I am using InstallShield 2012 Spring Basic MSI Project, I have created the Final build and installed, And for the same i have to created Patches I am creating Patches through Patch Design. And we create the Patches on a daily basis. And for every update we update the Patch Identification through C#.
For every Patch we will be adding few folders/files which are dynamically linked to a component and also static linked components,
for the first 2 Patch installations I am not seeing any issues, where as on 3rd Patch installation i am seeing an Installation issue, which is "Error 2602. The File table entry "" has no associated entry in the media table"
In previous blogs, i found that I have to provide the previous Patch GUID for replacing , but my requirement is somehting like, a customer can install any Patch (in incresing sequence).
For Ex: Customer 1 can install Patch 1, then Patch 2 then Patch 3...Patch 10 Customer 2 may install Patch 1, Patch 3, then Path 10, As we create a cumulative updates, both should on sync, SO in this case I may not be able to provide previous Patch GUID (I guess).
When dynamically linking, make sure you do not use the subfolder checkmark to dynamically link subfolders. This will cause heartache for updates in the future unless InstallShield has found a way to prevent the way it automatically changes the GUID on its dynamically linked subfolders.
It sounds as if you want to let anyone patch to current in any order. If this is correct, if I am not mistaken, your patch source always needs to be the original released media and not the immediate updated media. Hopefully this is clear enough.
Also you do need to provide the list of all the supported patch GUIDs released that you are supporting to allow installation. Admittally I am not as familiar with this process as usually our company has not released more than one or two updates before a major upgrade, so this has never been a major concern for me in my career. Hopefully someone else who has worked with this process more can chime in some.
