APPX Builder is available only with InstallAware Developer and above

[vesigo]

I've installed X6 with a desire to try the recently advertised APPX build feature from within Visual Studio 2017 RC. I've installed InstallAware X6 as the Studio edition, but whenever I click the "Build APPX for WUP" button from the toolbar within Visual Studio, I get the following message:

InstallAware APPX Builder is available only with InstallAware Developer and above. Would you like to visit the product website for more information?

Am I doing something wrong here? I thought the Studio edition would have this feature included since it's above the Developer edition.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Jeremy,

strange! I am not able to replicate the same.

Are you using your IA X6 product as trial?

Regards

[vesigo]

Yes, I installed it in a virtual machine as the Studio edition and then selected trial at startup so that I could test how it worked.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Jeremy,

let me check this out...I'll be back on this soon.

Thanks!

[FrancescoT]

Dear Jeremy,

please replace your current "InstallAware Visual Studio 2017 Extension" with the latest version available from the on-line Visual Studio Marketplace.

To proceed;

- as first uninstall the current version of InstallAware Visual Studio Extension. To uninstall it, start Visual Studio, then from the "Tool" menu select "Extension and Updates". A list of installed extensions appears in the center pane, select the "InstallAwareVsPackage" (v.5.0) and then UnInstall.
Follow the on screen instruction to complete the process (you will need to close and then to start Visual Studio).

- Finally; re-start Visual Studio then once again; "Tool" -> "Extension and Updates". The Extensions and Updates dialog box opens and In the Extension Manager, choose and expand the On-line node. Type "InstallAware" into the search box and once the new " InstallAwareVsPackage" Extension is listed, click the "Download" button.

IaVSExtension.png (35.52 KiB) Viewed 5359 times

The latest version of the "InstallAwareVsPackage" is "5.0.3.6".

Hope this helps you.

Regards

[vesigo]

Francesco,

Thank you for looking into this issue. Your recommendation worked. After removing the existing extension and reinstalling from the Marketplace, the extension now works properly within VS2017.

Is there any documentation on the differences between InstallAware's approach to creating APPX packages and Microsoft's Desktop App Converter? I'm not clear on the approach that InstallAware has taken from a technical standpoint and how that compares with the approach taken with the Desktop App Converter.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Jeremy,

the main differences are basically these;

- the Microsoft's Desktop App Converter wants an app installer to generate the APPX. The tool runs the desktop installer in an isolated Windows environment using a clean base image provided as part of the converter download. It captures any registry and file system I/O made by the desktop installer and packages it as part of the output. Because the Microsoft's Desktop App Converter uses the captured system differences to release the conversion, the generated APPX will include also other redundant components and that are the inevitably result of the captured setup process.

- InstallAware uses a dedicated build process to generate the APPX and as it happens with any other build type integrated with the IA IDE. The output package is directly based on project settings and script logic. Consequently, the resulting APPX will include only the application components defined with the IA project.

Hope this helps you.

Regards

[vesigo]

Francesco,

Thank you for the clarifying response. That's just what I was looking for.