. Local variables are only visible to child actions of the action group. Since groups can be nested, this provides the ability to override variables locally, and define variables for temporary use.

IDE Redesign

Open Multiple Projects
Unlike previous version of FinalBuilder where only one project could be open in the IDE at any one time, FinalBuilder 7 allows multiple projects to be open.

Dockable
The new IDE also support docking so you can lay out the IDE to suite your taste.

Variable Reference Renaming
When you rename a variable in FinalBuilder, it will find references to that variable and rename those also.