MSICode Dialogs major issue

[tzachk]

Hello support,

I'm creating a new installer. I have worked for several days customizing the dialogs. I wanted to add a custom dialog, in the design TAB in "Dialogs and UI" it is mentioned that in order to add more dialogs I need to swap to MSICode. I did that, right clicked the dialogs node on the tree in the right pane and then clicked Add dialogs to project. It then allowed me to select which type of dialog I wanted, and then all my previous dialogs are GONE!!!!!!. Nothing I can do restore them back. Days of work down the drain.
On the design TAB you get a warning if this is going to happen, but on the MSICode, nothing, no warning. I thought I was adding a single dialog form, not replacing everything.

How can this happen ?!
I need to start from scratch. Sometime this installer can be so frustrating and time consuming. You must fix this issue.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Tzachk,

I'm sorry for that ... I'will add a note about to our dev team.

Regards

[tzachk]

Hi Francesco,

As we have daily backups, I want to try to revert to previous version.
I want only to change the dialogs back, as I have other code changes. Is it possible to replace certain files to revert only the dialogs?

On the same note, how do I add just one custom dialog to an exisiting set of dialogs?
Regards,
T.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Tzachk,

Open the dialog or create a new one using IA Dialog Editor and save it with an unique name.
Then import the dialog selecting ADD Dialog from the Dialog Node on the left pane in MSI View.

Regards

[tzachk]

Dear Francesco,

Thanks.
Can I restore only the dialogs from backup? Is it just replacing files?

Regards,
T.

[bokkie]

tzachk,

Way back in 2009 I put this:

http://www.installaware.com/basic_dialog.pdf

article together. I don't think much has changed in registering dialogs over the years but if you read through it does it do anything different to the way you initially did yours? The reason I say this, is that I've added dialogs to existing projects before and I've also edited the ones that IA creates for you when you create a project. I've not had any nasty problems like you described.

[tzachk]

Hi Bokkie,

I wanted to add an existing dialog, i.e. have the same dialog twice in the installer with a different name.
This is why I choose in Step 4 (as appear in your document) the first option to add "pre built themed collection". I thought I'm going to add a dialog from the built-in, but when I clicked OK, it replaced all my existing dialogs.
In Design mode when something like this is going to happen, you get a warning, in MSICode, it simply replaced everything.

Thank you for the document, I'm going to follow it now.
Do you know if I can "bring back to life" just the dialogs? I have many code changes, so I can't restore from backup everything.

Thanks,
Tzach

[FrancescoT]

Dear Tzachk,

What do you mean with:

Can I restore only the dialogs from backup? Is it just replacing files?

If I haven't missed your question ... If you have a backup of your project you could replace the dialog files only.

Regards

[tzachk]

Hi Francesco,

I made many code changes in this day, which the backup do not hold yet.
I need to restore from backup just the dialog files (if it is possible).

Tzach

[FrancescoT]

Dear Tzachk,

... each dialog resouce is composed by two files, the file extensions are "dfm" & ".dfm.miaf".

If for example you are refering to WELCOME dialog, you should have two files as; "welcome.dfm" and "welcome.dfm.miaf".

Hope this helps you.

Regards

[tzachk]

Hi Francesco,

I restored the dialogs, it looks like it is working fine.

Thanks,
T.

[mikKummerfeld]

I had this problem a lot of times too. Should be fixed....

[FrancescoT]

As I said, ... already logged to our fixes list.

Regards