Change 'install into' type for selected assemblies at once

[jacek.profisoft]

Hello!

Is it possible to change 'Install into' location for the group of selected assemblies at once in MSIcode/InstallAutogen panel? By default most libraries are installed into the GAC which is not what I want. Clicking on each single assembly and changing install location to $TARGETDIR$ or something else is very annoying and error prone.

If this cannot be done maybe there is a way to alter default IA behaviour so all libs would be installed by 'Install File' not by 'Install Assembly' command.

I'm using Install Aware 18.

Thanks.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Jacek,

You may load the project in InstallAware and then to use the "Find and Replace" option from the MSI code view to replace the $TARGETDIR$.

Regards

[jacek.profisoft]

Hi Francesco!

Thanks for your advice but I'm afraid that 'Replace' works rather weird for me. Although I'm able to find lines containing specific phrase (like 'Install Assembly' or 'Global Assembly Cache' for example) with 'Find' tool, I'm not able to do the same with the 'Replace'. It simply finds nothing in the Install Autogen code so nothing can be replaced. Is this tool needs some kind of special trick to work?

Regardless to the provided solution I think that ability to change install place for all selected assemblies at once should be implemented by default.

Thanks.

[FrancescoT]

Dear Jacek,

my "Find and Replace" suggestion was exclusively intended to the possibility of replacing command parameters (as TARGETDIR) ... this cannot be used to replace the command itself, of course.

I'll report your suggestion to our dev team anyway.

Regards

[jacek.profisoft]

Hi Francesco!

I've created brief screencast that shows how my 'Replace' tool works.
http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cDfXjr1Ari

[FrancescoT]

Dear Jacek,

as I have already said;

the "Find and Replace" tool is exclusively intended to replace command parameters (as TARGETDIR) or litteral text eventually ... this cannot be used to replace the command itself.

This means that you can use the "Find and Replace" tool EXCLUSIVELY to replace a command parameter as TARGETDIR to something else (eg. find what = $TARGETDIR$ - Replace with = $MY_CUSTOM_TARGETDIR$).

That said, THIS IS NOT A BUG and due of this, you are kindly requested to remove such screencast that erroneously reports this as a bug.

Regards

[jacek.profisoft]

Hi Francesco!

(...)
This means that you can use the "Find and Replace" tool EXCLUSIVELY to replace a command parameter as TARGETDIR to something else (eg. find what = $TARGETDIR$ - Replace with = $MY_CUSTOM_TARGETDIR$).
(...)

Sorry but this 'Replace' tool is quite confusing and even its own tooltip ("Search and replace a string literal in MSIcode") doesn't explain what's its purpose.

So if I get you right there is no way to use 'Replace' tool to change assembly install location from 'Global Assembly Cache' into '$TARGETDIR$'? 'Replace' tool clearly isn't a solution in that case as I'm not trying to change $SOME_VAR$ into $ANOTHER_VAR$.

I'm looking forward to see that functionality in future releases.

I've removed my screencast as you asked.