Shop’NCook Blog

For the last couple of weeks, I have received numerous e-mails of users of Mac’s Snow Leopard system complaining that Shop’NCook doesn’t even start after the latest system update, after having using it for more than one year without problem…

The good news is that this problem has already been solved about one year ago when it occurred on Leopard systems. Snow Leopard is finally catching up with it, surprising a lot of users who did not update their software at that time.

Users experiencing this problem just need to update to the latest version of Shop’NCook, by following exactly the instructions below:

1. Download the appropriate version of Shop’NCook
2. Run the installer software in the image disk. Do not use the drag and drop installation, as it will replace your installation folder where your data is stored and you will lose your recipes. (If it’s too late and you just did it, use the Undo function of the Finder, at once).

On some systems, the installer software does not run. If this is your case, here are the instructions to update manually Shop’NCook Menu. If you are using another edition of Shop’NCook, replace below all mentions of “Shop’NCook Menu 3.4″ folder by “Shop’NCook 3.4″ or “Shop’NCook Pro 3.4″, as appropriate.

1. Rename your current installation folder Applications/”Shop’NCook Menu 3.4″ to Applications/”Shop’NCook Menu 3.4 old” - or any other name.
2. Drag and drop the new folder “Shop’NCook Menu 3.4″ from the installation disk into the Applications folder. If the computer asks you if you want to replace the current folder “Shop’NCook Menu 3.4″, select cancel and do again step 1!
3. The first time you start the software from the new installation, it will ask you if you want to use the default data or import from another installation. Select to import and browse to folder “Shop’NCook Menu 3.4 old”.

That’s it. Let me know if you need more help with the update.

Great start
Shop’NCook Lite was off to a great start:

472 users and over 300 new recipes in just three days!

Then crash!
Early this morning, I receive an e-mail to let me know that the app doesn’t even start. A few hours later, the rating on the app store is

one star…

As a user put it:
“The only reason I gave it a 1 star is due to you CAN’T give it a zero! The app won’t even open!”
What happened
I never expected there would be more than a hundred or so new recipes per month on the server.The first time the application is started after installing, it downloads the index of the new recipes on the server. Three hundred new recipes was too much and made the application crash…
What now…
This problem is now fixed. If you have installed the app within the last few hours and could not get it to start, you can try again and it will work now. You don’t have to reinstall the application, as I have only modified the code on the server so that it does not send more than 50 recipes in one time.

Update July 11, 2009: The issue is now fixed on the US versions of Shop’NCook Home, Menu and Pro. I will update the international versions and Shop’NCook Reader in a few days - meanwhile use the workaround below.

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Java for Mac OS X 10.5 can cause Shop’NCook to crash. I am working on it and hopefully will publish a compatible version of Shop’NCook in a few days. Meanwhile, Shop’NCook users should wait before installing the latest Java update.

Update June 30, 2009:  Mmm, the latest Java update seems to be protecting against very serious security vulnerabilities. Forget what I wrote above - do install the update as soon as possible, then applies the easy workaround below to continue using Shop’NCook.

If you have already installed it, here is a simple workaround:

1. Open the Java Preferences in folder Applications/Utilities .
2.  Drag J2SE 1.4.2, 32-bit at the top of the choices for Java applications.

That’s it! By setting Java 1.4.2 as your preferred Java Virtual Machine, Shop’NCook will work again like before.

The installers released last week are not compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3. All my apologies to the users who had problems with them. I am working on it and will fix this problem soon. Meanwhile, Mac OS X 10.2 and X 10.3 users can download the previous installers below:

• Shop’NCook Home, previous US edition - download now
• Shop’NCook Home, previous International edition - download now
• Shop’NCook Menu, previous US edition - download now
• Shop’NCook Menu, previous International edition - download now
• Shop’NCook Pro, previous US edition - download now
• Shop’NCook Pro, previous International edition - download now

Update: The latest release is now compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3. The previous installers are not available anymore. Download the latest installers here. More info…
Above links are only for Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3 users. They will not work on Leopard or Windows. All other users should download the installers from the download page.

Shop’NCook is now officially supported on Vista - sorry for the long wait to all the Vista users. The shopping list printing problems on Vista have been also fixed.

New installers are also available for Leopard with the cooking view fixed.

You can download the new installers here:

• Download Shop’NCook Home
• Download Shop’NCook Menu
• Download Shop’NCook Pro

This update is recommended to all Vista or Leopard users. If you are not using Vista or Leopard, you don’t need to update.

Upgrade note for Vista: if you have been using Shop’NCook on Vista with a non-compatible version, it is possible that some of your files have been virtualized. Virtualization is the way of Vista to cope with non-Vista-aware applications. When a file is virtualized, it is placed in a folder that mimic the program installation folder, instead of being placed in the installation folder itself. To see if you have been virtualized, open the folder Program Files\Shop’NCook 3.4 (or Shop’NCook Menu 3.4 or Shop’NCook Pro 3.4). If there is a button named “Compatibility Files” on the toolbar of the folder, some files have been virtualized. If this is the case, you need to open the “Compatibility Files” folder, that is folder VirtualStore\Program Files\Shop’NCook 3.4 (or Shop’NCook Menu 3.4 or …) and copy back the virtualized files to their corresponding place in the real folder Program Files\Shop’NCook 3.4 (or …). After this operation, you can run the new installer. Note also that you will need an administrator account to run Shop’NCook on Vista.

Upgrade note for Leopard: if you had to do an Archive & Install installation of Leopard, the content of your Applications folder - including Shop’NCook 3.4 (or Shop’NCook Menu 3.4 or Shop’NCook Pro 3.4) has been archived. You need to move this folder from its archival place back into the current Applications folder before running the new installer. Like always, it is also a good idea to make a back-up of the installation folder before upgrading.

My Leopard CD was finally in the mailbox yesterday. I had received numerous e-mails during the past week reporting that Shop’NCook installers did not work on Leopard… so I was quite impatient to test Shop’NCook myself on the new operating system of Apple.

Beside the installation problems, I have found the following issues on Leopard:

1. Preview of print out: launching of the Preview application fails. Workaround: starting by hand the Preview application before previewing a print-out.
2. Help, Get Recipe button, Buy Now button: launching of Safari fails. Workaround: starting by hand Safari before activating these functions.
3. Cooking view: displays an invisible screen that blocks further input. Workaround: you can unblock the program by pressing the escape button to close the invisible screen. The recipes can however not be seen in full screen mode on Leopard.
4. Some minor cosmetic problems.

As a temporary solution, I have made new installers for Leopard. They are now live on the site. If you need to install or reinstall Shop’NCook Home, Menu, Pro or Reader, you can download the new installers below:

• Download Shop’NCook Home
• Download Shop’NCook Menu
• Download Shop’NCook Pro
• Download Shop’NCook Reader

Note that only the installers have been modified. It is not a new release of Shop’NCook, the installed content is the same. You do not need to reinstall the program if it is already installed.

I will release an update in one or two weeks to fix the other issues that I can fix. Problems 1 and 2 come apparently from a bug of Leopard - I may not be able to do something until Apple releases an update - but they are relatively minor and should not interfere with the usage of the programs.

A few Windows XP users have reported a problem printing shopping lists. This problem affects only a small number of Windows XP users and comes from a bug in older versions of the Java Virtual Machine. Mac OS X users are not affected.

If you encounter this problem, you can fix it by downloading and installing the latest version of Java from http://java.com . It is free.

If you have installed the version of Java bundled with your edition of Shop’NCook installer (Home, Menu or Pro), you need to run again the installer and select the installation without Java. Otherwise, the program will not detect the more recent version of Java and will continue using the older one.