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monty_shaw
Level 3

Does ISLE even work?

OK I have managed to get this installed and set up and I am in the process of converting my old setup project into this new InstallShield LE version. But whenever I rebuild the new ISLE project, VS 2012 crashes. So the first question is: Does this even work?

Second concern: I am converting my old project into one using this ISLE thing. I am assuming that there is a way to create something comparable to what I used to be able to do, however I don't think it is possible. I thought that I would take the code in my old custom action and put it into a new executable and then run that program as an EXE custom action in the following places within Custom Actions:

Installations - After register product = Here the exe will give the installing user (hopefully an admin) the ability to install some database tables and stored procedures, and will copy an assembly to a location and then update the registry so that visual studio can add a reference to the assembly.

Modification - After Setup Complete Success dialog = here the exe allows the database to be created or deleted.

Uninstall - After System Changes = Here I wanted to remove the registry setting for the visual studio assembly reference.

The problem is the uninstall custom action happens AFTER everything is uninstalled, and since this little exe is part of the installation, it is already removed at this point, and therefore can't execute.

So there doesn't appear to be a way to build something similar to what was possible in VS 2010 without buying InstallShield. If I am going to do that, I'll have to also look at all the other installers out there as well, and I'd rather not have to spend the money.

I suspect that this won't work anyway because I think I saw somewhere that the exe gets deleted after being used in the install step anyway. Which I think means I'd need at leastr 2 exe to make this work. I can't test this because the stupid ISLE setup project crashes VS 2012. Grr...

So what were the geniuses at MS or InstallShield thinking was my upgrade path? The custom actions are non-negotiable requirements. I don't care about purity etc. I just want to be able to use VS 2012 to create installers.

]Monty[
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(4) Replies
Shekar
Level 7

I am able to replicate the same behavior. At this moment, I am not sure if these are machine/configuration specific issues or a generic behavior. I have to test this further to determine the exact cause. Do you have multiple versions of visual studio installed?

Regards

Shekar
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monty_shaw
Level 3

Yes I have VS 2008, 2010, 2012 all installed. Need to have them for work, since MS keeps changing breaking things. Must be nice to live in the Ivory Tower.

]Monty[
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Shekar
Level 7

I believe this issue has been fixed in 2012 Spring LE. I installed the latest version and it works without crashing. To obtain the update, you can use the Check for Updates feature in InstallShield. To check for updates from within InstallShield Limited Edition:

On the InstallShield LE menu, click Check for Updates.

InstallShield launches FlexNet Connect, which checks for updates.
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monty_shaw
Level 3

Thanks for the reply. I gave up and moved on to WIX.

]Monty[
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