miabuild vs Ui build

[Bo Andersen]

Hi There,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a hint to what could be going on.

I have a project that was originally created using IA9. It works and worked fine.

Now, I have IA14, and the project loads and compiles (to full install.exe) perfectly.

However, when I compile using miabuild.exe, the output is around 200kb smaller than the output when building from UI. (12.8mb vs 13mb)

The builds created with either miabuild or UI both install nice on 32 and 64 bit windows xp to win8/2012 server, but the build created usin miabuild will NOT install over (upgrade) on a computer that has the software installed (with a build created by IA9). It starts, detects an earlier installation that must be uninstalled, attempts to uninstall, but "flashes" through the remaining installation screens without doing any work. It claims to be finished but leaves the previous version intact.

The installer build with IA14 UI installs over IA9 builds like a charm...

Hope I make myself clear, otherwise, please ask.

[FrancescoT]

Dear User,

Honestly, it is really strange that you found differences between the generated output files in terms of size (and functionality as well).
The same process is used by InstallAware IDE.

I can only suppose you are using different settings for each build mode.

what is exactly the miabuild command line you used to build the package?

Regards.

[Bo Andersen]

Thank you Francesco,

My commandline is just:
c:\DA1\IANX\miabuild.exe "C:\DA1\InstallawareSetups\Dynamic AI 6 Professional\Dynamic AI 6 Professional.mpr" /r


I should maybe add that I build using miabuild on a different machine than the UI. UI is on a WinXP 32 bit, Miabuild is on Win7 32 bit.

I wanted to automate the build process, so that machine does not have the full product installed, just the files listed in the attached file.

files.txt

files used by miabuild.exe for compiling setups

(4.75 KiB) Downloaded 678 times

I found info somewhere on your website on what files to include in a standalone miabuild machine - maybe something is missing?

I will try to compare results from miabuild on the 2 machines.
Best regards
Bo

[FrancescoT]

Dear Bo,

I don't think this can be caused by a missing file, otherwise, it should not work at all.

... but if your are using (by mistake) two different versions of the compiler tool ... maybe it could be the cause.

Regards.

[Bo Andersen]

Hi Francesco,

I have now created the setup project on both machines using the command line tool. I still get different results, but it looks like the problematic package is created by the Windows 7 machine that only has the command line version of IANX installed.
Here's a couple of findings from extracting the setup and comparing their content:

The failing setup compared with an ok package has
mMSIExec.dll NOT present
setup.msi is 430.080 bytes (vs 404.480)
setup.res is 858.514 bytes vs 1.297.339
I've tried to compare the 2 msi files with ORCA, but I do not know exactly what to look for.

Any hint would be welcome

Best regards

Bo

[FrancescoT]

Dear Bo,

I suspect this happens because very probably, you have not installed all the required runtimes ( ... due the fact that you found mMSIExec.dll not present).

How do you have installed the command line tool on the Windows 7 machine?

Have you used the InstallAware setup installer?

Regards.

[Bo Andersen]

Hi Francesco - I installed by copying files using a list I found on your site.

I will try again using the installer - hopefully that solves my problem.

I'll let you know.

Best regards

Bo

[Bo Andersen]

Hi Francesco,

I am further along, but not really closer to understanding.

I installed from the original installation file. Selected to just install command line tools and authenticode.

Once that installation was complete, I rebooted and was surprised to see that i had an icon for the gui - so at least a basic gui was installed. I tried applying the license file, but it would not install - got a message saying that the main product was not installed (makes sense?)
Tried to build using miabuild with the same command line. An installer was created, but it still would not work when I tested (works as a clean install, but not an upgrade). I noticed that it asked if I wanted information on installaware, so it was definitely built using the not-licensed IA.

Since this did not work, I tried to install the complete IA product on the same machine. Applied the license file and did a test build using GUI and using MIABUILD
setup.exe created from GUI is still slightly larger size 13,541,328 vs 13,529,256 bytes, but now both behave well, so I can live with what I have.

However, if Miabuild is meant to be deployed to an automation server of sorts, I'd really like to know how to install it so it works - including how to apply a license.

Best regards and thanks for your help

Bo Andesren

[FrancescoT]

Dear Bo,

The Studio or Studio Admin editions of InstallAware actually do permit the installation and usage of the command line tools on an unlimited number of build machines, without even a floating license. In this case the only drawback of course is that the IDE cannot be used on those machines without a floating license. Simultaneous builds are also allowed for the build machines.
With the floating license simultaneous IDE usage remains disallowed - full licenses are needed for concurrent use of the IDE.

Last but not least, redistribution of miabuild.exe in any form is strictly prohibited.


Then as reported by IA documentation about Miabuild tool installation;
"Manually installing this tool is not recommended, you should use the InstallAware setup itself to install the tool, along with any required plug-ins and application runtimes, as well as the authenticode support files to enable code signing."

To have Command line build installed correctly, you should install at least, the following IA features;
- "Command line build" feature
- "Plugins" feature
- "authenticode " feature
- ... and any application runtimes that you require

Regarding the output file size differences, let me verify it with a test.

Regards
Francesco