To help PickMeApp recognize PAD files, the files need to be uploaded to one of your PickMeApp profiles. As soon as a PAD file is uploaded to a PickMeApp profile, PickMeApp will read the PAD file’s application description, allowing it to download an application package and run an application installer upon request.

Moreover, if the PAD file includes the special TAD PickMeApp extension, PickMeApp can perform a one-click install of several chosen applications at once.

To use PickMeApp with PAD files:

1. Go to software repositories and download PAD files of interesting applications.
2. Import PAD files to an existing PickMeApp profile or create a new profile with the PAD files.
3. PickMeApp will recognize the files and list those applications on the Right Panel, alongside with other installation packages and captured applications. Note that all standard PickMeApp features are applicable to application descriptors.

T-APP Application Description (TAD) format is an extension of the PAD format. It specifies silent or unattended installation instructions. The current version supports silent installations of the following installer types. 

• Installers: MSI, NSIS , WIZE, Inno Setup
• Command-line directives
• TAP files
   

Specifications

The following xml tags could be presented in PAD file.

<PMA>
    <PMA_Extension_Version>1</PMA_Extension_Version>
    <PMA_Silent_Install>
     <Type>NSIS | INNO| WIZE | MSI | CMD | TAP | </Type>
      <CmdLine> ---silent swithes that should be used if  type is CMD, otherwise ---</CmdLine>
    </PMA_Silent_Install>
  </PMA>

Examples

• 7-Zip TAD extension

<PMA>
    <PMA_Extension_Version>1</PMA_Extension_Version>
    <PMA_Silent_Install>
     <Type>MSI</Type>
    </PMA_Silent_Install>
  </PMA>

• IrfanView

<PMA>
    <PMA_Extension_Version>1</PMA_Extension_Version>
    <PMA_Silent_Install>
       <Type>INNO</Type>
    </PMA_Silent_Install>
  </PMA>

• Opera 16.0.11 

<PMA>
    <PMA_Extension_Version>1</PMA_Extension_Version>
    <PMA_Silent_Install>
     <Type>CMD</Type>
      <CmdLine>/silent /launchopera 0 /desktopshortcut 1 /quicklaunchshortcut 0 /setdefaultbrowser 0 /allusers</CmdLine>
    </PMA_Silent_Install>
</PMA>

PickMeApp PRO  will unpacks the downloaded package in zip format .  It will search recursively executable to run setup by following order
 a) the first TAP file it finds
 b) the first setup.exe file it finds
 c) the first  exe file it finds
 d) the first  MSI files it finds

if PickMeApp PRO cannot resolve the correct name <EXENAME> tag should be added with  the exact name of the executable to run .

Examples

• Paint.net.4.1.6.install.zip

<PMA>
    <PMA_Extension_Version>1</PMA_Extension_Version>
    <PMA_Silent_Install>
     <Type>CMD</Type>
     <CmdLine>/quite </CmdLine>
     <EXENAME>paint.net.4.1.6.install.exe</EXENAME>
    </PMA_Silent_Install>
</PMA>

 

The PickMeApp Collection of software programs that comes with PickMeApp is an example of a WEB Profile managed on our PickMeApp Server.

To manage your own collection of applications with PickMeApp, you should first create a PAD map file listing all the URLs of PAD/TAD installation packages in your collection.

PAD map is an extension of the PAD specification that specifies the format for publishing application collections. PAD map is a plain text file that lists all PAD URLs for application collection (one URL per row). The PAD map file should be published on a remote server. Server should allow access to this PAD map file through any of three (3) supported network protocols, namely, http(s)://, ftp://, and file://.  
The PAD files can be located on the same server or another server.  For example, you may create your own application collection from a set of PAD files published on The Official PAD Repository (appvisor.com).

To add your Application collection to PickMeApp, create a PickMeApp Web Profile with the location pointing to the PAD map file of the collection. PickMeApp will periodically check for updates in the PAD map and update the contents of the Web Profile accordingly. For more information, see Creating a Web Profile.

To add more applications to your collection, just add the PAD file URLs to the PAD map. These new applications will be automatically by PickMeApp and added to the corresponding Web Profile.

Note: Due to its support for the file URI schema, file://,  PickMeApp allows you to manage your own collection on a local PC without need for a  remote server. The collection will be always monitored and updated by PickMeApp. For example:

1. Create an Application Collection on your computer.
2. Create a text file named padmap.txt with the following PAD URLs from The Official PAD Repository at at https://www.appvisor.com/:
   • http://repository.appvisor.com/info/app-420064784ec9/FreeFileSync_pad.xml
   • http://repository.appvisor.com/info/app-b000ff93001d/PeaZip_pad.xml
   • http://repository.appvisor.com/info/app-b30004c94aa8/DriverFinder_pad.xml
3. Save it to the C:\MyAPPS directory on your computer.
4. Create a Web Profile named MyApps pointing to the file:// //C:/MyAPPS/padmap.txt URL.

Note: For more information on the URI schema, see Uniform Resource Identifier.