InstallAware

I have a rather involved installer, but one of its first tasks is just to copy various sql scripts and support files to the targetdir and subdirectories. I see the Apply Install go through, but no files (except for the install.log - logging is turned on) are copied there.

In an effort to make sure that the files are uninstalled correctly I paired each call to Install Files with another to delete them upon uninstall. Could this be causing the problem?

Also I'm trying to debug the entire project on a target machine so I'm building it in debug/uncompressed mode (what formerly was a compressed web media install). Could this be preventing copy to the targetdir? I cleaned temp directories and uninstalled any vestiges of the app.
This machine is running a trial.

Try again when running under just uncompressed mode, no additional debug flag is needed for uncompressed builds.

If an uncompressed build is already in debuggable format, what is the purpose of the debug checkbox? If I check it and the build is a compressed web install, should I be able to debug such a build (provided the web media are in position of course)?

It is pretty much a no-op for uncompressed builds, but it will help you debug a web build as long as the bits are at the right place.

I tried your suggestion and created a new uncompressed project. All it does it copy client database creation scripts, and files necessary to do piggyback installs to the disk. This actually works and the files can be installed and uninstalled successfully.

When I try to add other commands (things like sqlcmd or install another program from files that are supposed to be in the targetdir) AFTER the Apply Install command I find that the files are not copied to the targetdir.
Do you have any suggestions? I tried logging, but find it isn't much help. Debugging only confirms that the files are not in the directory when they should be.

I would be more than happy to send as much or as little of the script to you to help get past this problem.

That doesn't make sense. You should narrow all your scripts down to a single file and program to find the exact change(s) that causes files to not be copied. Obviously this works with the native InstallAware setup, so...