Web based build : local install OK but download fails, why ?

[Pete B]

Hello
Just completed a web based install routine with 6 web media blocks involved. The whole routine works beautifully when installed locally.
Uploaded to server (total 8 files ie. 6 x .7zip files, setup.exe and updates.ini). BTW updates.ini is empty because this is the very first installation of this product.
Downloaded the setup.exe and ran it. Those components contained within it appear to be installed (according to the progess text) but it fails on attempting its first WMB download. I get the Retry Extraction? dialog box. If I request a fresh copy of the installation data, progess text says 'requesting data' and within a second I'm back to the Retry Extraction ? dialog. The first .7zip file requested is about 1.5MB and is never actually downloaded fully.
Heading off now to the C:\\Docs&Settings\\All Users[in this case]\\App Data\\{GUID} folder for this install I find this first .7zip file exists but is incomplete (about 10Kb as opposed to the 1.5Mb expected). Because I get this far, I don't currently see this as a firewall type issue. If I delete this folder and attempt a reinstall, it is recreated but fails at the same point again.

What I've done so far :
Downloaded my files via FTP from server and run a binary file comparison between these FTP downloads and my master copies (no differences encountered).
Attempted web based installs to a totally unfirewalled/un anti virus protected VMware VM running WinXP Pro SP2 and to an independent machine. Both fail the install in the same way at exactly the same point.
Carefully checked all the WMB urls and the updates.ini url for consistency.

Have I missed a simple trick here ? I've trawled the forums and found various pointers (eg. issues with Linux (host is Apache server) and capitalisation). I don't think it's something like that though because IA churns out all lower case .7zips anyhow.

I am using a licensed copy of IA Developer : v6.23 (Build santacruz-sp3-020107)

To get this far and flunk out is a tragedy Please could anyone tell me where I might be going wrong ?

thanks and best wishes

Pete B.

[MichaelNesmith]

Fortunately, your solution is simple

IIS is simply not serving your 7zip files. Type the download URL in a browser and you will see that you get an error page, or a different page, but not the 7zips.

InstallAware has actually faithfully downloaded what IIS served, and indeed, because its not the 7zips, extraction is failing...

So just add 7zip as a MIME type in your IIS configuration. That will bless 7zip files as far as IIS is concerned and everything will work!

OR

You can just rename the built weblocks to, for example, the zip extension, and update your URLs accordingly, and re-build. Then, your InstallAware installer will look for the zip files instead of 7zip files, and by-pass the IIS problem.

Security can sometimes be a headache

[Pete B]

Hi Michael
That was truly a quick reply, unfortunately I can't really follow it. I think we've got a crossed wire here because I don't use IIS, it is my remote server which is Apache, as stated previously. These issues are all with my remote server, so sorry if I didn't make that clear earlier.
If I type the URL of any of my .7zip files into a browser, I get them correctly downloaded and they faithfully compare with my master copies. I would be really grateful if you could take another look at this.

thanks

Pete B.

[jimo]

If Apache is running on an X host it is case sensitive, have you checked the case of the 7zip filename in the url or the web media block?

[Pete B]

Hello Jimo
Thanks for the advice. My web media block urls did have some capitalisation, so I rewrote them to be all lower case. Rebuilt my web based project and uploaded again to my remote server. Downloaded my installer and ran it, on requesting the first required WMB it still brings up the Retry Extraction? dialog.
Looking at the appropriate 'App Data' folder on the installing machine, I see a start has been made on the first required .7zip download to about 10Kb (it should actually be 1.5 Mb).
This leads me to think its not an url issue - but I don't know that.
If I request said .7zip file via its url through a browser and download it that way, it fully downloads and a binary file comparison of the download with the master copy fully compares - no corruption.
Essentially I'm still in exactly the same situation as my first post - really stuck IA's web based installations are its real 'jewel in it's crown' - it obviously works normally but I just cannot see my way through this at the moment - it's probably a simple solution. Any further suggestions would be truly appreciated - thanks.

Pete B.

[Tinus]

Pete,

have you tried to clean up your local cache in IE? I had similar problems and cleaning the cache helped (because IA uses IE for download).
However most of the time my problems came from a wrong case of the URL.

[Pete B]

Tinus : thanks for the suggestion. I deleted all the temporary internet files on the independent installation machine I mentioned above but it has made no difference at all to the problem. 10.3Kb of the first required WMB is downloaded and then stop. This machine uses IE7, the VM I referred to above uses IE6 and has the same problem.
All my urls are in lower case but do contain some spaces. The url for this is, for example, just :

http://www.mywebsite.com/software/programname/abc def.7zip

... as I've said before, type it into a browser and it works fine. No periods in the url, nothing visibly nasty, it's driving me crazy

Any other ideas please ?

[Pete B]

Question :
Where has the forum smiley gone which has egg all over its face ?

OK it was me ! Martin, you were so correct ! It was a question of letter case in an url and it just so happened to be in that first required WMB url. 2 letters together within a word, yes one was a capital, but by scanning through the word TOO quickly, that particular combination looked just like lower case ! Now it all works perfectly.
There's a lesson here for me somewhere
New reading spectacles are on order !
If anyone else ever gets to be caught by this sort of issue in future, just really, really, actually read your urls.

thanks and all the best

Pete B.

[Tinus]

Hi Pete,

glad to here you found the problem.

I once had a similar problem - I looked 10 times at the url and didn't found the difference.

[jweksej]

I've got exactly the same problem and I checked all what was mentioned above.
But it doesn't works!
When I download WMB to the same folder where setup was downloaded, then installation goes fine (IA looks first in local folder, then searches on net, am I ok?). So it is not problem of IIS, downloading, or capital letters.
In fact in my case setup is in 'download' folder, but WMB is in cache folder (FireFox). But when started from IE - both file are in cache - and it still doesn't works...

One more tip pleeeaaaseeee!!

Jarek

[neillans]

Hi Jarek,

Double check the URLS etc all carefully; if there are any mistakes with names, case sensitive server paths etc, you will see this error ....