According to Microsoft Visual Studio will no longer support setup projects, requiring instead that developers download and register for a light version of InstallShield.
Does anyone know if there are alternatives out there - WiX comes to mind but in a way this is like going assembly...
Wix. it is not like assembly, it wrocks - especially compared to installshield.
Otherwise no - before Wix came around installers where a bad area to be in anyway. Only buggy products, choose your pain between Installshield and Wise installer (now Symantec Altiris).
I prefer Wix any day over the other stuff.
Related
I've updated Visual Studio 2015 to Update 2 recently. Since then, I'm not able to compile my already published app anymore. Even a new blank UWP project does not compile. I get the following error message:
ILT0005: "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft.NetNative\x86\ilc\Tools\nutc_driver.exe #"C:\Users\locked\documents\visual studio 2015\Projects\App1\App1\obj\x86\Release\ilc\intermediate\MDIL\App1.rsp"" Exitcode -1073740791
I completely uninstalled all Visual Studio relevant components and reinstalled them, which didn't solve the problem. Unfortunately, I'm not able to update my app at the moment.
I'm running Windows 10 Build 10586.218
It is a bug in .NET Native compiler, affecting German localization only (based on our current knowledge). We are looking into solutions (a fix with reasonable shipping vehicle, or better workaround). Stay tuned.
[Update] The fix shipped on 6th May as "Universal Windows App Development Tools - Tools (1.3.2)". Go to Control Panel - Programs - Programs and Features - Visual Studio ... - Modify, check Tools (1.3.2), then click Update. All languages now work (German, French, Italian, etc.).
-Karel Zikmund
(.NET Native team)
i had exactly this issue on french platform and found this solution : https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/9d590372-d82c-4075-9ea9-504a22c9502f/cant-compile-in-net-native-ilt005-error?forum=wpdevelop
compilation is ok after moved all ressources files nutcui.dll
I have a couple of Projects created in visual basic 6 with oracle databases. I want to upgrade these proejects to visual studio 2012 and use TFS version control. I have read that first I need to upgrade to Visual studio 2008 and then to Visual studio 2012.
Before going ahead with the upgrade ( I need to install Visual studio 2008 as well) I want to make sure this is a realistic approach. So
1. Does converting a vb6 project to VS 2012 ok or I will have to make a lot of changes to make things work?
2. After upgradation would I be able to use TFS for the projects?
TL;DR - yes, you'll need to make lots of changes regardless of how you choose to migrate. TFS question seems irrelevant to me. If you're setup to use TFS for projects, you can use it for these after upgrade as well.
The only reason to consider a 2-step upgrade that includes VS 2008 is that was the last version that included the migration tool built-in (ie, free). As others alluded to, those tools don't make pretty code but a mashup of VB6 and .Net. After trying a few times, I now personally find it simpler and more robust to recreate a new .Net version from scratch, but using the VB6 code as a template. I copy and paste as practical and then do Find/Replace to catch the majority of errors/warnings and then deal with all the others individually. If I have to convert another project, I may use 2008 once just to see what kind of issues the original code had or if there are any unusual situations/controls I'll need to deal with, but I would still start a new 2013 project from scratch. That gives me a better opportunity to improve it as well. You'd be replacing all the connecting code to Oracle anyway. I'd been using OO4O and moved to ODP.NET. If you used 2008, you would have to move to at least 2010 to use the latter in managed mode, which is great not having to load Oracle Client on each machine.
I'd be wary of upgrading VB 6 to VB.net using the automated tools. I did it back in the day (around 2003) when .net was just starting out and my memory is that it wasn't a pleasant experience.
The code produced by the upgrade wizard is a nasty mix of old VB conventions trim, instr and .net conventions. We also had a bunch of weird bugs. Sorry it was a long time ago and I can't remember any details. Only that we did it once for a small number of components, around 6 or 7 activex dll's. That experience was bad enough that we decided it wasn't worth the pain.
We kept the VB 6 code in service until it was re-written as part of a larger push to modernise the codebase.
If you do decide to upgrade then the output is a standard visual studio project that can be source controlled in TFS just like any .net project.
If you reason for upgrading to just to use TFS then take a look at the MSSCCIProvider. This allows you at hook TFS in to the VB6 IDE
I am doing something very similar and did develop a tool to assist with the designer portion of the conversion. It parsers the VB6 file and creates designer code for .NET.
The source is here.
https://github.com/rdejournett/VBtoNET
The only thing I was not able to solve is that controls within tab pages have really wierd X locations like -60000. So I parse those to 0. You'll have to move them to the right place.
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
Mylyn is a task oriented plugin that allows for example to assign a set of files to a task. Is there a Mylyn type plugin for Visual Studio?
Tasktop has just announced that it is bringing the productivity of Mylyn into Visual Studio! The beta version that is being released will support bringing tasks from HP ALM, Quality Center, and Bugzilla. It includes Mylyn's Task List and Task Editor. The next level of support, which will include compatibility with all existing Mylyn connectors, will be delivered after this beta. Further down the road Tasktop will also be delivering context capture and focus within the Visual Studio IDE.
The beta release will be happening end of November 2010.
See the recent blog post for more details.
David Shepherd, Tasktop Technologies http://www.twitter.com/davidcshepherd
The closest I've found is Tasktop, by the people that created Mylyn, but it's a standalone application that doesn't integrate with Visual Studio.
(Resharper is irrelevant).
Not even close to mylyn, but here is an open source addin for visual studio that helps to assign a list of source files to a "session" (you could think of the session as a "task")
http://dsmaddin.codeplex.com/
i'm not aware of anything open source but i do know that team system is setup to support this type of workflow.
resharper might also have features you are looking for but, again, not foss
I asked that question to the VS.NET Development team in Teched 2008.
She said that they've notice about Mylyn, but are still looking on it.
Task focusing plugin is not yet ready in VS.NET environment.
You may be interested in this news from Tasktop: http://tasktop.com/blog/tasktop/eclipse-mylyn-microsoft-visual-studio
I'll second tasktop. The newest version especially looks nice. Like orip said, it doesn't provide VS integration, but there's a Firefox extension which should be pretty nice... beats using Eclipse purely for Mylyn.
I've recently released (commercial) Task Canvas extension for Visual Studio 2015 that supports tasks with assigned sets of documents and code fragments.
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.