Self-Uniting Properties

Add SFU functionality to the piece set

If you think you do not need to include a SFU program with your set of pieces, you can ask GSplit to do so. But keep in mind that you will have to use GUnite to unite these piece files. Note that this option is disabled if you turn on "Do not add GSplit tags to piece files"

Change the filename of the SFU Executable

Optional: by default GSplit will give the name of the first piece file to the SFU program except that the file extension will be changed to .EXE. You can enter your own filename, but do not forget the .EXE extension.

Merge the first piece with the Self-Uniting program

You may prefer not to distribute the small SFU program in addition to the piece files. You can therefore merge the first piece with the SFU program: the data of the first piece is appended to the SFU program. Instead of having two files on the first disk, you'll get only one.
Enabling this option is not recommended if you make very large piece files.

Optional path to the custom icon file for the SFU program

If you would like to change the default icon of your Self-Uniting executable file, please enter the full path to the desired icon file. You can quickly pick up icons from other applications and document files by using GConvert, a powerful icon extractor and manager.
GSplit recognizes any icon image format: your icon however should at least contain a 32x32 image with 16 or 256 colors.

Do not take account of the SFU program size

GSplit takes account of the size of the SFU program when calculating the size of the first piece file, because the SFU program will be copied to the first disk along with the first piece file. Since the SFU program takes generally about 90kb, its size can be problematic when splitting already-small files (< 100 kb). To avoid size problems, you should enable this option - only when splitting small files (< 100 kb) into smaller ones.
GSplit will generally automatically turn on/off this option itself when you select an original file.

How to customize the SFU program?

Use the list in Functionality to select a category of options or click on the navigation buttons in order to configure the different options.

Welcome Message

When the Self-Uniting program is run, a text box is displayed with a welcome message that should describe what the program will do and gives a description about the file that is going to be restored. You can customize the text of this welcome message and enter what you want.

Example:
Welcome to this program. It will restore the following file:

Magic Sound.ogg

Size: 1,3 Mb ; 1421511 byte(s).
6 piece files are required.

Select where you would like to place the restored file
and press Unite to continue.

Some variables (text with {} brackets) should be used, as the welcome message should be different for each file:

• {filename} denotes the filename of the original file.
• {fullsize} denotes the size of the original file (in bytes).
• {size} denotes the size of the original file but with a more suitable unit (from Bytes to GB).
• {piececount} denotes the number of pieces that are required to restore the file.
• {author} is the name of the author (specified here).
• {desc} is the description of the file (specified here).

Example: "Size: {size} ; {fullsize} byte(s)." will become "Size: 1,3 Mb ; 1421511 byte(s)."

 A default message is automatically created when a language file is selected (see below), unless you have made a modification to the message.

Custom Messages Boxes

Custom messages are standard Windows message boxes displayed to end users. You may use:

• the "At the beginning" prompt message to ask end users whether they would like to unite your file or not. If they choose No, the program closes.

• the "At the end" message to tell them that the unite operation was complete.

• the "About" message to show a custom message with copyright, web links or instructions...

Note: to put a carriage-return-line-feed between "Line 1" and "Line 2", use \$, like "Line1\$Line2".

Destination Folder

You may pre-determine which folder the original file should be restored to. End users can also select another location by clicking the "Browse" button in the Self-Uniting program, but you can disable this ability by enabling the "Do not allow end users to modify the destination path" option.

You may then choose between Windows (Windows source folder), System (Windows system folder), Temp (Windows temporary folder), Current (the current system path), SFU (the path containing the program, even if it is not recommended to use it) folders. Finally, you can also enter the path manually (custom folder).

Generally select the Current or Temp folders. Windows & System are not recommended because they are generally write-protected under XP, 2000 & NT-similar systems.

After Unite

These options concern the restored file only.

• Ask for overwriting file

If the destination file already exists, GSplit will ask end users whether they would like to overwrite the existing file or not.

• Open file after unite

Lets you decide whether you would like to execute the file after the unite operation or not. This file can be an executable or a document file.

• Wait until end of program

This will force the Self-Uniting program to stay active until the executed file is closed. This feature works only with executable files! Do not try to use it with a document file.

• Delete file after execution

This feature, available only if the preceding one is enabled, allows you to delete the file after its execution.

Note: the last two options are useful if you want to execute a Setup program or a Paquet Builder's package.

• Execution Parameters

This allows you to pass command line arguments when executing your file.

Miscellaneous Options

• Automatically close the SFU program at the end

This will force the SFU program to close after the unite operation is finished. If you decided to execute the restored file and to wait for its end, then the SFU will close only after the end of the file execution.

• Automatically start uniting pieces

It will force the SFU to begin uniting the file without waiting on any user's interaction. If this feature is enabled, then the file will be restored in the default destination folder specified.

• Activate the Silent mode

It deactivates the display of any dialog boxes (but message boxes are still available). Not really recommended if you create disk spanned pieces. Some dialog boxes like "new disk prompt" will however not be hidden even if you enable this feature.

Picture Header

The main window of the Self-Uniting program displays a picture at the top. This picture is taken from a Windows bitmap file (.bmp extension). If you want to use another picture than the default one, you may specify the full path to your bitmap file: it may give a new personal look to your SFU program.

Recommended properties for your bitmap:

Width: 353 pixels.
Height: 65 pixels.
Color: 8-bit.

 Please bear in mind that large bitmap files will increase the size and the startup time of the SFU program.

How to select a language file for the SFU

The SFU program supports localization: by default, it will use the same language as for GSplit. But you can create SFU programs in other languages by specifying which one to use thanks to the "Language" page. You can change every message or button caption, etc... by clicking "Edit". You can select another language file by clicking "Browse".

Note: language files (.GSL extension) are actually XML files and they can be fully edited with a text editor like Notepad.