help needed with patches, upgrades, updates

[CirrusPilot]

I can't get the patching mechanism to work, probably because nowhere that I can find in your help do you ever mention what files need to be uploaded to my server. I know the .ini file has to be there. What else?

Do I upload the entire Patch folder? The Upgraded Package folder? Something else?

Some concreteness in the documentation would be very helpful. And this seems to be a recurring problem in this application. For a $900 product, I expect much more in the way of useful documentation, especially for a version calling itself "6".

Following various hyperlinks around doesn't paint a complete picture. You should seriously think about creating use cases that walk users through an entire process such as creating an initial version and then updating it.

Not everyone's an expert. And those of us migrating from other platforms that don't rely on MSI could really benefit from extended help.

Thank you.

[Gizm0]

The patching mechanism does not require any kind of .ini files to work.. I guess you are reffering to the update mechanism..

[MichaelNesmith]

Please press F1 in the following IDE views:

Application Information->Project Properties
Deployment->Patches
Web Updates->Update Packs
Web Updates->Versions

And you will have context sensitive help assisting you with your problem.

[CirrusPilot]

I've read the manual and the online help and they didn't answer. So my question is this:

Out of the patch folder, what needs to be uploaded to the server?

Thanks for your help.

[MichaelNesmith]

That depends on what you are doing with the web update mechanism.
If you want to serve a patch as a web update to your customers, then you will need to upload the patch folder to your server, and create an update pack referring to that uploaded patch, and then associate that with versions that you want to update - and finally upload the latest INI file used for the update.

[Tinus]

I agree with CirrusPilot. A good example is missing here.

Why not add a walktrough of patching/updating into the document
"Using InstallAware To Deploy Microsoft .NET Framework Applications"?
http://www.installaware.com/installaware_deploy_dotnet.pdf

[MichaelNesmith]

Cirrus -

I think part of the problem here is you are building patches in debug mode. When you normally build a patch, only one file exists in the patch folder!

Tinus -

Thanks for your suggestion, we'll be coming out with more guides soon.

[Tinus]

Thanks for your suggestion, we'll be coming out with more guides soon.

Great! A good and detailed example answers many questions and helps a lot to get the complete picture.