WiserBit

What is a Pad file?

Pad file is an xml file containing the information about software/shareware/freeware etc.


This type of file was released by ASP (Association of Software Professionals) and it is usually used by software authors to publish them products to ‘download sites’ around the internet.


The most of the download sites around the internet support this technique, they are using that in order to get the detail about new products, and to follow about changes for each downloadable file.


The main idea was to give the software authors the ability to publish them work automatically, and indeed, in the beginning this process was almost full automatically, but because of many spam issues, it has become to be an ‘half automatically’, today you mostly need to confirm your submission whether by a CAPTCHA or/and by a confirmation email.


Here is a pad file structure:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<XML_DIZ_INFO>
	<MASTER_PAD_VERSION_INFO>
		<MASTER_PAD_VERSION></MASTER_PAD_VERSION>
		<MASTER_PAD_EDITOR></MASTER_PAD_EDITOR>
		<MASTER_PAD_INFO><MASTER_PAD_INFO>
	</MASTER_PAD_VERSION_INFO>
	<Company_Info>
		<Company_Name />
		<Address_1 />
		<Address_2 />
		<City_Town />
		<State_Province />
		<Zip_Postal_Code />
		<Country />
		<Company_WebSite_URL />
		<Contact_Info>
			<Author_First_Name />
			<Author_Last_Name />
			<Author_Email />
			<Contact_First_Name />
			<Contact_Last_Name />
			<Contact_Email />
		</Contact_Info>
		<Support_Info>
			<Sales_Email />
			<Support_Email />
			<General_Email />
			<Sales_Phone />
			<Support_Phone />
			<General_Phone />
			<Fax_Phone />
		</Support_Info>
	</Company_Info>
	<Program_Info>
...

Read the rest of the structure.

PAD ActiveX Component
We have developed an activex component that allows developers and software authors to read and write XML PAD files. The component was released for free so you can develop your own PAD file editor.

The free PAD ActiveX component.