Software Business

How to create a PAD file

Quick introduction to PAD files

(page 1 of 2)

Published on: January 26, 2007

If you're a software author, you're probably familiar with those never ending requests and the need of updating the info on your programs, over and over again. The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) also thought of this and decided to do something about it. That's how the Portable Application Description (PAD) came about.

This standard was created to simplify the information synchronization between developers and their promoters. PAD files allow for all the software information to be updated from a single location on the developer's website.

Details about the PAD standard:

PAD contains the most important and frequently requested information on a software program, all in one place. Many download sites demand and support it;
PAD uses the XML web technology, which means data can be easily extracted by any XML toolkit;
As a webmaster, you get all the needed information, just by using an XML extractor, without having to contact the author
Now, if you want to add some extra information in the PAD, you simply insert additional fields, by creating HTML forms;

The PAD file needs to go in two places:

Inside a ZIP file, from where anyone distributing your software can extract it and retrieve the information. You can include the PAD files inside the ZIP as PAD_FILE.XML.
On your website. Don't use a version number in the link, as it's important to use an address that won't change, because some sites are automatically checking PAD files for changes, updating their lists. Remember that many download sites ask for the URL of your PAD file as they import all the information contained in it.

Other facts:

PAD file generators are free. Here's a link where you can download PADGen 3
When you generate a PAD file, fill in all the fields. Failing to do so will generate incomplete information that will be displayed as such by vendors. PAD files are used to increase your shareware sales, so you should fill out everything;
You need to provide a URL in the PAD file that points back to the file, because they're used for automatically updating the information. The PAD file URL should be the same between software releases so that the download sites can correctly extract your information updates.
To make sure your PAD files are working properly, you have to validate them. Use this tool to validate your PAD files.

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6 Responses

Elley George says:
February 28th, 2008 at 10:25 pm

Great Article..Thanks
Ehsan says:
March 9th, 2008 at 8:07 am

The PADGEN Link Broken
Anonimous says:
June 5th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

PADGEN link broken. Please kindly provide pad gen software to generate the PAD file.
Adriana Iordan says:
June 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Hi Thanks for your comments. We fixed the URL of PADGen.
Anonimous says:
June 6th, 2008 at 8:03 pm

Thank you so much Adriana. Alex.
Rick says:
October 4th, 2008 at 4:22 pm

Great info, i been searching for this information for creating pad files.