Does "Apply Install" implicitedly uninstall prior versions

[spicymikey]

Using IA 18 -

I am having a problem where updates installed off our website are failing AFTER the app has already been uninstalled. This leaves the customer with nothing on their desktop and an unsophisticated user unable to handle the situation. With about 4000 customers this scenario happens often enough that we are handling 4 or 5 of these situations a day. It's more than annoying, it's starting to cost us money.

In looking at these scripts that handle full updates (not patches) I do not see anything that explicitly uninstalls the product like you see in a user requested uninstall. With user requested uninstalls the script calls an "Apply Uninstall", but in the other situation I only see an "Apply Install" being called. How, where, and when, is the product first uninstalled, when applying a new full version?

Any insight would be appreciated because I think I need to understand this if I have any hope of developing a solution to these situations where the product never gets reinstalled after the uninstall.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Spicymikey,

Apply Install doesn't uninstall prior versions (if any) and the command only finalizes the MSI installation process.

The Windows Installer requires that a previous version of an installed product, it must be completely un-installed before to proceed with the new product version installation (Full update).

In InstallAware the Un-install process is currently managed by two areas within the project main script and this depends, by the way the removal request has been effectively issued.

In case of a product update (Full Update), the previous version removal is processed by the main script within the "Install Application Pre-Requisites [CODE REGION]" and more precisely, by the following code lines;

Code: Select all

if Variable NEEDSUPGRADE Equals TRUE
    Set Variable REMOVEOLD to
    Set Variable ERROROLD to
    Install/Remove MSI Package $PRODUCTCODE$[REMOVE=ALL] (get result into variable REMOVEOLD)
    ........

Instead when the Application is Un-Installed using control panel or executing the same setup.exe used to previously install the app (Maintenance mode), the application removal is processed within the "Perform Uninstallation [CODE REGION]" and more precisely, by the following code lines;

Code: Select all

if Variable REMOVE Equals TRUE
  Comment: Uninstall product
  Comment: TO-DO: Insert any additional uninstall commands here
  Apply Uninstall (get result into variable SUCCESS)
  Set Variable PROGRESS to 100
  else


Hope this helps you.

[spicymikey]

Thank you Francesco. Yes, that clears it up. I must have looked at that script for 30 minutes and somehow didn't spot the "Install/Remove MSI Package" command that initiates the remove prior to upgrading. Sorry!

[spicymikey]

Francesco (or anyone who might have a suggestion),

I reviewed the script now that Francesco helped me identify command that is actually performing the uninstall on an upgrade. The ultimate question, as mentioned in my first post, is to try and recover from a failed upgrade which leaves the customer with nothing on their PC. This happens quite often because the uninstall occurs first (of course) and then the upgrade fails for some reason.

My first thought was to issue an "Install/Remove MSI Package" command again for the same product code with "REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=VOMUS" commandline switches. But it didn't seem to work. Am I doing something else wrong or should that have accomplished my goal?

Thanks again

[FrancescoT]

Dear Spicymikey,

Once the package is removed, you can't install it in that way, you must execute the package installer.

I may suggest you to verify which is the effective cause of the update failure.

Regards.