[Capping from Previous Forum/Support:]
And i am slowly compiling a setup installer fro Royal TS.
So far it can detect if;
1).net framework 3.5 is installed or not, then proceeds to install or download the .net framework
2) RTSApp.exe is running, before attempting to install or uninstall any version
3) Admin Privelages - Admin access is necessary so that correct Mutex and add/remove snapins are created..
W8ing development;
1) Check if Windows Installer 3.5 is installed
What i need/ to know
1) If Royal TS existing installation does;
eg: creates any registry keys etc during installation, that i need to cover;
2) Royal TS Icons for setup, and program file icons
3) setup images, that wil display Royal TS Images from within the setup program, main image to be: bitmap with 164x314 pixels, small icon image to be:bitmap is 55x58 pixels. Can you/freind Armin help here;
Thankx
===============================
Re: Installer Issues
By StefanKoell in Feature Requests
Xander, thanks for your offer. It's much appreciated. But keep in mind that the reason I chose the clean approach is mainly because of higher testing efforts and the increase of support issues, not the lacking ability to do update packages with the Visual Studio Installer Builder. I think, regardless of the product or way you do updates, both will happen: the higher testing efforts and the increase of support issues.
I managed a lot of IT infrastructures and know that in a controlled environment something like that is easily doable. But my experience with Royal TS on all sorts of operating systems, patch levels, languages, monitor configurations and many other variables showed me the weirdest things. And considering that usually I release a new version every 3 months or so, I think everyone can live with doing an uninstall and reinstall to provide best experience and quality.
Thinks I like about the msi stuff is, that pre-requesites like .NET framework and version is checked and get's the user automtically to the download page. I changed the .NET framework version 3 times already and once I forgot to enable that check, believe me, that was hell on earth in my forums
Another thing is that all the stuff will be installed and uninstalled with the right privileges. With .exe's you always need to run it as Administrator (on Vista and 2008).
I'm not saying I'm a fan of .msi packages and I'm really not a fan of the feature set the Visual Studio Installer Builder offers but it's the only way for me right now, because I have not to spend much time on the installer stuff. I can focus on Royal TS.
I'm also not a fan of some "proprietary" installer solution. One never knows if this installer suddenly stops working after installing a hotfix, service pack or so. With .msi I'm always on the safe side.
I am looking forward to hear your ideas. I am always open minded for suggestions and help. I just wanted to point out what my motivation is to use the easy way for me and maybe not always so easy way for the user. In the meantime I wish you all the best for your exams and hope to hear from you soon.
cheers
Stefan
===============================
Re: Installer Issues
By Xander in Feature Requests
Hi Stefan,
I know bit with installer's and can help you with that, but i'm busy with my exams right now.
I am not a particular fan with msi's with can help with my time, relating to building an installer, that can detect a previous version and install the new software. along with an un-installer as well, that can be initiated by the user.
I'll contact you after 15th Nov, and by that time, i;ll have a few VM's ready for the test and development for the installer. That will be a no obligation offer this is wonderful RTS project.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks
Xander
===============================
Re: Installer Issues
By StefanKoell in Feature Requests
Hi Xander!
I use the Visual Studio built-in setup builder. I once tried the update mechanism instead of the uninstall/reinstall in some earlier versions of Royal TS and unfortunately there were issues. Due to my limited time I can spend on Royal TS, I just don't want to invest much time in testing the update procedure for every version, so I decided to make the uninstall/reinstall mandatory. This way the setup procedure is bullet-proof and I don't need to spend much time in testing and supporting issues where the update process failed.
Maybe there's some way that the installer automatically invokes the uninstaller of the previous version. I saw that on some products and hopefully I can duplicate that behavior...
cheers
Stefan
===============================
Installer Issues
By Xander in Feature Requests
Why is that, each time you want to install an updated version of the RTS, you have to manually un-install the previous version, before you can install the new version.
I find this painfull. Can the new version resolve this issue. What installer program are yo uusing to build the RTS program installer.?
Thanlks.
|