miabuild.exe parameters confusion

[MikeZabel]

Hello,

Currently, anytime I need to build my InsatallAware project, all I do is start the InstallAware application, go to the MSIcode tab, select Web Deploy from the Build menu and then the magic happens without any problems.

What I need to do now is to automate the build process by building from the command line. According to the documentation, I should be able to use the miabuild.exe to automate my build but the problem is that I am not sure what parameter I should pass to miabuild.exe.

My question is, what parameters do I need to pass to miabuild.exe in order to replicate what is being done when I click the “Web Deploy” toolbar button? Is there an easy way to find that out?

Thank you.

[FrancescoT]

Dear User,

InstallAware command line build utility parameters and switches, are very well documented with InstallAware documentation (just press F1 from IA Ide and search for "miabuild").

Anyway, to produce a "Compressed Web-Based EXE” you should;

miabuild.exe <full path to IA project file> /b=2
With the above example the parameter "/b" <buildtype> is set as 2 to produce a Compressed Web-Based EXE.

Hope this helps you.

Regards.

[MikeZabel]

Francesco,

The problem is that It does't do me any good to understand the ins and outs of each of the parameters used by miabuild.exe if I don't know what actual parameter values the InstallAware UI uses when it builds the project. For example:

qf = Optional parameter, enables or disables MSI file component optimization (runtime performance).

Is the InstallAware UI using that switch? I don't know, I have absolutely no idea. Lets take a look at another parameter:

qr = Optional parameter, enables or disables MSI registry component optimization (runtime performance)

Here again, I ask you.... Is the InstallAware UI using that switch? Maybe, maybe not, how do I know???

So the problem here is that I need to know the value of the parameters that InstallAware is using when building the project using the UI so that I am able to replicate the exact same thing using miabuild.exe. It wold be awfully nice if this information was part of the log the IntallAware UI creates while building the project.

Is there a way to obtain that information?

By the way, if I do two uncompress builds using the UI and compare the two build they are identical other than different GUID values. However, if I do an uncompress build using the UI and then do an uncompress buld using miabuild.exe (issuing the instruction miabuild.exe ProjectName.mpr) the results are very different so clearly something is going on there.

Thanks.

[FrancescoT]

Dear User,

qf = Optional parameter, enables or disables MSI file component optimization (runtime performance).
qr = Optional parameter, enables or disables MSI registry component optimization (runtime performance)

These command line optional optimization parameters ([+qf | -qf] [+qr | -qr] [+qi | -qi] [+qib | -qib]), are also available under the Compiler node of the Project Option dialog (Press SHIFT+CTRL+F11) with IA IDE (press F1 from IA IDE for more details about these options)

When you use the command line build, if you don't specify any optional parameters, the project settings parameters are applied.

Is there a way to obtain that information?

Currently project runtime performance settings can be verified only through IA IDE

By the way, if I do two uncompress builds using the UI and compare the two build they are identical other than different GUID values. However, if I do an uncompress build using the UI and then do an uncompress buld using miabuild.exe (issuing the instruction miabuild.exe ProjectName.mpr) the results are very different so clearly something is going on there.

I have personally done the same using a new test project (created from scratch), both outputs are identical in size.
Please also verify that you saved your project before running the command line tool.

Hope this helps you.

Regards