Some issues and suggestions

[norgepaul]

Could we have a comment from InstallAware? Will you consider implementing some or all of the suggestions?

[MichaelNesmith]

This is a technical support forum - not a wish list forum

I know our R&D staff regularly monitor posts here, but this isn't a place where you can communicate with R&D.

R&D takes input from a variety of sources including customer surveys when defining new product features and enhancements. We may also post some items here from time to time in form of polls for additional feedback.

[norgepaul]

Perhaps you would be so kind as to forward our comments to the R&D team or provide us with a means of officially requesting that the bugs are fixed and the features are implemented.

Cheers,
Paul

[MichaelNesmith]

Of course, you bet.

[MLS]

just pressing enter is a lot nicer though but thanks on that tip saves cutting and pasting them

[jls]

Currently you control the content by selecting MSI or Design group.
I personally doesn't think this is correct.

I think the purpose of a ribbon is to show to the user only controls that are available at the moment. E.g. if you working at MSI mode only groups and controls that works with MSI should be available.

I have attached a sample program where you switch between the different views by selecting a control rather than a ribbon group.

Any comments?


Jørren

File Attached:

Project1.zip

[Alex_Ronquillo]

When you want to install files for all features of your application, in the "Filter Files by Feature" drop down select the "Feature Independent" option, and then select the files you want to install for all features.

Thank you for your recommendations on the features. I will pass them to the designers and the will be able to decide wheter they follow them or not.

[JeffTucker]

This seems the be the area to add suggestions so here goes:

I love the fact that there even IS a debugger... Here are some suggestions to make it better:


There is no way to remove all breakpoints with one action.
Sometimes the line the cursor is on does not match the code execution even though the exe was just built.
Can't browse other parts of the code while debugging.
Hovering over a variable does not reveal its value - would be really nice.
No way to clear all watched variables at the same time.
Can't set new breakpoints while debugging.

Logging Issues

There is a way to create an install log but it isn't written immediately. Must wait until apply install. This does not help when a prereq is not met and a silent install takes place. Then you just get no clue what happened unless a manual install takes place.
I've tried the WriteLog plug-in - it is subject to the same criticism.

Loops prevented

The install compiler complains when I try to create a loop in an included script. Probably because it is within an if block from the main install script. This is quite limiting. The .Net Installer template sets up the main install this way. Perhaps there is a workaround?

Search Limited

There is no way to search all script and included scripts for strings. You have to open each one. Search/replace same flaw.

Flakey?

I suspect the next knock might be due to problems with the MSI underpinnings, but over the past week of intensive development I have found that I'd get a working version only to add one more line of code and have the copy to targetdir functionality just stop working! I'm on track now having carefully retraced my steps with a new project. Does the script that takes place after apply install get rolled into a "Custom Action"?

Copy as text does not always work
I sometimes get a messagebox error when I try it. Sometimes it works. When it fails I have to reboot to get it working again.

Diff versions in source control
This becomes important for diffing versions sitting on your disk versus source control. Alternately, if there was a viewer for the script view that could be tacked onto say, Beyond Compare 3 it would be truly marvelous. All I can tell is that binary versions are different.

Ctrl-A brings up the about box rather than the standard select all. Just unexpected.

Undo of course is absent. That's why I work with a net.

Jeff Tucker
Dev Architect Inflexxion

[jsmith]

IA9 has undo functionality.

[MichaelNesmith]

InstallAware 9 also selects the entire script on CTRL+A - that was another common pet peeve, which we just had to fix as a customer centric organization.

It also reports exact line numbers and script file names for runtime errors in include scripts - as opposed to absolute numbers as previous versions did after merging all includes and the main script together.

For easy DIFFing, InstallAware 9 automatically saves TXT file "accompaniments" for each script file. This is basically the same as you copying the whole script as text and then saving it as a new file.

InstallAware 9 is truly a must-have upgrade for all InstallAware developers.