Upgrade strategy

[IanM]

Hi,

I have been delighted with Installware, having moved from Wise and am about to distribute the first major build of our new app on CD.

We generally offer a single annual 'full' install on CD which includes help files and some invariant system files.

We upgrade our product throughout the year via website links and in the past I have created a cut down 'upgrade' package which omits the help files to reduce download size.

As I understand it, I can do this fairly easily by putting the documentation elements in a different compile variable block and re-compiling with this block disabled. I can also see how I could do something similar with web blocks.

The problem is that as far as I can see, when the 'upgrade' runs it will automatically run the original 'full' uninstall, removing the documentation files from the user PC as well. I could of course label these as not be to be uninstalled but I do want them to be removed by a 'genuine' uninstall.

I could alter the product code butpresumably this would cause other items which I do want to be re-installed such as shortcuts to be left alone when the upgrade runs.

I suppose patches is the way that you might recommend but I really do not want users to be fiddling around looking for old install CDs. I understand from the help files that patches based on web blocks removes the need for the user to supply the original install but does this also bump up the size of the patch?

I have used patches in the past albeit with non-Wiondows installer technology and they make me nervous!

Cheers,
Ian

[MichaelNesmith]

Hi Ian!

I'd recommend the new product code approach. It would be the least headache for everybody involved, in my opinion.

You can also create shortcuts to files already present on the system in your setups - so it should work really well in my opinion...

[IanM]

Hi Ian!

I'd recommend the new product code approach. It would be the least headache for everybody involved, in my opinion.

You can also create shortcuts to files already present on the system in your setups - so it should work really well in my opinion...

Thanks Michael,

I was hoping you might persuade me to look at Patching!! What might be the problems of using patching with web blocks in my scenario?

If I create a new product code for the iterim release installs, will this not create a new item in Add/remove programs? Will it not also duplicate any existing startmenu and desktop shortcuts?

Sorry to pester you - just trying to educate myself

Ian

PS Are there any thoughts of upgrading the distribution aspects of installaware? e.g. FTP uploads to web, copy to other folders as per the old Wise installer.

[MichaelNesmith]

Hi Ian!

Patching would work well in your scenario, but you would have to maintain copies of older builds, and that might be more trouble than its worth.

If you copy files as permanent in your new product code, and then uninstall it right after installing it (copy Apply Uninstall right after Apply Install), you would both get rid of the ARP entry, and also still have the files remaining. I'm pretty sure then when you ran the original setup, the files would be removed upon uninstall. You can also remove any shortcut creation commands of course, to prevent such duplication.

Its really all up to your creativity and how you want to handle it! Many ways to do things in InstallAware.

Thanks for your post-build recommendations, by the way. We'll soon have an online feature request mechanism with ability to track status of pending requests, etc...

[shomw]

Hi I'm also a converted Wise user with an upgrade question.

Our install makes many registry changes based on a customizable txt file that is read on the first intallation of our product. During an upgrade when the installed version gets removed all those settings are lost. I do not want them to be permanent because they won't be removed on uninstall. So I wrote a script that reads the current reg setting then writes it to a temporary key. That script should be run before it uninstalls the installed version however the it attempts to read and write during the install of the new version and not before the uninstall even though I'm doing the include script before and then throws an error.

Any idea on how to do this?

Many thanks in advance.

Shom

[MichaelNesmith]

Hi Shom

If you're just dealing with the registry here, why not mark those settings permanent, and blow them away while doing an uninstall using Delete Registry, which deletes keys and subkeys with a single command?

You could call Delete Registry before Apply Uninstall...this way it won't execute on upgrade uninstalls either, because its not handled by the MSI engine.

Two birds with one stone?