Has anyone got any experience of using Developer 8 yet? Is it worth upgrading from 7.04?
From what I've read on the InstallShield website, most of the "new features" sound like things they really should have fixed a long time ago. I can't believe they want to charge half the original cost of Developer 7 just to upgrade to this!
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InstallShield Developer 8
Started by
paulking
, Oct 18 2002 11:30
7 replies to this topic
mikebsr
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Posted 25 October 2002 - 14:42
So, far this has been a nightmare for me. I upgraded from ISWI 2.03 to Developer 8, but wish I had taken that time to find another job.
ISWI 2.03 worked ok for me, but I could never get a patch to upgrade a patch. I think I followed all the update rules (versions were higher, timestamps higher, different package codes, same product codes, etc). I could always get the first patch to work great. if I patched THAT version, everything appeared to run normally, but not one file ever got upgraded.
So, like an idiot, I got Developer 8 because of their greatly improved patching technology and GARAUNTEE in migrating older versions to Developer 8. So, I took a fully functional and tested ISWI 2.03 project, upgraded it to Developer 8, and prompty turned it into a piece of sh*t. The great code to hide DOS boxes provided on this site is dead (_LaunchAppAndWaitEx). I have to use LaunchAppAndWait and have visible boxes for the processes to get created. I submitted a form to Installshield and they said they would get with me on this.
But that's the very least of my problems. It appears most (if not all) of my components are registered corectly or something. When I call up my application after installation, it can't find a registry entry that I found to be identical in both versions (meaning, ISWI 2.03 and DEV 8). When I call up the main screen, I get a lot of errors from the application stating object variables cannot be found (which appear to be dependenices on other .ocxs and dlls.)
I don't even know where to start in fixing this problem. Installshield will want to know the details of our code to help track it, but that's a massive undertaking. Hell, all I want is it to install the same way it did before, but be a little smarter.
I can't get answers from anyone regarding the ability to patch a patch, or to see if the new QuickPatch tool in Developer 8 will patch several versions (which it appears NOT to).
Finally, I uninstalled DEV 8 and reinstalled ISWI 2.03 to find out my installscript still needs the Dev 8 requirements (specifically calling DLLs (i.e. KERNEL32.Whatever), _LaunchAppAndWaitEx still broken). After getting the script to work in ISWI 2.03, I recompiled and installed. All those other problems did NOT appear. Our application runs fine. The only difference is all the DOS windows popping up when I run java scripts via batch files.
Either there are some very, very serious bugs in Dev 8, or I just need to start drinking heavily. I have two weeks to deploy my next project and it needs to be able to be patched reguraly.
ISWI 2.03 worked ok for me, but I could never get a patch to upgrade a patch. I think I followed all the update rules (versions were higher, timestamps higher, different package codes, same product codes, etc). I could always get the first patch to work great. if I patched THAT version, everything appeared to run normally, but not one file ever got upgraded.
So, like an idiot, I got Developer 8 because of their greatly improved patching technology and GARAUNTEE in migrating older versions to Developer 8. So, I took a fully functional and tested ISWI 2.03 project, upgraded it to Developer 8, and prompty turned it into a piece of sh*t. The great code to hide DOS boxes provided on this site is dead (_LaunchAppAndWaitEx). I have to use LaunchAppAndWait and have visible boxes for the processes to get created. I submitted a form to Installshield and they said they would get with me on this.
But that's the very least of my problems. It appears most (if not all) of my components are registered corectly or something. When I call up my application after installation, it can't find a registry entry that I found to be identical in both versions (meaning, ISWI 2.03 and DEV 8). When I call up the main screen, I get a lot of errors from the application stating object variables cannot be found (which appear to be dependenices on other .ocxs and dlls.)
I don't even know where to start in fixing this problem. Installshield will want to know the details of our code to help track it, but that's a massive undertaking. Hell, all I want is it to install the same way it did before, but be a little smarter.
I can't get answers from anyone regarding the ability to patch a patch, or to see if the new QuickPatch tool in Developer 8 will patch several versions (which it appears NOT to).
Finally, I uninstalled DEV 8 and reinstalled ISWI 2.03 to find out my installscript still needs the Dev 8 requirements (specifically calling DLLs (i.e. KERNEL32.Whatever), _LaunchAppAndWaitEx still broken). After getting the script to work in ISWI 2.03, I recompiled and installed. All those other problems did NOT appear. Our application runs fine. The only difference is all the DOS windows popping up when I run java scripts via batch files.
Either there are some very, very serious bugs in Dev 8, or I just need to start drinking heavily. I have two weeks to deploy my next project and it needs to be able to be patched reguraly.
Mike
Stefan Krueger
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Posted 25 October 2002 - 17:38
Did you try their guarantee? They promised to address migration issues with high priority.
Can you give me more specifics why LaunchAppEx doesn't work? Does it compile? You may need to remove some of the prototypes because these functions or structures may already be prototyped in Dev8 (I haven't had the time to test LaunchAppEx with Dev8)
Looking at this thread in the InstallShield community, I don't think Dev8 is bad overall. It looks like a problem with your specific project being "incompatible" with Dev8.
http://community.ins...wthr....=104798
I think that patching a patch is possible, even in ISWI, but you need to be very carefule. Also I'd not use incremental patches, but cumulative patches. A log file should reveal why Windows Installer didn't update your files.
Can you give me more specifics why LaunchAppEx doesn't work? Does it compile? You may need to remove some of the prototypes because these functions or structures may already be prototyped in Dev8 (I haven't had the time to test LaunchAppEx with Dev8)
Looking at this thread in the InstallShield community, I don't think Dev8 is bad overall. It looks like a problem with your specific project being "incompatible" with Dev8.
http://community.ins...wthr....=104798
I think that patching a patch is possible, even in ISWI, but you need to be very carefule. Also I'd not use incremental patches, but cumulative patches. A log file should reveal why Windows Installer didn't update your files.
Stefan Krüger
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mikebsr
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Posted 25 October 2002 - 20:52
Stefan, IS finally got back to me with code to get LaunchAppAndWaitEx to work. Actually, the code was no different. However, when I declared the API as KERNEL32.CreateProcessA, it barked about a couple parameters. When declared as kernel32.CreateProcessA, everything works without complaint. So, it's case sensitive.
I tested it and it worked perfectly.
I found what would appear to be a bug in Dev 8. I was not getting a splash screen to display on startup. The file was there and the registry entry was correct (a relative path...hint hint). When I executed the application via explorer, it worked. I checked the shortcut and Dev 8 forgot to migrate the startup folder.
The last problem is a bad one and I'm not sure InstallShield can even help. We have many custom ocx's created that are dependant on other custom ocx's and .dlls. This is a very, very poor design on our part and I'm going to pay for it here. It looks like probably one file out of hundreds is not registered correctly or missing. I will probably need to re-create the project to make sure every file is accounted for. I could go through the component list in Dev 8, but there's no way for me to know if the component is properly registered. Every single component in my project was created via the component wizard...regardless of the type. Not sure if that's good or bad, but ISWI appeared to do a much better job than me. Anyhow, it would be almost impossible for IS to discover the problem without having my entire project and source files.
So, even if I took IS up on their offer regarding this, it would take forever. Something did not migrate correctly, but our poor design (even though it works fine in the field and with ISWI 2.03) will make it difficult to track.
I tested it and it worked perfectly.
I found what would appear to be a bug in Dev 8. I was not getting a splash screen to display on startup. The file was there and the registry entry was correct (a relative path...hint hint). When I executed the application via explorer, it worked. I checked the shortcut and Dev 8 forgot to migrate the startup folder.
The last problem is a bad one and I'm not sure InstallShield can even help. We have many custom ocx's created that are dependant on other custom ocx's and .dlls. This is a very, very poor design on our part and I'm going to pay for it here. It looks like probably one file out of hundreds is not registered correctly or missing. I will probably need to re-create the project to make sure every file is accounted for. I could go through the component list in Dev 8, but there's no way for me to know if the component is properly registered. Every single component in my project was created via the component wizard...regardless of the type. Not sure if that's good or bad, but ISWI appeared to do a much better job than me. Anyhow, it would be almost impossible for IS to discover the problem without having my entire project and source files.
So, even if I took IS up on their offer regarding this, it would take forever. Something did not migrate correctly, but our poor design (even though it works fine in the field and with ISWI 2.03) will make it difficult to track.
Mike
Stefan Krueger
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Posted 25 October 2002 - 21:17
You could switch the component setiings to "extract at build" one by one to detect the failing component. Or you run your application through dependency walker. It might tell you which OCX fails to load.
Oh, another option: if you have a working ISWI generated MSI, you could use Developer's MSI Package Diff tool to find the different in ClassID tables and the like.
Oh, another option: if you have a working ISWI generated MSI, you could use Developer's MSI Package Diff tool to find the different in ClassID tables and the like.
Stefan Krüger
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mikebsr
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Posted 25 October 2002 - 21:27
Option A is out of the question. I could have the thing rebuilt 6 times before I got through that.
Option B and C are excellent ideas. I'll try those first. Thanks very much for your help.
My apologies for being so harsh regarding this subject. Feel free to delete any of my posts if you feel they may be out of line.
Option B and C are excellent ideas. I'll try those first. Thanks very much for your help.
My apologies for being so harsh regarding this subject. Feel free to delete any of my posts if you feel they may be out of line.
Mike
Stefan Krueger
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Posted 25 October 2002 - 21:36
| Quote (mikebsr @ Oct. 25 2002,21:27) |
| My apologies for being so harsh regarding this subject. Feel free to delete any of my posts if you feel they may be out of line. |
I know how frustrating things can get sometimes...
And I don't like to censor the messages in this forum.
Stefan Krüger
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mikebsr
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Posted 29 October 2002 - 21:03
Stefan, I ended up having to delete and recreate everyone of my components. When I finished, I had the exact same number of components as I had when I started, so as I suspected before, none were missing. However, something in the registry was missing. I create every single component via the component wizard regardless of it's type and that's the same way I did it again. After completion (all day), that error disappeared and everything appears to work somewhat normally.
Just an FYI...thanks a ton for your help and input.
Just an FYI...thanks a ton for your help and input.
Mike