Web Deploy Patch Assistance

[mecg]

I am trying to decide if I want to make a multi-year commitment to InstallAware for my software installation needs. I've had a less than desirable amount of trouble getting a web deployment setup figured out and functioning, but I probably added to that trouble significantly by bailing out of the Project Wizard for my installation before it was completed. That's my bad. At any rate, I now have a web deploy installation that appears to be functioning very well.

Now, I'm trying to figure out how to deploy updates to this web deploy installation of mine and am not having much success. And, when I say not much I mean zero, and I'm quite frustrated...

From the many threads on these forums that I've read on this subject it would seem the "patches" route is the way to go for a web deployed installation. OK, fair enough. Now, would someone please reply to this thread with a step-by-step set of instructions on EXACTLY everything I have to do to create and deploy a patch for my installation? I mean starting right from "Start InstallAware with your project" all the way thru to "Smile because your patch installed correctly". Every box I have to put a check mark in, every piece of text I need to write, everything I have do. Everything. Please.

Much thanks in advance...

K

[CandiceJones]

There might be fewer steps than you expected to build a patch

1. Build your first version setup normally. I understand you already have this project.
2. Save the built setup somewhere. You do not need to save your setup project, just the output folder for the built setup.
3. Be sure to save any other built versions also, if you want to support patching against them.
4. In your latest version project, go to the Patches design view, click the Add button to add each old version setup you saved.
5. Click Build Patch!

That's it!

[mecg]

I don't have to change versions in the Project Properties? I don't put anything on the Update Packs page?

[CandiceJones]

Yes, you do want to change the version in the Project Properties window; as well as make any other necessary changes to your setup (such as add/remove files, add/remove registry keys, and such).

If you are asking about how to use the web updates feature, that is another topic altogether. Web updates can be anything - patches, full versions, or custom EXE's even. So that is a separate topic.

That one is quite well described in the help file. Go to the Web Updates design view, and choose the Update Packs view. Press F1, read the help Then go to the Versions view. Press F1, read the help That should give you step by step instructions on how to issue web updates, which again, don't have to be patches, but can be patches as well as anything else.

[mecg]

LOL - Thank you for trying to help me out, Candice, but I'm afraid you haven't cleared up much for me. This is why I asked for a clear, totally spelled-out step-by-step set of instructions for every mouse click I'm supposed to do, everything I'm supposed to type and where to put it, what to change, what to build, what to upload to my web server - everything... I've spent days doing the trial and error approach and scouring the forums to get the setup working properly - and now I want to be handed everything I need to get patches to work with that setup, please.

Thanks...

[CandiceJones]

Did you try to build a patch according to the steps I described? If so, what happened? If not, why not

Once you've done that, you can then go ahead and read the help file topics I pointed you at for deploying software updates on the web, give that a shot, and explain what happened in that scenario.

For the majority of our users, these instructions are sufficient. If you are interested in personalized training (sounds like that might be the route you want to go, actually), please drop sales an email, and we will be happy to assist you further!

We are working on step by step tutorials to supplement our existing documentation, but the forums are not the right place for this kind of documentation.

[SteveDude]

I'm having problems creating my first patch and have followed the steps to a tee, , but after creating a patch I end up with a 6MB file and when I run the EXE right when the files start to copy I am presented with a Browse for folder dialog asking me to select the orginal setup sources. What original sources is it looking for? I thought everything was supposed to be compesses into the EXE.

This was the same installer as the original with a couple of files changed and one added. Any ideas?

[SteveDude]

I figured this out from some other web posts. Guess I should of looked before I did the original installer because the patch strategies available would be a tech support nightmare in my case. I have some really green customers and having them select the original source would be unintelligle for them, since it was distributed as basically a single very large EXE on a CD and via the internet. My distributer did not want a web based installation, but one file.

[mecg]

I thought I read in the help file that a patch does NOT need for the end user to find the source files??

[CandiceJones]

Not with a web build. Note that if you create a web build with a single offline web media block, its identical to a single file EXE setup, so no web downloads, but automatic patch source resolution.

This is also covered in the help and other forum posts AFAIK.

[mecg]

OK, that's what I thought. Thanks, Candice!

[SteveDude]

So what is the advantage of creating a single file EXE without support for patching? Am I just missing something. Does that mean the installation is cached on the hard drive somewhere, which would need to be reflected in the your software's minimum system requirements - disk space?

[CandiceJones]

Its a build mode. The most basic mode is uncompressed. Its, as the name indicates, uncompressed. Single file compressed takes all that and puts it inside a single self extracting EXE file. Web builds go one step further and partition that single EXE file into multiple 7zip files, as well as the master EXE file.

From a patching perspective, single file compressed doesn't make too much sense; but that doesn't mean you may not want to use it in other scenarios.

[SteveDude]

Candice,

That much I get, but when creating a Web build with one media block, can you still get just a single EXE if you don put any content in the web block and just the offline content?

If that is so do you need to reflect the difference in your apps hard drive specs because the installation is cached on the hard drive somewhere? Seems like the files would have to be somewhere for the patch to work.

Thanks,

Steve