Transforms

[NewsArchive]

I would need an interface like this - in a table X, column Y, row with a key
W put value Z. I want to store this info in some human readable form and
create a transform out of it. It's a bit clumsy, if I have to do these
changes in a MSI file and only then I get the transform.

Ivan

Robert M. Dickau
<i_wish_i_had_time_to_answer_individual_questions_through_email_but_i_don't@
installshield.com> wrote in message news:39dbb559@12.41.20.38...
> MST files are COM structured storage (not that that helps you much). What
is
> the format of the diff information you want to use? Would your "input" to
> transform-creation be the original MSI and your diff file?
>

[NewsArchive]

Oh, gosh. Would this be acceptable: make a temporary copy of the base
database, generate a "diff" in the form used by MsiDatabaseExport (same form
used in Orca table export), use MsiDatabaseImport with your diff and the
temp copy, generate the transform, and delete the temp MSI?

"Ivan Lalis" <Ivan.Lalis@NOSPAM.simultan.ch> wrote in message
news:39dc66ce@12.41.20.38...
> I would need an interface like this - in a table X, column Y, row with a
key
> W put value Z. I want to store this info in some human readable form and
> create a transform out of it. It's a bit clumsy, if I have to do these
> changes in a MSI file and only then I get the transform.
>
> Ivan
>
> Robert M. Dickau
>
<i_wish_i_had_time_to_answer_individual_questions_through_email_but_i_don't@
> installshield.com> wrote in message news:39dbb559@12.41.20.38...
> > MST files are COM structured storage (not that that helps you much).
What
> is
> > the format of the diff information you want to use? Would your "input"
to
> > transform-creation be the original MSI and your diff file?

[NewsArchive]

Thanks Robert, it's a great idea, I think I'll (ab)use it quite often :-) I
checked the format of the idt file - it's a tab delimited text file, so I
can use perl to parse it. Thanks for the hint on storages as well.

Ivan

Robert M. Dickau
<i_wish_i_had_time_to_answer_individual_questions_through_email_but_i_don't@
installshield.com> wrote in message news:39e78f58@12.41.20.38...
> Oh, gosh. Would this be acceptable: make a temporary copy of the base
> database, generate a "diff" in the form used by MsiDatabaseExport (same
form
> used in Orca table export), use MsiDatabaseImport with your diff and the
> temp copy, generate the transform, and delete the temp MSI?
>

[brianmooney]

I am currently researching how to create Transforms using InstallShield Developer.
As far as I can see you need to have two MSI's to create a transform.
This would mean that you will need to edit the original MSI, make any changes required and then use the create Transform Wizard to build your transform.

I thought the whole reasoning behind using transforms is that you did not have to edit your original MSI. Also if you do have an existing MSI (Base) that runs correctly but has some ICE errors, when you go through the process of editng the MSI and creating the Target MSI you encounter problems.
The Transform cannot be created using these two MSI above.

Another problem I encountered is you cannot open an .mst file in Installshield.