I have some existing install shield 2009 projects and every time i want to create a newer version of them i perform some specific tasks that i want to automate with a script.
This are the operations that i have to perform manually
Change GUID
Point to the updated packages
Build single_exec_image
Is it possible to make this operations from CLI on installShield 2009?
Thank you in advance
InstallShield has an Automation Interface (32bit COM based). You can use this API to make programmatic changes to your installer project. InstallShield also supports command line builds using ISCmdBld.exe.
Typically you do all of this in the realm of build automation using MSBuild or NAnt. Both allow you to write custom tasks in c# that can interop to the COM automation interface.
For example I use TFS which uses MSbuild (which InstallShield has native support for via .isproj files ) to build my installer. In this scenario I can use dynamic properties in MSBuild to generate a GUID and I can use path variable overrides to point to your source. The build target then builds the installer.
A bunch of ways to skin this cat depending on your environment.
Related
is it possible to utilize my NSIS installer script to make an automated build (daily) for my program in TFS 2010? The program isnt C#, it's actually small talk, so the installer being designed in NSIS was prior to our group being required to migrate source control into TFS.
Essentially the installer just copy/pastes the directory and shortcuts onto destination PC, and runs a regedit for the new parameters. I noted in the TFS build tool (which I'm extremely unfamiliar with) that it constantly wants me to point at a .proj file.. Does this mean I've got to convert our NSIS scripts into some .NET equivalent (if so how?) or is there a plugin of some sort to allow these guys to play nice together?
If your project support MSBuild to build it, you can use TFS Team Build directly. If your project doesn’t support MSBuild to build it, you need to provide a compiler which can build your project, and this compiler support run the command line to invoke it, so we can add the InvokeProcess activity(execute the command line) to invoke that compiler to build your project in build process template.
Here are useful blogs for your reference:
http://donovanbrown.com/post/I-need-to-build-a-project-that-is-not-supported-by-MSBuild
http://blogs.objectsharp.com/post/2011/03/31/TFS-Build-Invoke-Process-Activity.aspx
We are going to use Visual Studio Team Services for a project. We are using VSTS Git as our repository. A portion of this project is written in Golang. We want to enable CI and build/test all code at check in. I have been learning more about extensions, the build agents and build process within VSTS. I see in the marketplace there are options for Android, iOS and other platforms (but not GoLang). Can anyone start me on the path to creating a custom extension or build definition for Golang? How can I create a custom extension to enable automated builds at check-in of GoLang code? Thanks!
Yes but I would look at it a bit differently. There is no need to add anything to VSTS, you just need golang/the go compiler installed on your build agent and then you can set up a job using MSBuild like any other MSFT supported language which invokes the Go compiler with your sources. Basically, write an msbuild script who's sole job is to invoke the go compiler with the target sources.
Here are MSBuild docs on the Exec task which is what you'd use to kick off your build; https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/x8zx72cd.aspx
As far as I know in order to add the Go compiler you need to setup a private agent or install it on the fly using a build task like the tool installer
i was in the process of evaluating different tools available for creating the setup package for a newly developed software. i came to know about the visual studio's setup project facility, but couldnt get much help on its capabilities.
Can someone tell me if this tool helps me achieve the below given features
copy/paste files and folders.
create a text file, and input certain values to it.
make/update entries to the registery
check for certain services running on the local/remote system
reading certain environment variables from the system.
running a third party application.
what script language does it support
Other than Visual Studio, I had evaluated InstallShield which does provide support for all the above mentioned actions. But Visual Studio is already available, I was curious to find if it matches InstallShield in capability?
Here is the Visual Studio support:
Supported
Not supported
Supported
Not supported
Not supported
Somewhat supported ( supports prerequisites )
No scripting support
What is not supported can be implemented through custom actions (custom code).
The custom code is in form of custom actions, which can be DLLs, batch files, executables or VBScripts, with DLLs being the method recommended by microsoft, written in C/C++.
Here is some more information on what custom actions are and how such custom actions are integrated with the installer:
Custom Actions
If you want an alternative, you can try Advanced Installer. It supports everything you need and it's cheaper than InstallShield.
Greetings!
I have a solution in VS2010 that defines 3-4 individual applications.
These 3-4 apps are individual (but related) components that I need to have individually installed on our production servers during deployment. I toyed with using WIX mondo to generate a multi-feature WIX installer, but found that it would be more beneficial to allow that these applications be able to be installed individually as well as via a single-source for all of them, preferably configurable to choose which to install during an installation.
I noticed that there is a WIX project type called "Bootstrapper Project" but I cannot find much documentation around it on the web, and do not know if it is a project type that will actually assist me in creating a deployment installation bootstrapper for my projects. (i.e. a setup.exe file that will install, one after the other, each project as either defined in the installer, or optionally selectable via the installer as it runs)...
what is the best method to do this within WIX, using pre-existing WIX installers for individual programs?
In Wix, the support to create a bootstrapper is through a tool called "Burn". Burn has been pushed out to v4.0 (or version 3.6). So that isn't much help.
You can use an open source tool like dotNetInstaller: http://dotnetinstaller.codeplex.com/
Here is an overview on how to create a setup installer that checks for the .NET Framework (which in and of itself is not very useful, but shows you how to work with dotNetInstaller):
http://www.lostechies.com/blogs/gabrielschenker/archive/2010/05/19/creating-a-bootstrapper-with-dotnetinstaller.aspx
Or you can follow the instructions here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165429(v=VS.100).aspx
And use the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator here (although there appear to be 64-bit issues): http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/bmg
I'm using a VS 2008 Setup and Deployment project to deploy a mixed managed / unmanaged application. I've had trouble registering mixed-mode DLL's using the built-in registration property ("vsdraCOM" enumerated value of the "Register" property.) As a workaround, I've added a .NET custom install assembly (with a class that derives from System.Configuration.Install.Installer.) I'm certain that that class is running and a number of operations successfully install and uninstall through code in that assembly, including executing the Dll(Un)RegisterServer entry point of a number of assemblies.
However, one DLL is not successfully registering. It is the only DLL that depends on some 3rd-party redistributable assemblies that want to be installed to the GAC. I have those assemblies installed to the GAC thanks to the built-in support for that in VS 2008's setup and deployment projects, and I know that is working. I've confirmed that what is happening is that the custom action is executing before the installer executes the GAC installation.
Whew. So my question is, is there a way to force the installer to execute the GAC installation before executing the custom action? Is there a way to use the "Condition" property of the custom action to do this? If not, what's my best alternative? Capturing the registry entries from the DLL and adding them to the registry settings for the installer (don't like this because someone may add new COM servers to the class in the future)? Using .NET code to install the assembly into the GAC manually (don't know how to do that yet)?
Thanks,
Dave
The setup projects you can create in Visual Studio are very limited. It only allows custom actions to be scheduled at 4 points. However, MSI allows custom actions to be scheduled at any point in the process with some restrictions on what they can do.
My first solution is to stop using Visual Studio 2008 as your setup development tool. The Visual Studio team has tried to abstract away all the complexity of creating an install. However, in the process they have also taken away all the flexibility of MSI. Wix, InstallShield, or Wise are much better products for anything but simple installs. I started off using Visual Studio for our installs and it ended up being too much work. There was always one more workaround to be implemented and its side effects to be dealt with.
If you can't switch technology, then you will need to learn how to manually modify the resulting MSI file. In your case you will need to modify the InstallExecuteSequence table, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa369500(VS.85).aspx. You can do this manually through Orca, http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370557(VS.85).aspx or through the MSI API http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372860(VS.85).aspx. Make sure to download Orca and run the validation scripts against your install. The scripts point out numerous problems that fixing will save you countless hours when deploying to customer machines.