FRI Version 1.7.0.1
August 11th, 2008Since I added the ability to copy/move files between libraries in FRI 1.7.0.0, I realized that another feature was missing: The ability to filter by library in an advanced search. Now with this next minor release, the user can not only filter by platform, language, players, rating, and image health, but also library.
Download FRI Version 1.7.0.1 here
Change log:
- New Feature: Advanced searches can now be filtered by Library Folder.
- Tweak: FRI if there is an unexpected error when FRI is closing, FRI will report the error and gracefully close.
FRI Version 1.7.0.0
August 9th, 2008Every so often I will want FRI to be able to something, and then I realize, "Hey! I’m the one who writes it!" This time I had a problem to solve. I just got a new laptop for college, and I wanted to have some ROMs on it. The problem is that I have hundreds of gigs of ROMs, and only would want to play a few on the laptop. The first solution would be to simply put the ROMs on a network share and have FRI look there for the ROMs, but then I wouldn’t be able to play the ROMs on the road. A feature to be able to copy a ROM from one library to another (desktop to laptop) is exactly what I needed, so that’s what I wrote!
Download FRI version 1.7.0.0 here
Here you can see that I have two libraries added. The "Desktop" library is over a network share, and the "Laptop" library is just in my local home folder. 
FRI Version 1.6.0.0
July 25th, 2008
Download FRI version 1.6.0.0 here. 
Change log:
- New "FRI User Settings.xml" file for storing user settings
- Change: the last search is not stored in the new user settings file
- New feature: the user can now rearrange the columns in the main FRI window
- New feature: the selected columns and sorting are now saved when FRI is closed, and reloaded when FRI is opened.
- Fix: When a Library Folder is removed, the associated ROMs will once again be removed. (This was not the case in the previous version of FRI)
- Fix: ROMs with very long file names no longer crash FRI when FRI is scanning for ROMs. Now in many cases the ROMs will be added anyway, and in other cases FRI will simply skip that ROM, informing the user of the error by adding a dummy ROM to the list with "!!! error when finding roms: <message>" as the name, where <message> is the error message.
- New Feature: FRI now reports any error messages that occur when it loads, and gracefully closes. Before if there was an error on load, the user would often have to kill the process with Task Manager.
FRI Version 1.5.0.0 Source Code
June 9th, 2008
I have a friend who is an open-source fiend, and so he nag nag nagged me to make the source code for FRI available for download. After a lot of re-organizing and commenting, here it is! The "Frie" project in the Visual Studio solution is the FRI back-end, stands for "Fantastic ROM Indexer Engine". Yes, it is pronounced "free" just like the front-end. 
I’m putting this code out on the Internet, but please keep in mind that FRI is still my baby. If you want to make a derivative work, email me first for permission.
Download FRI Version 1.5.0.0 Source Code here
FRI Version 1.5.0.0
June 9th, 2008OK, this thing has baked long enough. It’s time to release a new version. 
Download FRI version 1.5.0.0 here
Change log:
- cleaned-up and documented code for increased efficiency and to get FRI ready for open sourcing
- Relative paths are now fully supported. This means that the user can now put all of his ROMs and Emulators with FRI onto a removable data storage device and have FRI work no matter what drive letter the host operating system assigns the storage device.
- ROM’s locations are now stored relative to the Library Folder that they are associated with. This means that if you move a whole Library Folder to another location, you can simply tell FRI that folder’s new location and all of the ROM’s file paths will be updated.
- Reorganized menu bar
- FRI can now use a master FRI database as a reference for filling in missing information in the user’s ROM library. (This feature will be further developed in the coming weeks.)
- New file icon:
- New title bar icon:
- FRI now displays the "waiting" cursor when it is processing information.
- FRI now remembers the user’s last search when it is opened
- The Note Editor now opens centered on the FRI window
- The status bar now displays more relevant information about the number of ROMs displayed, selected, and in the library in a more logical way.