Is it possible to support minor/major upgrades from IS 6.2 to 2010?

[thejaswinir]

Hi,

We have bundled our application using InstallShield Proffesional 6.21. Now we plan to migrate to IS 2010. My question is can we support upgrades to the existing project? For example if I have version 1.1 installed on my machine done by IS 6.21, can I upgrade my application to 1.2 using IS 2010?

Currently we are evaluating IS 2010 and need to know whether we can upgrade our previous installations or need to start as a Full Installation with 2010. I did try opening the project and it converted .ipr to .ism . However under the Installation designer tab -> Media view, I did not find the Upgrades option. Please let me know if this is possible or we have to go for full installation.

Thanks,
Thejaswini

[cbragg]

What you have to remember is that Installshield is just a friendly interface for a Windows Installer MSI database. All of the extra installshield-only features are just created using their own custom actions. Therefore it doesn't matter whether or not you produce your older version MSI using basic orca, installshield, wise etc etc.. you will always be able to upgrade using the latest version of Installshield. The editor that you use is always seperate from the end product.

Hope this helps 😄

[thejaswinir]

Thanks for the response!

I believe, to do a minor upgrade, we need to change the product version and package code and retain the same product name and upgrade code from previous installation.

However the earlier installation(the one created with 6.2) does not have upgrade code and package code fields under the general information view. In this case how do I create an upgrade installer using IS 2010?

[cbragg]

They do exist in that view but if not in your case you may have stumbled across a bug but unlikely seeing as all those fields do is display the properties:
UpgradeCode, ProductCode, but PackageCode goes into the summary information stream. I would suggest you add the codes to the new view and check the two properties have changed and then once you built it you can open it in Orca to make sure the summary information stream has a new package code

[MarkusLatz]

@cbragg
Just for information IS 6.2 uses InstallScript only projects. They don't use the Windows Installer MSI technolgy.

[cbragg]

Oh of course, that's an old old version. Not thinking straight when i posted that so ignore my comments. Unfortunately i dont have much experience with installscript projects

[thejaswinir]

Since the 6.2x uses InstallScript technology, I would have to create the upgrade installer as a differential / full release right?

As I opened the .ipr project with IS 2010, I was prompted for project conversion. After this, there were some compile errors due to some libraries(.h files) not recognized. So I replaced that with # include "ifx.h" and with this I was able to build the project. But on running this, I got some error message as in the attachment. I was not able to diagnose the problem with the log file. Could you please let me know if there is anything else I need to do in project conversion?:confused:

I think creating an upgrade installer would be a better option for me since the installation is complex and it would be easier to upgrade an existing one. Please suggest if this is possible or creating a new installation would be a better option than the effort in upgrading.

Thanks in advance,
Thejaswini

[MarkusLatz]

In the IS2010-Help should be a section "Migrating from Installshield Professional 6.x". Please read this carefully, that should solve your problems.

[thejaswinir]

Thanks for the help!!:) I was able to Migrate the project from IS 6.2 to 2010.