We are planning to create setup file for our project, our research lead us to:
InstallAwere 18
InstallShield 2013
We have some requirements that must be supported:
Windows Server 2012
Able to run other MSI/EXE
Full support for patches/updates
Run Powershell script
Database support (Create db/Execute sp)
Web site deployment
Nice to have:
- Windows features identification (run installation if necessary)
- Web installer (small package that will download all the necessary components)
Did I miss any other product on the market that can support all this? And the final question is what would you suggest for our setup package between these two?
Firsthand experience would be great.
Actually there is another application you can use for creating setup packages. It is Advanced Installer.
I'm using it for several years and it is really easy to use. I think it can help you with all of your requirements. They also have a great support team.
i think that InstallAware is more power full than InstallShield
look: http://www.installaware.com/compare-with-otherinstall-tools.htm
Related
Today I stumbled over the Application Builder for CE 2013 in Microsoft's download center. As of the description, with this pack I should be able to develop apps that target Windows Embedded Compact 2013 with Visual Studio 2012.
After downloading and installing the Application Builder I found the new framework assemblies in C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\WindowsEmbeddedCompact\v3.9, but there are no project templates targeting Embedded Compact 2013 in Visual Studio 2012.
I tried to create a blank WinForms or WPF project and to retarget it to 3.9, but that doesn't seem to be possible as well. There are no online templates that could be installed.
How do I create a CF 3.9 application using Visual Studio 2012?
All I can do here is sigh. Here's the state of things as of this writing (Mid May, 2013) and it could change in the coming weeks and/or months.
The Application Builder does not ship with device templates. Templates, instead, are shipped with the device SDK. Yes, this is different than in the past. It means that to do any device development, you'll need an SDK.
Windows Embedded Compact 2013 is currently not publicly available, so no one can currently ship an SDK. The net effect of this is that, for now, for the general public, the Application Builder install is completely useless.
Once WEC 2013 is public, I don't believe Microsoft will be shipping any "generic" SDKs. I very likely will. Once we have SDKs in the wild, you'll have templates and be able to build projects.
I also downloaded the Application Builder, and found it quite useless, hey where are the compact project templates! (thanks for the confirmation ctacke) after reading this today and discovering the .net assembly folder posted by Gene, I figured I at least try to use the object browser - and found you can browse the objects by using the Windows Embedded Compact 3.9 filter - figure others might want to at least look at what's new like I am attempting to do..
It is possible to create new SDKs from OS Design projects.
Create one from CEPC.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj584864(v=winembedded.70).aspx
Microsoft's vexing dumping of vdproj install projects in VS 2012 leads one to try Installshield LE which is sort of built into VS2012. Sadly, it creates installers that do not work in any way shape or form with 64 bit.
So for instance clicking the Office 2010 installed checkbox only makes a prerequisite for 32 bit Office. It fails to detect 64 bit.
After a lot of chickenless head exploration of Installshield the bottom line is:
1) You need the Professional or Premiere version in order to deal with 64 bit.
2) You need to edit their provided condition to make a compound one that ORs all the guids of Office that you are interested in together as it only checks for one of the many out of the box. This details the structure of the GUIDS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2186281?wa=wsignin1.0. I found it helpful to install various versions in a VM and then using regedit to see what the GUID ends up being.
This post is so that someone can actually discover this with a Google search, instead of it being hidden behind a paywall / private support site.
Update October '13 AlBear
There is a beta version of installshield LE for VS2012/13
To build x64 installation packages check on the help files
Look for "64 Bit" .
The way InstallShiel LE recognizes x64 target is by either defining the [INSTALLDIR] property as one of the 64 bit Folder or by defining at least one of the setup components as 64 Bit.
This works as I built an Excel 2013 Add that loads at startup and works fine.
For the Prerequisite for VSTO to work: You need to change file size and hash a it looks like the recommendations from Microsoft article "Deploying Office solutions vsto 2013" are outdated and the XML code recommended has the wrong file size and hash. Not too difficult to fix. However I think that Microsoft is unfortunately going through a period of crisis and this failure to provide reasonable support is uncharted territory .......
Cheers
InstallShield and WiX is like Visual Studio using VB.NET and SharpDevelop using C#. Just as those tools both create EXE's and DLL's using IL code but different language providers,
InstallShield and WiX both create Windows Installer databases using different languages. Just as a VB EXE can consume a C# DLL, an InstallShield MSI can consume a WiX Merge Modules. This gives you the best of both worlds.
The thing to understand is a VSTO AddIn installer isn't a 64bit MSI, it's a 32bit MSI that deploys an AnyCPU DLL with registry entries for either 32bit or 64bit Office. It's the bitness of Office, ultimately, that determines the bitness of your AddIn.
I have a template that I've used for a dozen customers. It uses InstallShield Limited Edition and it's Preq Bootstrapper to lay down all the dependencies and consumes a merge module authored is WiX and IsWiX (CodePlex). Otherwise ISLE is just a container for the UI and it's one feature.
The merge module takes care of all the dependency detection, gating logic, laying down files, installing certificates, setting registry values and so on.
Some more details can be found at:
VSTO 4 ( 2010 ) Lessons Learned
Office 2010 Bitness Pain
Apparently the small print referenced here should have been one clue: Does InstallShield Limited Edition Support 64 bit Installer?
The current Office prerequisite in Installshield is also misleadingly worded. It should really be "Office 2010 Home & Professional 32 bit".
Perhaps they intend to upgrade it over time to be comprehensive or perhaps everyone has to go through the same hassle to fix it for a few cases they care about. The support guy claimed there are too many GUIDS for all the combinations of versions, bitness, releases etc.
Home & Student, Home & Professional, Professional, Office 2010 Professional Plus License
32bit, 64bit, Languages mangled in there, Service Packs, etc. Depending on the set you care about the number of GUIDS is rather large.
I have an app using SQL Server Compact Edition. So I need the runtime to be on all the machines. I've been looking for the merge modules for the runtime however I've had no luck there.
Is there a way to bring the runtime into the app itself? And in so doing not not requiring the user to install the runtime?
Or is there a way of extracting the modules from the msi and loading them into my installer?
I am using Visual Studio 2012. And playing around with a few installer creators like Create install free. As a side, does anyone have a good freeware installer creator?
Any help would be great,
many thanks in advance
You can include the SQL Server Compact DLL files with your app, so you do not need to install anything in addition to your app - see my blog for long, detailed description - which SQL Server Compact version do you use?
I developed a web-site on ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 platform. And additional I have 2 win services. My task is to build install package. I decided that Visual Studio install projects are not met my requirements. I design my own installer for this project, because I need to resolve many question and problem in install process. My problem: I need to deploy web-site into IIS, but I don't know how to do it easy. I found Microsoft tool as Web Deployment Tool, but I didn't find any documentation. And must I include this tool into my installer for deployment at destination customer? Another side I found SDC Tasks Library and it looks like a solution for me. But I saw many topics where people had problems and because the project was dead anybody couldn't help them. I know it is a long story... My question: how can I deploy the web-site from another program (I know that IIS versions have some differences and it is another headache), set a virtual directory, application pool (very important), a type of authentification and so forth ???
Thanks.
Use Wix for installers.
This article seems to cover what you want:
Automating Web deployment on IIS with WIX.
I am new to sharepoint and installshield. My responsiblity is to build and deploy the sharepoint solution as a package using istallsheild. Previously I was using solution package wsp and content database restoration. But now the client wants to deliver the total solution i.e. dlls, ascx files, xml files, servce files(.cs), feature files using installsjield from development server to another (test and/or client) server.
Can any body help me on this: how to do the sharepoint deployment using installshield?
thanks in advance.
I presume you are using SharePoint solutions to package dll's, ascx and xml files for deployment to a sharepoint server. These solutions are built using a tool like WSPBuilder.
If not: YOU SHOULD!
If so: Why not use SharePoint Installer? It is an installer wrapper around a .wsp (SharePoint solution) file. It will check for the existence of a sharepoint installation, if the required services are started etc.
For deployment to a test machine: Why would you need the .cs files? If you want to test (debug) code on a test machine, I suggest you use either continuous integration using a tool like CruiseControl.NET, or just install Visual Studio on the test machine (which I presume to be a dev test, not a client test machine) and get the latest version, do a build, then roll out the solution.
And what do you mean with "client" server? is there some windows app that's communicating with sharepoint included in the installer? If so, I suggest separating the SharePoint solution from the actual windows app. They might share DLL's but are not supposed to be in the same installer.
We are using a tool (open source - saf.codeplex.com) to automate the Sharepoint components using MSBuild/Features/STSADM etc. Recently they have upgraded this to use WIX so that we can deploy any SharePoint components.
saf.codeplex.com
It has got an very good documentation and also we got a good support in fixing and implementing the SharePoint automated deployment in our premise.
Thanks
BalamuruganK