INFO: Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 International Package and Deployment Kit

ID: Q236404


The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 6.0


SUMMARY

This article contains the information from the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 International Package and Deployment Kit readme.

Contents

IPDK Overview

Supported Languages

Included Files

System Requirements

Download and Installation Instructions

Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3 Required

Incompatibility with Microsoft Office Developer Wizards

Using the IPDK

Deploying and Packaging a Localized Application

Table of Installed Files with End-user Install Paths

Terms of Use


MORE INFORMATION

IPDK Overview

The International Package and Deployment Kit (IPDK) is a collection of resources and tools that allows developers to produce and distribute localized applications using any language version of Visual Basic. It includes a set of localized, redistributable files for each supported language, localized files for use with the Package and Deployment Wizard (PDWizard), and some tools to automatically repackage your application into another language and change the Locale ID (LCID) of compiled Visual Basic .exe, .dll and .ocx files. See IPDKTool.htm for more information.

The IPDK is designed to solve some of the problems encountered by developers who create programs in multiple languages. Even if a program is localized, certain error messages and setup dialogs may still appear in the same language as the language version of Visual Basic that the program was compiled in. One reason is that each language version of Visual Basic doesn't ship all the language versions of the Visual Basic resources. The second reason is that if you compile any localized application on a given language version of Visual Basic, the application .exe, .dll, and .ocx files will still call the run-time resources corresponding to the language of the compiler. The set of redistributable files included in the IPDK provides a solution to fix these issues.

Supported Languages

The IPDK supports the following languages:
  • English (en)
  • German (de)
  • French (fr)
  • Italian (it)
  • Spanish (es)
  • Japanese (jp)
  • Korean (ko)
  • Simplified Chinese (chs)
  • Traditional Chinese (cht)

Included Files

The IPDK consists of:
  • Localized satellite .dll files for the VB run-time file.
  • Localized Packaging and Deployment Wizard setup files.
  • Satellite .dll files for all .ocx controls.
  • PdWizloc.exe, a tool to automatically repackage your standard application package into another language after localization.
  • VBLocal.exe, to view and change the language settings of a compiled Visual Basic .exe, .dll and .ocx files.

System Requirements

The system requirements for the IPDK are:

  • At least 60 MB free disk space for the IPDK files (Visual Basic 6.0 requires a minimum of 400MB free disk space) if you install core IPDK files and all language versions of mdac_typ.exe.
  • Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3.
NOTE: For all other Visual Basic system requirements, see the Before You Run Setup section of the Visual Basic Programmer's Guide.

Download and Installation Instructions

To install the core IPDK files, download "Ipdk.exe" and follow the prompts. Unless otherwise specified, the IPDK files will be installed into a new folder called IPDK under the root of the Windows system drive (for example, C:\IPDK, if C: is the Windows system drive). Language subfolders contain the resources and localized documentation for each language. If your application is using mdac_typ.exe, you need to run the separate mdac_typ.exe setup programs in order to install any language versions of this file you would need at the same location of the core IPDK files.

Download the IPDK package and any language version of mdac_typ.exe at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/downloads/ipdk.asp

Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3 Required

Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3 must be installed on your computer before the IPDK files can be installed. To determine if you have Visual Studio 6.0 Service Pack 3 installed on your system, consult the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Q194295 How To Tell That Visual Studio 6.0 Service Packs Are Installed
To download the service pack and get more information about Visual Studio, see the Microsoft Visual Studio Home Page.

Incompatibility with Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Wizards

The Package and Deployment Wizard that ships with Visual Basic cannot be used with Microsoft Office 2000 Developer and vice versa. To avoid damaging projects created with either environment, only use the version of the wizard that came with that product. For example, if you're packaging a program in Microsoft Office 2000 Developer, only use the wizard that shipped with Microsoft Office 2000 Developer. The IPDK is intended for use only with Visual Basic 6.0.

Using the IPDK

Using the IPDK involves replacing some Packaging and Deployment Wizard setup files, and changing the Locale ID of the .exe, .dll, and .ocx files of the compiled Visual Basic application you are localizing. The tools delivered with the IPDK automatically perform all these tasks. This section describes each step you must take.

Deploying and Packaging a Localized Application

Deploying and packaging a localized Visual Basic application with the IPDK involves the following steps:
  1. Localize the user interface portions of the application (contained in the .res file) in one or multiple languages and compile these versions using your language version of VB. For more information about localization and related issues, see the MSDN topic Designing International Software.


  2. Run your language version of Package and Deployment Wizard to create initial standard package(s) of your localized application(s).


  3. Use PDWizLoc.exe to finalize the standard package of each localized versions of your application. PDWizloc will automatically add the localized satellite files and localized files listed in the table of installed files to your package, and change the LCID of the compiled Visual Basic application .exe, .dll, and .ocx files to the target language LCID (see the LCID list in IPDKTool.htm). PDWizloc can also be used to add files that are not part of the IPDK package. For more information about using the PDWizloc utility, see IPDKTool.htm (located in your IPDK language directory).


  4. NOTE: You don't need to run PDWizLoc to package your application into your own language version of Visual Basic 6.0. PDWizLoc only works on Standard packages. PDWizLoc does not support Internet packages.
For more information about localizing Visual Basic applications, and using the Package and Deployment Wizard, consult the following MSDN topics:
  • Distributing Your Applications
  • International Issues
  • Using Resource Files for Localization
  • The Package and Deployment Wizard

Table of Installed Files with End-user Install Paths

Please refer to the same section of the downloaded version of this readme to obtain this information.

Terms of Use

The accompanying software ("Update Software") is provided to you by Microsoft to update, supplement, or replace existing functionality of Visual Studio or Visual Basic. The Update Software is licensed under the same terms and conditions contained in the End User License Agreement (EULA) you acquired with Visual Studio or Visual Basic. If you do not agree to be bound by the terms of the EULA, you are not authorized to use the Update Software. You may have additional rights to distribute certain files identified in a "redist.txt" file included with the Update Software. By exercising a right, you agree to be bound by the terms described in the EULA for "REDISTRIBUTABLE CODE." If you do not agree to the terms described in the EULA, you are not authorized to use or redistribute any of the files. © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.

© 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Other product and company names herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbreadme kbsetup kbwizard kbDeployment kbIntl kbVBp600 kbLocalization kbGrpVB kbDSupport
Version : WINDOWS:6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbinfo


Last Reviewed: July 15, 1999
© 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.