MAJOR PROBLEM: You changed compression settings between Vers

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RobertKozak
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MAJOR PROBLEM: You changed compression settings between Vers

Postby RobertKozak » Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:51 pm

Somewhere between versions 6.0 and 6.5 you guys changes the settings used to compress the setups.

Now we have a major problem in that the Setup.exe (compiled with Installaware version < 6.5) on our CD does not know how to extract our webblocks on our server (created with InstallAware 6.5).

What exactly are the settings you guys used to compress the files for each release of InstallAware from 6.0 thru 7.01.

We have made a lot of disks and shipped them to customers and potential customers and now we look bad because it cannot extract the files. We need to be able to recompress the new files to the old way so that the disks we shipped will work again.

Please respond ASAP as we are losing customers daily.

-- Robert Kozak

MichaelNesmith
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Postby MichaelNesmith » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:13 pm

Hi Robert,

Sorry to hear about that!

As published on this forum, version 6.5 improved the compression algorithm. Therefore we may conclude that this is what broke your compatibility.

You should always use different download URLs for your web media blocks when your setup version changes to avoid problems like these.

You need to restore the old web media blocks to solve this problem. It's not like what you think as in changed compression settings.

And then for your new version, you can update the web media block URLs and use those moving forward.
Michael Nesmith
InstallAware
Home of The Next Generation MSI Installer
Get your free copy today - http://www.installaware.com/

RobertKozak
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Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:51 pm

Postby RobertKozak » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:49 pm

I think there is more to it than that.

I just did another test with two different builds of our application 2 days apart using the same version of InstallAware (6.5).

The Setup.exe from the first build will not work with webblocks from the second build. There are no differences to the InstallAware version of the script used to make the installer.

So something else is going on here and it is driving my staff nuts. Not to mention all the calls we are getting from potential customers.

Any idea what might be going on?

MichaelNesmith
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Postby MichaelNesmith » Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:18 pm

Hi Robert,

I'm sure there's a sane and logical explanation to all this. Things rarely stop working for no reason at all.

If you are trying to share web media blocks, between different setups or different versions of the same setup, the process is generally automatic. Web media blocks are built such that as long as each weblock contains files from the same sources, things are taken care of automatically - as long as your source paths don't change between versions, you should be fine.

Well other than that, I don't have additional ideas for you - you'll want to open a support incident for further investigation.
Michael Nesmith

InstallAware

Home of The Next Generation MSI Installer

Get your free copy today - http://www.installaware.com/

RobertKozak
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:51 pm

Postby RobertKozak » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:30 pm

It has never worked for us. The first time we ran into this problem we had upgraded from 6.0 to 6.5 of InstallAware and thought it was due to the different versions of the engine. I just found out yesterday that the disk we created back in the beginning of June is no longer working with the new webblocks we put up on the server a couple of weeks ago.

I didn't find out until yesterday because people rarely call or let us know if the disk wont work. They just don't bother installing the software.

You are saying if the source paths change the webblocks dont work. Do you mean the server path were the webblocks are located or are you taking about the source the files were initially in to make the build in the first place?

If I have to open a support incident what is the procedure?

Thanks in advance.

Robert

MichaelNesmith
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Postby MichaelNesmith » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:26 pm

The source file paths on your build machine, where you're building them.

To order a support incident:
www.installaware.com/support-service-options.htm
Michael Nesmith

InstallAware

Home of The Next Generation MSI Installer

Get your free copy today - http://www.installaware.com/

RobertKozak
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:51 pm

Postby RobertKozak » Fri Jul 27, 2007 4:47 pm

Really? That confuses me. Why would it matter where the original source was between 2 versions of an install if the files will be installed to the same location?

The Weblock is the abstraction. Why during the install process would the installer care what location the files came from? Its not like those file locations are available on the target machine.

Is this a bug or a bad design?

-- Robert

MichaelNesmith
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Postby MichaelNesmith » Fri Jul 27, 2007 5:35 pm

Its actually a carefully made design choice which enables you to share web media blocks between different setup projects. If your weblocks use the same source files (such as application runtimes, shared program files), you can share the weblocks and upload them once, instead of sending the same data multiple times.

So you may want to think twice before calling something a bug or bad design. While in your specific case it might have worked to your disadvantage, its the better choice for the majority of cases. You may not be able to appreciate that right now of course, because you're hurt by your own bad design ;)
Michael Nesmith

InstallAware

Home of The Next Generation MSI Installer

Get your free copy today - http://www.installaware.com/

RobertKozak
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Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:51 pm

Postby RobertKozak » Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:05 pm

MichaelNesmith wrote:Its actually a carefully made design choice which enables you to share web media blocks between different setup projects.
...
So you may want to think twice before calling something a bug or bad design. While in your specific case it might have worked to your disadvantage, its the better choice for the majority of cases. You may not be able to appreciate that right now of course, because you're hurt by your own bad design ;)


I do not argue of the idea behind InstallAwares design but the actual implementation of using the source directory as a contributing factor to determine whether or not a webblock can be shared.

If I had designed this I would have hashed the contents of the weblock as the dertermining factor of whether or not a weblock is the same as another in a different project and not used the source dir and thus satisfied all the requirements including my specific case.

Which is why I said I asked whether or not it was a bug or a design problem.

RobertKozak
Posts: 47
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 6:51 pm

Postby RobertKozak » Fri Jul 27, 2007 7:19 pm

MichaelNesmith wrote:You may not be able to appreciate that right now of course, because you're hurt by your own bad design ;)


PS. In the future I would appreciate that you refrain from calling any of my work a bad design until you had a chance to examine it. I have 20 years experience in software design with over 6 years as a Software Architect specifically. Software I have written has been used by millions of users and I spend alot of time analyzing different use cases and not just the immediate requirements in all my designs.

Im not hurt but slightly offended that as a paying customer you feel it wise to insult my designs of which you have no knowledge.

MichaelNesmith
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Postby MichaelNesmith » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:25 am

RobertKozak wrote:In the future I would appreciate that you refrain from calling any of my work a bad design until you had a chance to examine it.


Thanks for proving my point :lol:
Michael Nesmith

InstallAware

Home of The Next Generation MSI Installer

Get your free copy today - http://www.installaware.com/


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