Quickpath and repair/uninstall option

[Richard_F]

Guys, I must miss something or do something utterly wrong. I'm busy developing an update for a program we've got in the field. Its only feature is updating 61 XML-files and/or flashmovies. It's a minor update so I'd figured the Quickpath option of Installshield was really suited for this. In fact it is. But, however for one thing that just alludes me. When I run the "update.exe" program generated by installshield it provides me with a dialogbox with only the option to either repair or uninstall the original program I'm trying to update.

Wouldn't it be more sensible if it just provided me with the option to either "install the update" or "uninstall the original program". What am I missing here?

TIA for any pointer.

[joshstechnij]

When an update.exe is launched, the first dialog that you should see should be the PatchWelcome dialog which provides an Update button to kick off the patch. The repair/uninstall options are typically only present on the MaintenanceType dialog that runs in maintenance mode (from Add/Remove Programs or from running the original setup.exe after it's installed).

Do you have a log of running the update.exe available? If needed, you can create one with the following command line:
update.exe /v"/l*v C:\PathToLog\LogFile.log"

In the log, the dialog sequence that will be run should be indicated. A patch is expected to run the dialog sequence starting with PatchWelcome. If this isn't the case, it's possible the conditions have been changed on the MaintenanceWelcome or PatchWelcome dialogs in the Sequences view, causing the wrong dialog sequence to run in a patch.

[Richard_F]

joshstechnij wrote:
When an update.exe is launched, the first dialog that you should see should be the PatchWelcome dialog which provides an Update button to kick off the patch. The repair/uninstall options are typically only present on the MaintenanceType dialog that runs in maintenance mode (from Add/Remove Programs or from running the original setup.exe after it's installed).

Do you have a log of running the update.exe available? If needed, you can create one with the following command line:
update.exe /v"/l*v C:\PathToLog\LogFile.log"

I've attached a logfile. Hope this helps a bit!

joshstechnij wrote:
In the log, the dialog sequence that will be run should be indicated. A patch is expected to run the dialog sequence starting with PatchWelcome. If this isn't the case, it's possible the conditions have been changed on the MaintenanceWelcome or PatchWelcome dialogs in the Sequences view, causing the wrong dialog sequence to run in a patch.

Now the weird thing is, I never see a Sequences view. The only views I'm seeing is:

Path Settings
- General Information
- Files
- Registry
- Path Variables
Additional Tools
- Direct Editor

The thing is, this quickpatch is based upon an original MSI that was created with a setup & deployment project in Visual Studio 2005. Maybe this fact causes the IS2008 environment to hide a number of views?

[joshstechnij]

The Sequences view is not present for QuickPatch projects. This is only available in Basic MSI and InstallScript MSI projects. I had assumed that you were creating this patch from an MSI package built with InstallShield.

As far as I am aware, Visual Studio setup and deployment projects that build an MSI package don't have any inherent support for working with patches (or even minor upgrades, for that matter). Since a QuickPatch project builds from the MSI package that is provided to it, there won't be any functionality added/included in the patch package that wasn't present in the base MSI. QuickPatch projects are intended to build from an MSI package created with InstallShield, since InstallShield projects specifically include a dialog sequence conditioned to run in patch scenarios.

If you want to try patching the original VS built MSI package with a QuickPatch, you can try running the patch silently:
update.exe /s /v"/qn REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=omus"

[Richard_F]

joshstechnij wrote:

As far as I am aware, Visual Studio setup and deployment projects that build an MSI package don't have any inherent support for working with patches (or even minor upgrades, for that matter). Since a QuickPatch project builds from the MSI package that is provided to it, there won't be any functionality added/included in the patch package that wasn't present in the base MSI. QuickPatch projects are intended to build from an MSI package created with InstallShield, since InstallShield projects specifically include a dialog sequence conditioned to run in patch scenarios.

If you want to try patching the original VS built MSI package with a QuickPatch, you can try running the patch silently:
update.exe /s /v"/qn REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=omus"

Right! I - eventually after trying pretty much every option I could come up with - suspected VS2005 was the prime cause for the quickpatch not to work. I think I'll distribute the patch by using your suggestion and running it silently! Thanks for your input!!