Upgrading from Symbol Factory .NET Version 1.x

Upgrading from Symbol Factory .NET Version 1.x to Version 2.0 can be a seamless event. For that to happen, we suggest following these steps:

1. Perform the physical upgrade
2. Change the new Symbol Factory Configuration file. See if you need to do this.

Upgrading from V1.x to V2.0.

1. Determine the version of Symbol Factory .NET you currently have installed. To do this, do the following:
• Open up any project that uses Symbol Factory .NET.
• Go into Design Mode, right-click on any Symbol Factory component, and select "Symbol Factory .NET Properties" from the pop-up menu.
  
  Symbol Factory .NET Properties Menu
  
• Click on the "Style" tab.
  
  
  Dialog box after clicking on the "Style" tab.
  
• Click on the "About" button. The latest version will be located at the top of the screen. Compare your screen to the two screen shots below to determine what you need to do.
  
  
  Latest V 1.x build. There will be no need to upgrade this version before installing Version 2.0
  
  
  Older V1.x build. See Step E below for additional information.
  
• If it is not Version 1.1.0.452, then please first upgrade to that version before you attempt to upgrade to Version 2.0. You can download that version from here.
2. Once you are certain that your current Version 1.x Symbol Factory .NET is at Version 1.1.0.452, you may now proceed to run the Symbol Factory .NET Version 2.0 installation package. This will install the latest version as a separate .NET assembly.

Post-installation upgrade.

For each project that you developed with Version 1.x, you will need to do the following. Please note that this example uses C# in Visual Studio 2008. Although your screen might be slightly different in Visual Studio 2005 or VB in Visual Studio 2008, the concept will remain the same.

1. Open up your project.
2. Remove any old references to Symbol Factory .NET. You can do this by expanding the "References" section of your project and selecting each of the references below. To select multiple ones at the same time, hold down the "ctrl" key while clicking on each reference. Finally, hit the "Delete" key to remove the references.
   
   
   References to be removed.
   
3. Add in the references to Symbol Factory .NET Version 2.0. To do this:
• Right-click on the References section of your solution, and select "Add Reference".
  
  Right-clicking on the References section in your project.
  
• Select the .NET tab on the Add Reference dialog box, and select the four assemblies for Symbol Factory .NET. We suggest sorting the list by "Path" in order to see all the references in one place. You can sort by clicking on the "Path" column header in the dialog box.
  
  
  The Add References dialog box, sorted by the Symbol Factory Path.
  
  Make certain that the listing is for Version is "2.x.x.x", where "x.x.x" can be any combination of numbers. If the version is anything other than "2.x.x.x", click on Cancel, exit Visual Studio, and run the installation program again. Please contact us for further assistance if needed.
  
  Otherwise, select each of the four components listed above by holding down the "Ctrl" key and clicking on each component. Finally, click OK. The components will be added to your project.
  
4. Rebuild the project by selecting "Build | Rebuild Solution" from you Visual Studio Menu.
   
   
   The Rebuild Solution option
   
   You will get some errors pertaining to Symbol Factory .NET enumerations. These errors are expected, since the locations of the Symbol Factory .NET enumerations changed from Version 1 to Version 2.
   
   
   Sample Error Screen. Your errors may be slightly different.
   
   
   What the error looks like in your code (C# in this example). Your errors may be slightly different.
   
   Open up each file affected by these errors and add either the "using" statement (for C#) or the "Imports" statement (for VB) at the beginning of you code. This will tell Visual Studio where to find the enumerations for Version 2.0.
   
   
   Inserting the Using Statement
   
   Rebuild the project once again to check your work.
   
5. Finally, open up the designer, select any Symbol Factory object on your form, open the Symbol Factory .NET properties for that object, then click OK. This will re-compile the behind code for the Designer and complete the upgrade.
6. Rebuild, and run. Your project will now be fully converted.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Change the new Symbol Factory .NET Configuration File

If you have symbols that are both Rotated 90 or 270 degrees and Flipped, you will notice a change in your project in how the symbols are displayed. This is because the order that Symbol Factory .NET version 1 flipped and rotated the object differed from the original Symbol Factory versions. This has been corrected in Version 2.0.

If you do not have any symbols both Rotated 90 or 270 degrees and Flipped, then there is no need to create or change this configuration file.

The Original Version 1 Order

In Version 1, the default behavior of the control was to rotate the symbol then flip. So, if you had a symbol with Rotation set for 90 degrees and Flip set to horizontal, here is what you would see:

However, older versions of Symbol Factory flipped the symbol first then rotated. So the result was the following:

Original Symbol Symbol after Flipped Horizontally then Rotated 90 Degrees

New Default Operation

Therefore, the default operation for Symbol Factory Version 2 is now changed to Flip then Rotate so that it is in-line with older versions of the product.

What to do if you want your symbols rotated and flipped as they are in Version 1.

Luckily, you can change the default operation of Version 2 to match what was done in Version 1. This would require creating a Symbol Factory Configuration file and adding a configuration item. For more information on how this is done, please see the Symbol Factory .NET Help File on the Symbol Factory Configuration Files.