Newbie Questions - Help with merge modules and dll files

[Greyeye]

I have been programming in VS for about 5 years. I have always used VS setup projects because up until now, all my work was in house. I purchased InstallAware because we are now going to sell a shrink wrap piece of software. Because I have always had the help of the VS setup projects, I never learned much about merge module files and dll files and how they work in the install process. My concern is my crystal reports merge modules and my licensing dll files. Do I need to include these merge modules in any special way in my installer or just as a file? Do I need to include all dll as assemblies? The application is a standalone desktop app. Where do I need to install the dll's? To the GAC or the target directory? Thanks for the help...

Greyeye

[MichaelNesmith]

To use the merge module, just add it to your setup project.
I am not sure where your product expects its licensing DLL files to be...but probably the system folder or the application folder should be fine!

[Greyeye]

The reason I was asking is because my Crystal Reports merge modules don't seem to be expanding themselves onto the users computer. The lack of the dll files that are inside the merge modules are causing errors. If I include the individual dll files, these errors cease but then I get an error message about the License Key since I modified that property in the merge module and not the included dll file....What am I missing?

Also, I am using web blocks and the install exe is going on the web to find the file named the same as the installer but .7zip. The exe file is the proper size to include all the files that it should and the 7zip file is only 10K. I would like to keep the install local unless the framework or windows installer is missing...Thanks for the help and great product...

Greyeye

[MichaelNesmith]

For help with Web Media Blocks - please switch to the MSIcode view, drag-drop or type a Web Media Block command into the script, and then press F1. This should explain the intricacies of dealing with web builds, and how to put stuff in a web media block, how to take it out, etc. Note that if you want to put your application runtimes like .NET into web media blocks, this is automatically done for you out-of-the-box when you do a web build. But reading the help with this command will be a good way for you to know what is going on behind the scenes.

Not sure about the problems with Crystal, will try to find out more and get back to you.

[Greyeye]

To give further details, I have encrypted and do a reflection call to decrypt/open my main dll. Whenever the app cannot find the crystal reports dll's it reports that it cannot find them but appends my file extension for an encrypted dll. However, when I include the dll's in the install file directly, it finds them properly.

So, in other words, the application does not find them when a merge module is included with the dlls inside it, it references an error, "Cannot find Crystal.something.morestuff.dlx" which is an incorrect extension, and it goes away if I include the actuall dll in the install. The problem then is that I do not know how to modify the crystal license dll to include my license key, like I can the merge module. Also, (take this in the spirit of providing troubleshooting information) this does not happen when using the VS setup project. Please give me any assistance you can. We have a product launch in a week and I am really happy with InstallAware but I really need to figure this out....!!

Greyeye

[Greyeye]

I was wondering if you had any luck finding a solution to the Crystal Reports merge module issue? Thanks. We have a product launch coming up (less than a week) and I need to find an answer.....

Greyeye

[Greyeye]

I think I may have a possible answer to why this is happening but don't know how to fix it. I have a reflection call built into my application that looks for a specific file name and file extension if it cannot find the dll that it needs to in the root directory. To me, since the application is looking for various crystal reports dll files that it is not finding on its own, somehow my merge modules are not working right. When you say to add the merge module to the project, do I add to the "File" section or do I put it somewhere else or thru another method? Thanks...

Greyeye

[Greyeye]

Also, what target directory should the merge module end up in if I put it in using the files screen? Should it go in $common files$ or should it go in the $target$ directory? Thanks...

Greyeye