Problems with compiler variables in InstallAware 16

[ManuelPöter]

Hi,

we have updated from InstallAware 9 R2 to the brand new InstallAware 16.
We tried to build our setup (that worked without any problems with InstallAware 9 R2) without any changes, but every time we try to compile it InstallAware crahes - at first it does not respond for several seconds, the memory consumption is going up and after some time you get the usual ".. stopped working" dialog:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: miae.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 51af58c5
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.17725
Fault Module Timestamp: 4ec49b8f
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0003adaf
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.274.10
Locale ID: 3079
Additional Information 1: ab68
Additional Information 2: ab683cad8845294740765288ebd0727c
Additional Information 3: d145
Additional Information 4: d1453aacdd86c0423ae22e3bcad62ec1

After some time I could nail down the problem - we have used two compiler variables for the ProductName: "#TITLE# #VERSION#"
If I change this to only one compiler variable everything works fine.
While using only a single compiler variable is a possible workaround this is still very annoying.

Regards,
Manuel Pöter

[bokkie]

Manuel,

I tried what I think you want to do but I'm not sure if I'm doing it the same way. What I did try worked in 16. Here's what I did:

1. I created two compiler variables of the same names you used and I assigned a value to each.

2. I added the following to the MSIcode:

Set Variable ProductName to "#TITLE# #VERSION#"
MessageBox: , $ProductName$

The message box displays the ProductName correctly. I've tried a number of variations and it seems to be okay. My apology if I'm not doing things the same way as you are doing but it seems to work for me.

Edit: I've never migrated projects with such a gap between the versions. That is, I've migrated say 12 to 14 but never 9 to 16. I don't know if there are problems migrating over a wide gap but I always thought you could migrate anything upwards but obviously, never backwards.

[ManuelPöter]

Hi,

thanks for the quick reply.
Most of the migration worked as a charm - the only real issue was the aforementioned problem.

I don't set a variable "ProductName" in the script, but I have "Product Name" in "Project Settings" set to "#TITLE# #VERSION#".
This worked in version 9 without any problems. In version 16 it works with a single compiler variable, but not with two.

Regards,
Manuel Pöter

[ManuelPöter]

One more thing I just noticed - in the project the following compiler variables are defined:

ISTRIAL=FALSE,ISAURAD=FALSE,VERSION=5.8.0,"TITLE=Capesso Blue","TITLEx64=Capesso Blue x64",SHORTTITLE=Capesso,CACHESOURCES=TRUE,PLANNINGTOOL=Atoll,BASEDIR=D:\build\results\nightly\_LatestSuccessful\deploy\,BRANDING=CapessoBlue,"PRODUCTNAME=Capesso Blue 5.8.0"

When I start the build in InstallAware it reports:
Compiler Variables: ISTRIAL=FALSE,ISAURAD=FALSE,VERSION=5.8.0,TITLE=#PRODUCTNAME#,"TITLEx64=Capesso Blue x64",SHORTTITLE=Capesso,CACHESOURCES=TRUE,PLANNINGTOOL=Atoll,BASEDIR=D:\build\results\nightly\_LatestSuccessful\deploy\,BRANDING=CapessoBlue,"PRODUCTNAME=Capesso Blue 5.8.0",BUILDMODE=CD,LANGUAGE=English,TARGETDIR=$TARGETDIR$,IADIR=C:\PROGRA~2\INSTAL~1\INSTAL~3,PROJDIR=D:\source\Setups\GENERI~1,IAVER=16.00

So our variable "TITLE" is actually replaced. Could this be the problem?

Regards,
Manuel Pöter

[FrancescoT]

Dear Manuel,

in order to give me a chance to verify your finding correctly, could you please post a very minimal project that replicates your issue?

Regards

[ManuelPöter]

Hi,

I have attached a small sample project with which you should be able to reproduce the problem - just try to build it.

Regards,
Manuel Pöter

[bokkie]

Manuel,

I tried your sample project and it eventually throws an out of memory exception, so yes, it does indeed seem to be a problem for both of us. I then changed the compiler variables to names TITLE999 and VERSION999 and when I used both it worked. I don't know if using different variable names is an option for you?

This is purely a guess, but do the compiler settings for TITLE and VERSION force a recursive reassignment back into TITLE which causes the out of memory error I get?

I'm sure Francesco will discover something. He usually does!

[ManuelPöter]

Using other variable name is no problem!

The newer InstallAware version apparently defines a compiler variable "TITLE" (which was not the case with InstallAware 16).
In my project I have the following compiler variables:
ISTRIAL=FALSE,ISAURAD=FALSE,VERSION=5.8.0,"TITLE=Capesso Blue","TITLEx64=Capesso Blue x64",SHORTTITLE=Capesso,CACHESOURCES=TRUE,PLANNINGTOOL=Atoll,BASEDIR=D:\build\results\nightly\_LatestSuccessful\deploy\,BRANDING=CapessoBlue,"PRODUCTNAME=Capesso Blue 5.8.0"

When I start the build in InstallAware it reports:
Compiler Variables: ISTRIAL=FALSE,ISAURAD=FALSE,VERSION=5.8.0,TITLE=#PRODUCTNAME#,"TITLEx64=Capesso Blue x64",SHORTTITLE=Capesso,CACHESOURCES=TRUE,PLANNINGTOOL=Atoll,BASEDIR=D:\build\results\nightly\_LatestSuccessful\deploy\,BRANDING=CapessoBlue,"PRODUCTNAME=Capesso Blue 5.8.0",BUILDMODE=CD,LANGUAGE=English,TARGETDIR=$TARGETDIR$,IADIR=C:\PROGRA~2\INSTAL~1\INSTAL~3,PROJDIR=D:\source\Setups\GENERI~1,IAVER=16.00

Why does InstallAware define its own TITLE variable? I couldn't find anything about this in the documentation.

However, I can change the variable name to avoid the (endless) recursive substitution. Thanks so far.

Regards,
Manuel Pöter

[FrancescoT]

Dear Manuel,

even if the build process should return an appropriate error ( ... I'm reporting a note to the dev team about this) instead of to stop responding, the way you used to handle the project TITLE & VERSION via compiler vaiables, it is not the most correct.

Honestly, I found very strange that the way you used has worked correctly with the past IA versions.

Please have a look at the attached project (Not CrashingSetup), that demonstrates how to use compiler variables with TITLE & VERSION.

Note to Peter;
thanks for your confidence in me!

Regards

[ManuelPöter]

Hi,

the only difference between my setup and yours are the variable names - right?
As I said, it is no problem for us to change the variable names. I just wasn't aware that the names we used so far could be the problem (they worked fine in version 9).
However, the mystery is resolved and I know what to do - so thanks!

Regards,
Manuel Pöter

[FrancescoT]

Yes I used custom compiler variables!

Happy that worked !!

[ManuelPöter]

Just on more question..

I now found in the documentation that TITLE is a predefined compiler variable that apparently did not exist in InstallAware 9 R2 (I must have overlooked that the first time I searched the documentation).
What about a compiler variable named "VERSION"? Is it save to use such a variable or is this one also used internally?

Regards,
Manuel Pöter

[FrancescoT]

Dear Manuel,

VERSION is an IA pre-defined variable and not a pre-defined COMPILER VARIABLE.

Regards