InstallAware

I am a new user to InstallAware, so this might be an easy question. I want to add a folder via wildcard (so it picks up new files automatically in future builds), but I want to exclude all ".svn" folders from the build. Any way to do this?

ned.

I can't figure out how to add an empty folder. I would like the wildcards to add folders even if they are empty.

You need to use Create Folder to create empty folders.

You need to use the exclusion filters of the Install Files command to get rid of the .SVN files.

I tried putting in an exclusion filter for .svn, but it still installed files in subfolders below there. I want to filter out those folders and everything below. Alternatively, is there a way to get it to not pick up hidden folders by default? The .svn folders are all hidden.

As far as having to manually add empty folders, I don't see how to do that. The folders might be 3 levels down from a folder that was included by wildcard. Can't I have a wildcard that installs ALL folders even if they are empty? It will increase the maintenance expense by quite a bit to have to manually go through all the folders, figure out which ones are empty, and manually edit the install. It kind of defeats the purpose of having wildcards.

I can work around the 1st one pretty easily, but the second would be difficult.

The wildcard mechanism installs files - its part of the Install Files command. It does not install folders - that functionality is provided by the Create Folder command. So I'm afraid, because Create Folder doesn't do wildcards, this won't be possible.

I'm kind of curious about your setup - why do you need all these empty folders, and how is it that you have some "randomly" empty folders that might otherwise be full?

What are the file types that are available in the .svn folders, by the way?

The reason for the weird setup is a directory of samples for our product that are owned by product management, not development. Sometimes empty folders are created to hold output files from the Samples. The goal is to allow the PM to edit the files in SVN and then have it just build into the next install without any additional work by development.

In the past we have used the Wise Installer (the old one) which is inferior in many ways, but in this particular way it worked exactly as we expected.

Well, then this issue is not a valid concern. Why? Because the moment the latest samples are added in, the folders they reside in will be auto-created by the installer, as the actual files are picked up on the next build. Do you see what I mean? You do say:

The goal is to allow the PM to edit the files in SVN and then have it just build into the next install without any additional work by development.

So this is exactly what will happen! When your setup is rebuilt, since you used wildcards and subfolder inclusion, new folders will be picked up automatically. No changes are required to setup sources.

Is that right, or am I missing anything here?

No, it still has the problem of if any empty folders are created in the samples dir, they will not be picked up.

And the other problem that I have to manually export the directory out of SVN to get rid of the .svn folders so that files in them don't get picked up, even though they are hidden directories.

I guess its not the end of the world (although it does create more work), but it is frustrating that InstallAware doesn't have a very useful feature found in a 15+ year old competitor. Directories should work with wildcards just the same as files, I don't see why they are any different.

No, it still has the problem of if any empty folders are created in the samples dir, they will not be picked up.

The reason for the weird setup is a directory of samples for our product that are owned by product management, not development. Sometimes empty folders are created to hold output files from the Samples. The goal is to allow the PM to edit the files in SVN and then have it just build into the next install without any additional work by development.

So I guess I still don't understand why you need empty folders? I thought you said so samples could be inserted there - when that happens, they'll be picked up. If not, I'm still quite curious why you need all those random empty folders?

The folder exclusion - I will have this entered into the wish-list for the next update, should be available soon.

MichaelNesmith wrote:So I guess I still don't understand why you need empty folders? I thought you said so samples could be inserted there - when that happens, they'll be picked up. If not, I'm still quite curious why you need all those random empty folders?

I'm not sure it matters that you understand why, but I do need them. They are a spot for the results of Samples to end up when the application runs. Each Sample typically is installed with an Output directory that is empty at install time.

MichaelNesmith wrote:The folder exclusion - I will have this entered into the wish-list for the next update, should be available soon.

Cool, that's awesome.

Thanks,

ned

I'm not sure it matters that you understand why, but I do need them.

In trying to help you and offer workarounds (or convince the team that the feature has wide appeal), I need to know your situation. I'm afraid in this case your folder issue is a bit isolated, so as best as I have been able to understand it, this wouldn't be a compelling feature for the majority of our users. But stay tuned for the other item!

MichaelNesmith wrote:

The folder exclusion - I will have this entered into the wish-list for the next update, should be available soon.

Michael -- any update on this?

I just started using InstallAware 7 and it seems surprising I can't exclude folders, only files. I found this message thread because I am using subversion too and want an easy way to exclude the .svn folders.

Thanks

I think anyone using a source control system will need to exclude hidden folders. Excluding by wild card like files would be good though as well but if they just implemented don't include hidden folders initially that would help most people out

To filter out the folders and everything in them put this in the filter box

*entries*;*format*;*.svn-base

This is what I use and it works quite well.


Steven

Thank you!!!

This really does the trick! I had loads of subversion files included to my build, but with your filter, only the files I want are included!