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In order to prepare a manifest file for distribution you need to run the ManifestPrep utility on it which is found in the tools directory of the SDK.

ManifestPrep essentially does two things:

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ManifestPrep is a utility that prepares your modulepackage's manifest file so that your module can package can be used with a retail licensed (non-developer) WinGate. The tool generates information about your modulepackage, places it into the manifest and signs it. WinGate will then load the manifest file, check that it is signed and validate the information in it against the actual files themselves. If anything is deemed to be suspect then the module will package will not be loaded.

If you used the WinGate Module Wizard to create your modulepackage, the manifest file is created for you in the solution directory and you need only run ManifestPrep on it. If you did not use the WinGate Module Wizard you will need to create a manifest file by hand. 

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By default ManifestPrep will look in the 'My' certificate store but you can specify the store to look in with the -S command line option. See below:

NOTE: When testing your modulepackage, if you used the WinGate Module Wizard to register your package with WinGate, then the output name of the manifest MUST be the same as the input name, minus the .XML suffix as demonstrated above. When you create your own installer for your product you package you can name the manifest anything you wish and place the path to the manifest file in the correct WinGate\Packages key. See below for more information on the Packages key.

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SourceRootDescription SourceRootDescription

%SourceRoot%

Inside the manifest file generated by the WinGate Module Wizard is a <signInfo> node for each file the module depends package depends on. This node is there to assist manifest prep in finding the source file for that dependency. This is typically inside a developer's Release directory. The WinGate Module Wizard generates this node for you if you create your projects with it.

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Let's assume you have a directory structure like so: (ManifestPrep is in your path.)

C:\source\MyWinGateModuleMyWinGatePackage\Release

Example 1:
You are in the c:\source\MyWinGateModule MyWinGatePackage directory. The signInfo node in the manifest.xml contains %SourceRoot%\Release.

ManifestPrep MyModuleMyPackage.manifest.xml MyModuleMyPackage.manifest "My Certificate"

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ManifestPrep -R c:\source\MyWinGateModule MyModuleMyWinGatePackage MyPackage.manifest.xml MyModuleMyPackage.manifest "My Certificate"

Will sign and generate a retail manifest file using "c:\source\MyWinGateModuleMyWinGatePackage" as the base path and adding "Release" to that in order to find the correct file.

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NOTE: At present, when you install the files they need to all reside in the same directory as the manifest file; there is no support for sub-directory dependencies.

Getting WinGate to load your

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package

In order to get WinGate to load your module(s) package you need to add a registry key for the entire package under HKLM\Software\Qbik Software\WinGate\Packages. The name of the key must be the UUID of the package in your manifest file including any braces e.g {05b70dd3-55f0-4958-abc3-15a2aebe5ffe}. The WinGate Module Wizard generates this package UUID for you so you can just look in the raw manifest.xml file to find it.

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Now you have added the key, add a string value under it called Manifest, with the data being the complete path to your manifest file, including the name. e.g c:\program files\my modulepackage\MyModuleMyPackage.manifest

When you next start WinGate, your module should package should load.

NOTE: The actual dependency files themselves do NOT need to be signed. The manifest file contains all the information it needs to validate the files and ensure they haven't been tampered with.

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