Can I open an Installshield Pro file in Express? - installshield

Question

We currently have an old Installshield project file (ism) handed to us by our client, created in an unknown older version of Installshield Pro. It needs updating for a new release, but all we have available is Installshield Express 2011. (The install definitely does not actually use any feature unavailable in Express; it barely needs any features at all.)
We need, however, to retrieve a list of what it does do so we can duplicate it.
Is there any way to import, convert or examine the file? (Currently Express refuses to open it at all, because it was created in full Installshield.)

Answer 1

If you do not use specific Professional features you may open xml files with InstallShield LE after following modifications inside
InstallShield table node:
Insert <row><td>DefaultProductConfiguration</td><td>Express</td></row> after Current Media.
Insert <row><td>Limited</td><td>1</td></row> after ISUSSignature
Change "Type" from MSI to MSIE. i.e.:
<row><td>Type</td><td>MSIE</td></row>
This is excerpt from my config file which did the trick:
<table name="InstallShield">
<col key="yes" def="s72">Property</col>
<col def="S0">Value</col>
<row><td>ActiveLanguage</td><td>1033</td></row>
<row><td>Comments</td><td/></row>
<row><td>CurrentMedia</td><td dt:dt="bin.base64" md5="332cf0a04e9833f150480c96800db728">
UgBlAGwAZQBhAHMAZQAgADEAAQBXAGUAYgAgAEMAbwBuAGYAaQBnAHUAcgBhAHQAaQBvAG4A
</td></row>
<row><td>DefaultProductConfiguration</td><td>Express</td></row>
<row><td>EnableSwidtag</td><td>1</td></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_CompileBeforeBuild</td><td>1</td></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_Debug</td><td>0</td></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_IncludePath</td><td/></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_LibraryPath</td><td/></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_MaxErrors</td><td>50</td></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_MaxWarnings</td><td>50</td></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_OutputPath</td><td><ISProjectDataFolder>\Script Files</td></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_PreProcessor</td><td>_ISSCRIPT_NEW_STYLE_DLG_DEFS</td></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_WarningLevel</td><td>3</td></row>
<row><td>ISCompilerOption_WarningsAsErrors</td><td>1</td></row>
<row><td>ISTheme</td><td>InstallShield Blue.theme</td></row>
<row><td>ISUSLock</td><td>{979EF698-F570-46B1-A89A-8FB2EBA0D64F}</td></row>
<row><td>ISUSSignature</td><td>{070AD25F-E904-4DB5-92BF-40E127BD43E7}</td></row>
<row><td>Limited</td><td>1</td></row>
<row><td>LockPermissionMode</td><td>1</td></row>
<row><td>MsiExecCmdLineOptions</td><td/></row>
<row><td>MsiLogFile</td><td/></row>
<row><td>OnUpgrade</td><td>1</td></row>
<row><td>Owner</td><td/></row>
<row><td>PatchFamily</td><td>MyPatchFamily1</td></row>
<row><td>PatchSequence</td><td>1.0.0</td></row>
<row><td>SaveAsSchema</td><td/></row>
<row><td>SccEnabled</td><td>0</td></row>
<row><td>SccPath</td><td/></row>
<row><td>SchemaVersion</td><td>773</td></row>
<row><td>Type</td><td>MSIE</td></row>
</table>

Answer 2

Express will not open such a file. However depending on whether the file's contents are text or binary, you can either open it with any XML or text editor, or with any MSI reading tool. For the latter there's Microsoft's Orca or various alternatives that are easier to download.