Can't get Patch to work correctly

OverheadDoor · Post by **OverheadDoor** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:20 pm

I have been working on trying to properly apply a patch for over a week now. I must be doing something wrong because even after the patch installs on a client machine, the changes that were made do not appear on the client. Please bear with me on the details of this email because I wanted to lay out exactly what steps I have taken because I have ready your help and through some forum posts but am still unable to get the process to work correctly. In my sample below are the exact steps I took.
I have a current Compressed Web-Based EXE build. The version of the application as well as the setting in Project Properties is 6.0.0.0. I build the application and move all he web blocks along with myapplication_Setup.exe, myapplication_setup.7zip, and updates.ini to the web server. I download the application on the client computer and install the software. Everything is fine. For testing purposes of the update process, I want to make a small change, such as add a help.txt file to the installation directory. I go to the Files section under "Setup Archive" and add the file to the $TARGETDIR$. I then go to the "Update Packs section and add a new entry pointing it to my webserver path\\patches\\myapplication_Setup.exe. I create a new entry in the Versions menu for 6.0.0.0 and check off the Update Pack that was just created. I then go to Patches and create a new patch pointing it to the web install originally created. I click build patch and then copy the myapplication_setup.exe and updates.ini file from the patch directory to the web server under the patches directory. On the client computer, I run the upgrade process and it finds the upgrade. I tell it to install and it completes successfully. The problem is that after it install there isn't any help.txt file in the installation directory. I have tried this with many different scenarious such as making just a small change in the software and going through the same steps but after the update, the changes haven't been made. I can't get the update to update any of the files or add new files or anything. I must be missing something, but can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Please help, because this software is getting ready to go to our external beta team and I want the install to be correct beforehand.

MichaelNesmith · Post by **MichaelNesmith** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:23 pm

It looks like you're missing the step of incrementing the version in your patch build from 6.0.0 (Windows Installer counts only the first three digits) to something higher, such as 6.0.1.

OverheadDoor · Post by **OverheadDoor** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:38 pm

So for each patch I need to increase the version number under Project Properties? Wouldn't this make the version number out of sync with the main application in scenarious such as just adding a file or making a modification to a dll? Does the installer look at the version of the main application, or does it only look for the version of the intaller? If that is the case then I guess it doesn't matter that they are out of sync. From the help (under "Patching") I thought it only said that the requirements were that the same upgrade code, same product code, and different revision codes were needed. I didn't see anything about the version number, but I most likely missed it somewhere. Also, I didn't realize that it only looked at the first 3 digits. Thank you very much for that information. I will test that and let you know if I continue to have problems.

MichaelNesmith · Post by **MichaelNesmith** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:05 pm

Please read the patching whitepaper - its all covered there.