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Publishing a Project

Please read the Material Usage Rules on this site.

Description​

Publishing your project collects all dependent libraries, encrypts, archives, and packages them into a ready-to-use template. You won’t need to manually gather a set of libraries or spell out where they should be—instructions aren’t needed for selling your template.

Any permissions you’ve set for the project stay the way you configured them.

There's also a User Area Upload feature. It saves you time on support and updates. Just upload the new version from ProjectMaker and your clients will get it automatically.

What is it for?​

  • Granting users access to a template in ZennoBox or ZennoPoster via subscription.
  • Saving plugins.
  • Encrypting projects that use third-party libraries.

Advantages​

  • Packages all external dependencies into a single project.
  • Lets your project run and launch faster because all code and logic are precompiled.
  • Increases security. Even if your account gets stolen, nobody can open your project.

How do you publish a project?​

There are three ways:

With a keyboard shortcut​

Default combo is Ctrl+Alt+P.

Through the top menu​

File → Publish Project.

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From the open project tab​

Right-click the desired project tab → Publish Project.

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How to work with the tool​

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What should you do?​

Here you need to choose what you want to do with your project:

  • Save to a local file
  • Upload to UserArea
The project must already exist in UserArea for this.
  • Save as plugin
To save a project as a plugin, you need to use BotUI as the input settings.

Save to file​

Where to save​

You need to set the local path on your computer where you want the project saved.

Embed external libraries​

This option only appears if you use external libraries.

If you've added external libraries using the References from GAC block, you have to pick which of them to pack into the project.

If you get errors, try placing the libraries next to your project’s .zp file.

Encrypt project​

We recommend turning this on, especially if you use third-party libraries.

Upload to UserArea​

In this case, just select the project’s name from the dropdown list.

Read more about Selling Bots and Using ZennoBox.

Save project as plugin​

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Name​

Come up with a name for your plugin. This is what will be shown in ProjectMaker.

You can make several plugins with the same name.

But it’s not recommended—give them unique names so you don’t get mixed up.

Version​

Set the current version of your plugin.

Icon​

Upload an icon for your plugin to make it easier to spot among other actions.

  • Supported formats — png, ico, bmp
  • Sizes — from 16x16 to 128x128

Log plugin errors​

If you turn this on, logs will include the plugin error text that caused the template to stop.

If it’s off, you’ll only see this message: Plugin processing error.

"Advanced" tab​

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This tab is handy if you’re selling your plugin or just sharing it with others.

You can add your email for feedback, a description of your plugin, and other contact info here. It’s also useful to add a link to your plugin topic on our forum.

Preview and publish​

Before saving your plugin, you can click Preview to see how it’ll look for others.

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Once you click Publish, the project check and build process will begin. If everything’s fine, you’ll see this window:

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Limitations​

You need to include all libraries required for publishing as dependent assemblies. If library 1 relies on library 2, both must be in Reference. Sometimes this isn’t possible—some third-party assemblies might cause packaging or encryption errors, or even make the template unusable.

Always test your project with external dependencies. If something isn’t working, the first step is to try removing assemblies from the bundle.