F7: Or "I don't want to get off on a rant here..."
Now, I don't want to get off on a rant here. For one thing, this little inconvenience is just that. Little. Minorly inconvenient. For another, on the whole InstallShield is a very good product. Steep learning curve, but feature-rich, well-supported...by and large works quite well. And I love the new stuff that comes out with each version. Reading those release notes is like a little Christmas.
But F7. Oh....F7, you tease. Press it to build, well and good. But given multiple product configurations, F7, you love to torment me. Which one to build? Is it... A) The topmost configuration in alphabetical order as shown in the Releases view? B) The most recently built configuration? or C) Whichever one I did not want.
After a few years of using this product, I have concluded the answer is C. I build a configuration, make some changes, press F7 to test those changes...it builds the other one. Or just a moment ago, I opened the project for the first time, made some changes, and thought "Oh, it's okay, I want the topmost one anyway, so I'll just press F7" - no. I got the other one. Really, F7, what is with you?
Really, I end this rant with applause. Perhaps someone from the InstallShield development team could pass a few tips on to a fellow admiring developer on how you do that "telepathy" thing. That's pretty darned impressive, and I can't help but think our product could use some of that, too! Anticipating the user's wishes - even if only to to thwart them - is truly the next step forward in software technology. Kudos, brave developers, kudos.
Thank you all for a moment of your time - I hope you have a wonderful day. Except for you, F7. No good days for you...
The Build menu items and F7 are intended to build the release that was last built. The product configuration and release name are stored in the InstallShield table in the CurrentMedia property. We have seen this value change to a release other than the last one built, but to my knowledge, we haven't tracked down a set of repro steps that would indicate what is triggering this behavior. If you are able to find a consistent set of reproduction steps that trigger this behavior, please let us know.
joshstechnij, I've found that F7 (and the Build icon on the IS 2009 toolbar) are not related to the last release that is built. Instead, the release type chosen is set by which release was the last to be highlighted on the Media/Releases view. By clicking on "Releases" and then "ReleaseA", F7 instantly changes to that release name. This happens whether you make any changes or not, or whether you build or not. Going through the release wizard, picking "ReleaseB", and actually building it doesn't seem to change the F7 selection to ReleaseB.
Sairen, if you are a keyboard shortcut aficionado like me, you can turn the minor annoyance into a microscopic nuisance by typing "Alt-B" before hitting F7. Alt-B will open the Build dropdown which tells you which release is about to be invoked by F7.
