Patch / Updates with IS Dev 8, how easy??

[lsmeteor]

Hello all,

As suggested in the IS Dev 7 forum, I am posting my question here about patches in IS Dev 8.

I am wondering, compared to IS Dev 7.04, how much easier is it to create patches and updates with IS Dev 8?

We are struggling with patches, mostly updating exe files with new versions, but we will also have to be able to add components in the future on Win 2K/XP and Win 98SE/ME.

We are using scripts for our deployments as most of our packages can use the same script. (develop once, deploy many)

Cheers
Laurent

[David Thornley]

I'm biased so I will just recommend getting eval while you are waiting for others comments. I'm guessing that the new patching and upgrading validation feature would tell you why your files are not updating.

[dhoffer]

Well...at the outset I will let you know that I am having a bad day with my setup. That being said...this is what I think.

Dev8 seems to be better than 7.0x.

However, I still am unable to do a minor upgrade of ANY of my applications with ANY version of Dev. I am very fustrated with this product.

My minor upgrade problem seems to be related to another bug in Dev8 regarding linked folders. In the process of trying to fix this, I deleted some linked files and then re-added them (with a key file). The trouble now is that it seems that all the gif/jpg files that I readded came in as different components. Not components at the Dev8 UI level but when validation is now run it says that I deleted these GUID like components. I cannot get them back because I never knew I had them, etc.

However my bigger complaint with Dev8 is all the other bugs. I can't go 10 minutes without finding bugs. And these bugs make the upgrade not work and make me hate this product.

In my opion, Dev8 is still a Beta product.

-dh

[Art Middlekauff]

There is a property in the Releases view called "Previous Package". If you are doing minor upgrades and your file keys are not linking up, you should set this property to point to the previous MSI. The build will then syncrhonize the keys to match your prior package.

[dhoffer]

Nope, I tried that. When I author this I get an error at build time. I don't remember the exact error but I think it said that it could not find the MSI file (that I specified).

This is one of the many bugs that I have struggled with.

-dh

[Art Middlekauff]

If you use dynamic file linking, and you want to do minor upgrades, then you need to set this property. If you can let me know the exact error I can help you resolve it.

[dhoffer]

By property...you mean key file right?

When I try to validate for an auto upgrade of my previous setup I get the following error (others also but I don't think they are as fatal.)

Val0006 The Component '_440ECCA81ACA46D79FDE0DE28B39ECC6' identified by ComponentID '{440ECCA8-1ACA-46D7-9FDE-0DE28B39ECC6}' is missing from the newest version of your setup. You can not delete components and still do a minor/small upgrade. You must perform a major upgrade.

Now this component is not a component that I authored in my previous setup. However when I do a search using Orca on the previous setup this component is assciated with a gif/jpg/png in my Help Files Component.

I think this problem started because I deleted some of my linked files and re-added them (non-linked) because I thought I had to do this to get a key file. Later I realized I could set any linked file to be a key file. Now it seems to late because I cannot do a minor update (actually the minor update is performed, it just doesn't update anything.)

-dh

[Art Middlekauff]

No, I mean you need to set the Previous Package property in the Releases view. If you use dynamic linking, you need to set the Previous Package. Otherwise, minor upgrades will have problems because the component and file keys will not line up.

Since you are no longer using dynamic linking, you have complete control of the files so you could theoretically modify the component GUID of your Help Files Component and set it to _440ECCA81ACA46D79FDE0DE28B39ECC6. Since that is tedious, the Previous Package property is there to do this for you.

If you are getting errors using the Previous Package property then we need to resolve them.

[dhoffer]

Thanks for the clarification. Actually I am back to using dynamic file linking because I later realized that I could use this and just set one of the files to be the key file. (Therefore, my current setup has exactly the same files as the previous. They were just removed and later re-added.)

However when I author the Previous Release property, (S:\ControlledSoftware\Release\Software\AtsFamily\ATD News\v2.0.0\ATD News.msi) I get the following error.

ISDEV : warning -4301: Could not find the .msi file S:\ControlledSoftware\Release\Software\AtsFamily\ATD News\v2.0.0\ATD News.msi for key synchronization

Since this does not work, I cannot get the minor upgrade to work.

[dhoffer]

Sorry, I meant to say "Previous Package" property.

[Art Middlekauff]

The -4301 error would come up if the MSI could not be opened. Is there any possibility that some other process has locked the MSI file? Could you try copying the MSI to a different location?

[mikebsr]

Is there any chance this is a secondary problem? Meaning, I'm suspecting there is a memory leak. When I shut down Dev 8, I cannot rename my directory that contains my .ISM files without rebooting.

I don't use dynamic file linking or anything. Instead, I create one directory that contains every piece needed to create an installation. When I'm done, I zip the entire directory up and archive it. If I ever need to recreate that exact version, I have every original component needed that has nothing to do with my existing machine setup.

Typically, I simply rename the directory to whatever version and rename another to the the same common name that is the "current" version. Sure, it takes a lot of disk drive space, but disk space is pretty cheap. On the other hand, I've never ever had a problem with linking, correct files, etc.

This worked ok until now. When I'm done, I have to boot to be able to restore directories to a state that I need to work on them.

[dhoffer]

Art,

I copied my previous setup locally to C:\v2.0.0\ATD News.msi. I never ran any program from this folder so no file is in use.

I now get the same error message...

ISDEV : warning -4301: Could not find the .msi file C:\v2.0.0\ATD News.msi for key synchronization

Please help! I cannot get either a minor or major upgrade of this setup to work.

[Art Middlekauff]

Attached is a self-contained sample with dynamic file linking that uses the Previous Package setting. Could you try building the release called "Update" and tell me if you get the 4031 error?

[dhoffer]

Art,

The sample app is fine. I did not get that error. You might be able to test with my project. I had sent my project to David Thornley, some time ago, so he could test validation crashes.

You might note that my setup does upgrade validation where yours doesn't, although I don't know that the problem is related to this. For a moment, I thought the problem might be due to Dev locking the MSI file because it is used in validation as well as component synch. However, I made two copies of my previous setup and pointed to each, and I had the same problem.

-dh