Copy actions between projects

[sharon]

Hi all,

Since my main work is with InstallShield, I was looking in installanywhere for a mechanism for export/import of actions between different projects that will deliver the same functionality as in Installshield and save precious time.
I was only able to use the copy action - which did not work between different projects.

Does anyone know if this ability exists in IA 2009?

Thanks a lot,
Sharon.

[pv7721]

I think that copy & paste between projects has been requested for more than 5 years now... so AFAIK it doesn't exist in IA 2009...

[sharon]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.

I still have hope that this feature is included in IA 2009,
As it seems to be an obvious feature that was already implemented by installshield long ago.

Does anyone know where I can check for this information?

In addition: It would be really nice to be able to search for strings in the project (file names, folders, etc.) via the advanced view of the project.
as it is actually an xml file it seems like I just didn't find the way to do it,
Is "find string" supported?

Thanks again,
Sharon.

[pv7721]

Well given the fact that IA 2009 is already out for like 9 months, on one hand, and because the feature is not trivial one, I don't think that it'll be implemented in IA 2009 (I don't think the SP1 has it).

The find string is not available either, while it is definitely very useful, especially for large projects or even for small projects when someone takes over... The only workaround I'm aware of is to manually edit the file, try to locate the string then try to understand the XML and locate the string in the Advanced Designer.

[sharon]

Hi Vlad,

As I could not see any reference for this feature in the published tutorials -
I strated experimenting...
I found out that in one scenario the copy/paste between projects is enabled:
Only if you open the project with advanced designer
--> choose action -> edit/write click-> copy
--> choose from the menu: open project--> browse for another project and then you can choose "paste" for the same action in the installation process
--it works.
Seems like it has to be the same session of IA that is open. If you close one project and then open another from the designer OR close the whole designer and open another project OR open 2 projects in parallel--> It fails to work.

This is hardly comfortable as you need to switch between projects for each action that is copied, but it is better than nothing.

Thanks again for your response.
Hope thsi might help you and others,
Sharon.

[jerome_IA]

It would be very nice if following feature will be included in future version:

- Copy/paste between projects
- Multi-selection available for copying
- find via CRTL+F inside project advanced designer (finding patterns inside xml is really painful)
- Copy rule/all keep the "AND" or "OR" (preventing many mistakes => "AND" is always set by default)



I hope not only IA users read those posts :cool:

[pv7721]

From the 5 IA forum moderators, at least 2 are project managers... and at least one of them seems to be active (at least she has recently logged on).

[WolfgangH]

jerome_IA wrote:
It would be very nice if following feature will be included in future version:

- Copy/paste between projects
- Multi-selection available for copying
- find via CRTL+F inside project advanced designer (finding patterns inside xml is really painful)
- Copy rule/all keep the "AND" or "OR" (preventing many mistakes => "AND" is always set by default)



I hope not only IA users read those posts :cool:

If you need to copy more than one action between projects, use a Action Group. Move the actions to this group and copy the group then.

Works fine.

Regards
Wolfgang

[jerome_IA]

That's right, and since IA 2008 VP1 or 2009 (I don't remember), action group can be used in "Install" part while it was only in pre & post previously.

good point, thanks

Jerome 😉