I'm trying to do something and I'm wondering if its possible. My company releases items, lets call them 'programs'. Every time a new program is releases, it gets appended to the previous list of programs on the installshield disc. Unfortunately, that list becomes quite large and the only way to install new programs is to go to add/remove programs, remove the previous programs (sometimes up to 6GB and more!), and reinstall the new programs which include that single program. Very inefficient. I was wondering if it was possible to do something like this:
- Every few months create a 'baseline' disc which has a list of programs released up to that point. - Create a single installshield project for an individual program to update the whole - Have each individual installshield project not create a new program within the Add/remove programs, but create an update to the parent program (that way, that individual program can be removed without removing the rest) so as to not have a bunch of programs all with the same name (could become large) Like how when you tick the 'Show Updates' box up top, it shows a list of updates..this is what I would be looking for. - When the parent project is removed, that project and all 'updates' are removed as well.
I'm sure this has got to be possible somehow. Is it? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
what you are looking for is a patch. look at the help topic about upgrades and patches. you could actually use a minor upgrade as long as you're not removing anything or reorganizing the feature tree. just create a minor upgrade item in the upgrades view, add the necessary component, bump the minor version number, and rebuild. this should be able to install the new version as well as upgrading previous revisions. as long as the common files are all of the same version (or date...see help topic regarding file version overwrite rules) they will be left alone and the ew components will be installed.
