Skip to content

Enhance ReadMe with local build workflow details #1087

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
VooDisss wants to merge 2 commits into
base: master
Choose a base branch
from
Open

Enhance ReadMe with local build workflow details #1087

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
2 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
2a2dfb5
Enhance ReadMe with local build workflow details
VooDisss Mar 29, 2026
be4cc80
removed .exe download links
VooDisss Mar 31, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
108 changes: 99 additions & 9 deletions ReadMe.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -5,14 +5,7 @@

Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item placed on the clipboard allowing you access to any of those items at a later time. Ditto allows you to save any type of information that can be put on the clipboard, text, images, html, custom formats.


1. [Installer](https://github.com/sabrogden/Ditto/releases/download/3.25.113.0/DittoSetup_3_25_113_0.exe)
2. [Portable](https://github.com/sabrogden/Ditto/releases/download/3.25.113.0/DittoPortable_3_25_113_0.zip)
3. [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/ditto/3.23.124.0) choco install ditto
4. [Chocolatey Portable](https://chocolatey.org/packages/ditto.portable/3.23.124.0) choco install ditto.portable
5. [Winget](https://winget.run/pkg/Ditto/Ditto) winget install -e --id Ditto.Ditto
6. [Windows Store App](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/ditto-cp/9nblggh3zbjq)

## REMOVED ALL THE DOWNLOAD LINKS, DUE TO ONLY THE MASTER REPO BEING ABLE TO HAVE THEM (probbably)

## Basic Usage

Expand All @@ -21,6 +14,104 @@ Ditto is an extension to the standard windows clipboard. It saves each item plac
3. Open Ditto by clicking its icon in the system tray or by pressing its Hot Key which defaults to Ctrl + ` – i.e. hold down Ctrl and press the back-quote (tilde ~) key.
4. Double click or press enter on the item to paste it to the previous window.

<details>
<summary>Local Build Workflow</summary>

Prerequisites:

1. Windows
2. Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools or Visual Studio 2022
3. Desktop C++ workload
4. MSVC v143 x64/x86 build tools
5. C++ ATL for latest v143 build tools (x86 & x64)
6. C++ MFC for latest v143 build tools (x86 & x64)
7. Windows 10/11 SDK
8. NuGet
9. Inno Setup 6 if building the installer

Primary build references:

1. `.github\workflows\build.yml`
2. `CP_Main_10.sln`
3. `CP_Main.vcxproj`
4. `DittoSetup\DittoSetup_10.iss`
5. `DittoSetup\BuildPortableZIP.bat`
6. `src\Theme.cpp`
7. `src\Options.cpp`

Build the x64 executable:

```powershell
nuget restore CP_Main_10.sln
msbuild CP_Main_10.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64
```

If MSVC resolves to the wrong installed toolset, force one explicitly:

```powershell
msbuild CP_Main_10.sln /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64 /p:VCToolsVersion=14.44.35207 /m
```

Expected development outputs:

```text
Release64\Ditto.exe
Release64\ICU_Loader.dll
Release64\Addins\DittoUtil.dll
```

Important packaging rule:

1. `Release64\Ditto.exe` is a development build, not the full packaged app.
2. Themes and language files are external assets.
3. Themes are loaded from `Themes\*.xml`, not embedded into the exe.
4. If a raw local build appears to have no dark themes, use the installer or portable package build instead of the bare exe.

Build the installer:

```powershell
$env:VERSION_FILENAME = '3_25_113_0_local_build'
& 'C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Programs\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe' 'DittoSetup\DittoSetup_10.iss'
```

Expected installer output:

```text
DittoSetup\Output\DittoSetup_<VERSION_FILENAME>.exe
```

Installer inputs are defined in `DittoSetup\DittoSetup_10.iss` and include:

1. `Release64\Ditto.exe`
2. `Release64\ICU_Loader.dll`
3. `Release64\Addins\DittoUtil.dll`
4. `Debug\Language\*`
5. `Debug\Themes\*`

Build the portable zip:

```powershell
DittoSetup\BuildPortableZIP.bat "DittoPortable_local_build" bit64
```

Expected portable output:

```text
DittoSetup\Output\DittoPortable_local_build.zip
```

Agent workflow:

1. Read `.github\workflows\build.yml`
2. Restore packages
3. Build `CP_Main_10.sln` for `Release|x64`
4. Verify `Release64\Ditto.exe` exists
5. Verify `Debug\Themes` and `Debug\Language` contain XML files
6. Build either the installer or the portable package
7. Test the packaged result rather than the raw exe when checking themes or runtime assets

</details>

## Local First
- No login
- No cloud
Expand All @@ -32,4 +123,3 @@ Free code signing on Windows binaries provided by SignPath.io, certificate by Si
<br>

<img src="ditto.gif">