Web media blocks and use Web over CD...

[craigism]

I have built a working install with IA 10 Studio. It downloads my current applications form the web via a single Web media block. I want to put the same Web media blocks on the CD in case there is no internet. At some point the web based Web media block will be updated so I would like the install to always try to use the web based version and on fail or on lack of a internet connection I would then revert to the CD install.

I do not understand the interaction between patches, versions, updates.ini, update packs and so on. My guess is that I manually edit the updates.ini that is monitored... or do I make a second web media block that is exactly the same but it points to the CD? Or is there some default action that tries the Web and then on fail tries the CD? Again I want the Web to be used first especially if it contains newer files.

Can some one please put me on the right track?

Thanks.

Craig.

[giaviv]

Hi,

I am a little confused - you are saying that you have a web install. This means that your customers will get their binary from your website.
How then will there be a CDROM in their machine containing the web media blocks?

[craigism]

I have a CD and place the Web Based install files on the CD.
In my case QNVIP.exe and qnovip.7zip. I want QNVIP.exe to look online for the newest qnovip.7zip.

If I leave qnovip.7zip off the CD then it downloads fine. I just do not know how to get QNVIP.exe to use the most current qnovip.7zip build that it can find.

The instruction say to add a url for each one and it will check in order but I do not know how to add the url for the default one on the CD.

Is there a better way to do this? I do not plan to do any auto updates or patches as my EXEs are rather small.

[giaviv]

Your best bet would be to support updates after installation - there is no way of prioritizing internet blocks over local ones.

[craigism]

Your best bet would be to support updates after installation - there is no way of prioritizing internet blocks over local ones.

I do not know what "support updates" are. I read the help file and there is so such feature.

So there is no way to have a CD based install check for a newer version online? So many of the install that I have used over the last few years all do this as a default action. The old Palm install that I just ran today prompts to check online to download the most current version. I feel like I'm missing a simple and obvious solution here.

I guess i will build 2 installs and put both on the CD. One web based and one local based.
So my question still is, if I update the web based 7zip file at a later date , will the installer still work with the newer 7zip file?
Are there any rules to this strategy like the updated 7zip must consist of the exact same file names?

Thanks...

[giaviv]

Hi,

What you are really looking for is web updates - here is a tutorial about it:
http://www.installaware.com/installawar ... pdates.pdf

[giaviv]

Hey,

Furthermore, web media blocks can be shared across different builds and even different products, with the exceptions noted in the Project Options |Build Compiler dialog.

Also, you could author a version check using the Download File plug-in. If a newer version is found, you could copy the setup.exe file to the local hard
disk, run it, and then quit immediately. This will have caused setup to run from a folder which does NOT contain any 7zip files, so they would all be
downloaded fresh.

[craigism]

I'm found the cashed 7zip in the IE temp files. This is really the key to making my install simple and work every time. Since both my threads seem to now be asking the same question, I will start a new tread that is specific to current problem and solution.

Thank you for all your help.

[giaviv]

Hi,

FYI - you could author a version check using the Download File plug-in. If a newer version is found, you can copy setup.exe to, say the Desktop, and then run it from there. Since the web media blocks won't be present in that new folder, the downloads will occur.
The version check can be authored in using Download File to test a hard-coded version number against a "live" newest version number as downloaded by the Download File plug-in.