IA17: extracting fails at 100% on 1st WMB

[JohnO]

My installer with Web Media Blocks always fails at the end (100%) of extracting the <app-name>.7zip file.
This is a hard error. My web server is a local Apache HTTP server. The WMB downloads OK. I can see the extracting details as it does it, then at 100%, it tells me there was an error extracting, and offers retry or re-download. Nothing works.

I never had this problem in IA16. (the installer has moved on, so not comparing like with like).

Is this a known bug?

Regards, John

[FrancescoT]

Dear John,

Are you using the last update available for IA 17 (IA 17.05)?

Regards

[JohnO]

The panel that shows after pressing Version, says: 'Build 8.20.13'.
I haven't found a way to get/check-for updates from the product. In the meantime, I will have a look to see if I can find something on you web site.
{edit: I found a 'download' button for 17.05 on the Downloads page. Running the exe takes me through (the now familiar!) uninstall / install panels

Regards, John

[JohnO]

I still have the same behaviour in 17.05.
I noticed in the What's New for v17, that changes have been made for improvements in the 7Zip Archive area. Which could have introduced problems in the extraction.

I created a web installer locally with zero compression (for speed). This resulted in a <product-name>.7zip of 500 meg. This had a download error (from my local http server) after about 60%. Pressing 'retry' (I forget the term) rather than 'restart', worked, and the download completed.

Question: where are download 7zip files cached? it's not in the %TEMP% folder. The reason for asking is that subsequent attempts to install appear to be reusing the already-downloaded 7zip file. I would like to remove them before trying again.

However, the same problem occurs on the extraction. 100% is shown, the file shown is always the same, and the progress bar has been reset to the start.

I was going to attach the screen capture, but I can't figure out how to attach an image using your 'img' tag.

Maybe, I need to go back to IA16 to see if that works? It used to.

Regards, John

[JohnO]

Had second thoughts - my project files might not be 100% compatible with IA16. So, I'm reluctant to try that route.
What I have done is to create two more features in order to reduce the size of the <product-name>.7zip file. It's now 260 meg.
Sadly, the same problem happens, though this time it's a different file name showing at 100%.

I suppose, I could see if I can make a small web project. Failing that, can I upload to anywhere on your site, or post a data DVD?

Regards, John

[JohnO]

Dear Francesco
I saved my project as TestWeb. Then I removed most of the contents. Resulting zip file for <product-name>.7zip is 422K. And the installer works.

So, it seems to me that the issue is due to the size of 7zip files, or the <product-name>.7zip file.

I seem to be stuck. I'm supposed to be creating an web-based installer. What can you suggest to get this resolved?

I don't think I mentioned that I can extract the contents using 7Zip. The problem looks to be something to do with invoking 7Zip from within code.

Regards, John

[edit: since the above post, I tried creating the real installer with max compression. This reduced the size of the <product-name>.7zip from 250 to 20 meg. But, the extracting still fails, albeit with a different file name displayed.]

[FrancescoT]

Dear John,

I suspect exist something wrong with your the way you doing ... I have extensively tested the web media block process during the last month personally.

Just a question, are you using a rebuilded web media block as well?

Could you post a very minimal project that replicates the issue?

Regards

[JohnO]

Dear Francesco
I don't think I can't create a small project that displays the problem, because I fear it is to do with size. The small project I mentioned, that I created by removing most of the project's contents, works!

For the project with the problem, I am not clear on what you mean by a 'rebuilt web media block'. I just run the 'create installer', either from the IDE, or from the command line.

If you have access to my email address, could you send me an address that I could send a DVD with the project and installer? Unless you have somewhere that customers can, say, FTP files to you (or something like Google Drive).

Regards, John

[FrancescoT]

Dear John,

when you build a project as compressed WEB exe, the output folder will contains all the generated WEB MEDIA Blocks also.
Unless otherwise specified, everytime you rebuild the project, all the WEB MEDIA Blocks will be re-generated as well.

So you can verify if them have been rebuilded with checking their file date ... or alternatively, delete the contents of your output folder and then rebuild the project once again.

The easist way to check your web media blocks at runtime, it is to have them under the same folder of your setup.exe when you run the package.

Honestly, I don't believe the problem you are experiencing it is related with WMB file's size... the IA installer itself uses very large media blocks files.
Instead, I believe that probably there is something in your project causing the issue.

Anyway, you should try to find a way to have a reduced project that replicates the issue ... otherwise, it could be a problem for us to verify a project with about 4.7 gb of files included.

Let me know.

Regards

[JohnO]

I have about 1Gb of data - more than a CD, but lesss than a DVD.

Yes, the web media blocks are rebuilt every time (I'm not clever enough yet to do otherewise). I actually put them in a 'zips' subfolder of the one that holds the <setup>exe. Finding them isn't a problem, it's the extraction where it fails.

What I need to do is to reduce the size of the 'core' <project-name>.7zip. I suppose this is the 'feature-independent' files, as defined in the Files section? If so, then as I reduce those files, then that zip file should reduce.

Most of the bulk is data, so I could remove those, once I have the first zip file down to a usable size when it fails.
I will see what I can create.

Regards, John

[JohnO]

Dear Francesco
I have managed to determine that this bug is related to the complexity of the Features and the files/folders selected for each feature.

I have attached 3 zip files:
- The source files and folders from which the installers are built
- The installer project that fails
- A simplified project that works (2 features) - I created this when, I thought it was a problem of size. But it might be useful to have a working installer from the same source files.

I eventually realised that all I had to do to make a small installer, was to delete all of the files in each source folder, and replace with a dummy text file.

BTW, each installer has a compiler variable called BUILD_FROM_DIR. If you change this to wherever you unzip the first zip file, they should work.

Regards, John

[FrancescoT]

Dear John,

I'll have a look at your files ... but I ask you to be patient, because I'll be not able to do it shortly.

Regards

[JohnO]

Dear Francesco
Patient, I will be! Thanks.

John

[JohnO]

Dear Francesco
Do you have any idea when you might be in a position to have a look at this?
Regards, John

[FrancescoT]

Dear John,

At first look the way you used with your WEB MEDIA BLOCKS it seems correct.
I said: "It seems correct", because I can't inspect the path contents you used to include your project files.

I suggest you to verify at first, if exist an identical file used by different WEB MEDIA BLOCKS. If true, try with removing this file from your source directory and verify, that it is used by a single WMB only.

If this is not your case, I can only suggest you to try to isolate the WMB causing your issue.
This can be done with producing several build of your project and with commenting out each WMB at time.
This until you don't find the affected one or if the problem is caused when a single WMB is used in conjunction with another one.

Hope this helps you.

Regards