Merge product paths

[bberry]

Does anyone know if its possible for vBuild to unify two separate product paths into one? An example might help clarify the question:

Product A has a release version 1.0 and patches as follows:
v1.123 -> v1.324 -> v1.555

Product B has a release version 1.0 and patches as follows:
v1.120 -> v1.336 -> v1.554

and what I'd like to do is bring both product paths into one with a new version 2.0 that can upgrade any previous version.

I'm using InstallShield Pro 7.1 and it can do that just by having all versions of the differential media specified, however I'm unsure if vBuild will handle this as there is not a single straight upgrade path. Does vBuild require sequential diffs to the final version or is it smart enough to store all the different combination of diffs in order to patch any version?

Thanks in Advance.

[IlanaB]

vBuild does require sequential versions to be efficient (create small updates), but it will work in any case.

You can import the versions of product A, then the versions of Product B, then your new version in sequence and then create an Online update package. If the two products have no common or similar files at all, the updates from product A will include mostly new files. If the products are related (I guess they are) you should match files of version B to related / similar files in version A, and files from new product to similar files in version B to make the updates smaller.
In any case, the Online package you create will update any user of version A or B to your new product.

I recommend you to get vBuild 2.0 beta version and try it out. vBuild 2.0 supports differential patch versions, so if the patch versions you listed include just some of the files and are not full installs, mark them as differential when you are importing.

Ilana