Dependency scanning, am I missing something?

[AaronJohnson]

I'm coming from the world of Visual Studio .vdproj installers, which will cease to exist in VS11. As such, I am investigating new installers packages.

I like InstallAware quite a bit so far, but the dependency scanning has me scratching my head. I have dozens of executables in my product, so scanning them all is tedious. Worse, many of them can't be run with an empty command line, not to mention the ten or so services. So far I haven't been able to build an installer that actually gets everything running. Is there no way to do a static dependency check, like Visual Studio used to do?

[FrancescoT]

Dear User,

Honestly I used Visual Studio .vdproj installers, just few times.

What do you mean for static dependency? In wich ways it works?

Regards

[AaronJohnson]

Statics dependency checking looks at the executable image directly, without the need to run it.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Aron,

For what I know InstallAware only can executes dependency checking dinamcally.

Regards

[ZvikaCastel]

I find this dynamically scanning annoying, too. can't always make the executable to start in a clean release build environment. Not to mention Services.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Users,

Let me check with dev team.

Regards

[ZvikaCastel]

Waiting...

[FrancescoT]

Still checking!

[rgralak]

Hi Francesco,

Any update on this? The lack of static dependency checking is the one feature that has kept me from purchasing InstallAware. Even Wise's install builders had that in it's lower versions. This is not the same as using "depends". The feature should search EXEs and DLLs in the installation project looking for references not found in the installation and give the user a list of which to add (via check boxes besides each reference). Another thing the Wise installer did was check for and warn if there were duplicate dependencies (perhaps different versions of the same DLL used by different components in the installer project).

BTW, yesterday I tried using the scan button with the InstallAware 15 trial on a .Net application and it didn't find anything (yet there were a number of .Net DLLs used by the app). I'm not sure what might have gone wrong but this is a deal breaker for me.

-Ray

[FrancescoT]

Dear Ray,

#1 Static dependency scan has been already added to our "future features to-do list" ... but currently, I am not able to anticipate when it will be.

#2 If you chosen the correct Exe to scan ... it should work correctly (I just tried with an Exe file).

Have you followed the required steps as described in IA documentation?

Regards

[rgralak]

Hi Francesco,

Dear Ray,

#1 Static dependency scan has been already added to our "future features to-do list" ... but currently, I am not able to anticipate when it will be.

#2 If you chosen the correct Exe to scan ... it should work correctly (I just tried with an Exe file).

Have you followed the required steps as described in IA documentation?

Regards

1. Ok, that's excellent that the dependency scan is on the to-do list.

2. Yes, I believe I have done all the steps... 1) I check the filter by feature and select "Feature Independent", 2) Click the SCAN button and select the EXE. 3) the EXE runs and I do a bunch of operations. 4) I click the "OK" button on the dialog with the EXE still running and nothing happens. No dependencies seem to be found... that is no message pops up that anything was (or wasn't) found. And of course no dependencies are added to my installation project yet I know the EXE references a number of .Net DLLs in the same directory as the EXE.

Did I forget a step?

-Ray

[FrancescoT]

Dear Ray,

Once your program has been loaded, are you sure to have used all of its features?
This way the program loads and uses all of the libraries it may ever need at runtime.

Anyway, if it is possible for you to send your files to me ... I could try to verify what happens.

Regards

[rgralak]

Hi Francesco,

Unfortunately you wouldn't be able to run it because it requires our internal SQL Server database. But database access is handled via several DLLs so even just by logging in I would think that would trigger the need for some of those DLLs.

If you think it would help I could capture a video using Jing showing the steps I am doing??

-Ray

[FrancescoT]

Dear Ray,

... of course, you can send it to; support@installAware.com

Regards

[rgralak]

Dear Ray,

... of course, you can send it to; support@installAware.com

Regards

Francisco, I just emailed the video 5 minutes ago.

-Ray