InstallAware

Hi All,

I am evaluating InstallAware and all my experience is from Wise Installation System 9.02.

I am a database developer using Visual FoxPro as my main developer tool. The nature of my applications requires the following installation:

Main Installation (To install all files on the Server Share or Local Computer)
Workstation Installation (To install all supporting libraries like ActiveX controls, Visual FoxPro Runtime Libraries and program shortcuts)
Minor Updates during Beta Testing (Update program codes preserving some data files that are not needed to be update) This is a very important step.
After the project is complete, then update the Main Installation for future customers.

In Wise I have a script for each process and would like to know the following from InstallAware:

How this situation can be handle with InstallAware?
Can I use the InstallAware Patch feature in my scenario?

Thanks!

Edhy Rijo

Hi Edhy

I think your best bet is to build installers using InstallAware - one for each task you described. I would not use the patch feature because it would make things more complex for you. Most of your Wise scripts should migrate pretty easily and please ask here if you have any questions. Note that there are a few subtle differences between Wise and InstallAware's scripting (because InstallAware is based on MSI technology) - please review the Genuine Scripting for Windows Installer whitepaper available on our website for download before beginning conversion.

Thanks Michael,

I will review that document as suggested.

One more question, why you are not recommending to use the Patch feature? I was under the impression that this feature will help me out in the process of producing small patch/updates to the customer while developing the application (beta testers, etc) instead of what I am doing now which is just re-adjust my Wise script and sending that file again, and alone with VFP executable files the size of the update files can be very large.

If you are going to use patches, you'll have to maintain older versions, in order to be able to create the new ones.. It get's very complex after that, and mistakes are almost sure to happen..

Hi Gizm0,

But, for the specific of creating several updates while developing my applications, could I use the Patch feature and after the application is complete, use the main installation to install everything from that point?

My need right now is while developing new applications where many updates need to be release to the beta customers, instead of sending them a 25mb file, it would be nice if I can send them 10mb or less.

Edhy

Hi Edhy,

Absolutely, its all up to you - I think in this case they will work well.

Hello,

Yes you can do it that way.. As Michael said is all up to you!
But try finding a better "scheme" after you release your product, to maintain updates

Hi Panagiotis,

But try finding a better "scheme" after you release your product, to maintain updates

Since I am testing InstallAware, I am still worry about your response about finding a better "scheme" for updates. Can you or anybody else explain what would be a better schema for updating applications after they have been released?

Thanks!

Edhy

While I am not (yet) an InstallAware user, I have used the patching abilities of Wise 9.02 for awhile, and if you have a lot of files in your installation creating a patch file that handles multiple older versions is fairly error prone no matter what technology is being used. Patching one version of software to the next is easy, patching two versions of software to the latest is doable, but trying to handle 3 or more versions of software in a single patch not only gets messy, but the patch files tend to not be that much smaller than a full install of the changed files.

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the explanation it does make sense.

Dear Edhy,

Yes, Ken and Gizm0 have done a great job here of explaining the core problem with patches. InstallAware does make it as easy as possible for you, however, the issue does inevitably get out of hand if you try to build and maintain patches for every single minor product version.

This is how i've done it:

I have builded a custom update module for my application..This is what it does in sort:

1) Connect to a web Service or if the webservice is down, to a .php web file
2) Retrieves the file list and their version is [FILE]-[VERSION] format.
3) Check for which files exist on user and which not
4) If a file does not exist, i download it (at temporary files)
5) If a file is older that the version retrieved, i download it (at temporary files)
6) After downloading, i overwrite the files necessary, and put new files together
7) I run a "standar" alter script for my database(retrieved from the webservices or another php file) which has updates from the beginning of my application(all of them), with ignoring errors (in order to continue if the CREATE/INSERT command is trying to modify an existing field).

I hope that helps!

Also note, that this can be done by using InstallAWARE also, quite easy..

Thanks Panagiotis,

I'll keep testing.