8 replies to this topic

[Jamie]

I have found some interesting (in a bad way) behaviour when doing upgrade testing using DevStudio 9.0.

We are looking to distribute Web Applications, and it was suggested that we use Dynamic File linking to distribute our data. I have read about the problems using subfolders with dynamic linking, so have not done that.

Essentially, I made a simple install that contains one single component in one feature (very simple). Using dynamic file linking, I point it to a folder and select all files (no subfolders). I now have 96 unversioned files dynamically linked into my component.

Now I go to the release wizard and create a new release, ensuring that I set the Generate File Hash Values property to Yes.

Now if I open the the newly created release in DevStudio or Orca, and take a look in the File table, I have 96 files listed. However, if I look in the MSIFileHash table, I have around 63 entries. Over 20 files are unaccounted for, which is a problem as this will require the upgrade to have the original source install.

If I do the same thing without using dynamic file links, and the final image has 96 entries in both the File and MSIFileHash tables, which is what we want.

Essentially this would mean that using Dynamic File links would guarantee that upgrades will have severe problems. Can anyone else reproduce this at all?

Jamie

[luke_s]

What files are missing from the hash table? Maybe all of the file missing have somethign in common?

[Jamie]

Unfortunately, the files don't seem to have anything in common with each other. I have parsed between the File table and the MSIFileHash table to see if they had anything in common, but ended up with a random list of files (.gif, .aspx, .htm, .xml, etc.).

[luke_s]

What about the components that the file are in? dynamic linked? permanent?

[hteichert]

I already read your original post 2 days ago and didn't have any idea.
Please count again the number of entries in the FileHash table. Are there exactly 63 in your dynamic linking case? Then there might be really a problem with dynamic linking (63 is 2^6 - 1). Please try to split your files into two components with each containing less or equal than 63 files. I would try if I could, but I'm still using ISWi 1.52 (which doesn't support FileHash at all) and building the FileHash table in an automatic Postbuild step.

[Jamie]

Thanks for helping with this.

Luke_S: There is nothing special about the components at all, they are dynamically linked components, and same result if they are marked shared or not shared. They are not marked as permanent. If I don't use dynamic links, the counts end up matching in the two tables, which may be my only option.

hteichert: The count seems to shift, anywhere from 63 up to 69. I broke the component into two, one with 39 file and the other with 57 files. When I rebuilt the image and look using ORCA, I now see 96 entries in the File table, and 68 entries in the MSIFileHash table. I can't figure this out at all, but it seems to indicate a real problem with dynamic file links.

[Jamie]

I can't figure this out. To get past it, I run msifiler.exe on the finished package after building. This makes sure that the MSIFileHash table is properly populated. Not a big deal, but it adds another build step to be done before releasing a product.

Jamie

[Stefan Krueger]

Have you reported this to InstallShield? Maybe it's a known problem and can provide a workaround?

[Balachandar]

Hi, I have read the entire post. Really have no clue at all.

But there is something that i know which could be of help. After creating your msi file, run the Microsoft utility msifiler.exe on the msi file. This will generate the FileHash values in the msi file.

See if this helps!