Relationship between Patch and Upgrade?

[sgoldstein]

Is there a relationship between Patches and Major, Minor, and/or Small Upgrades? Does a patch perform one of these or is a Patch a completely seperate concept?

Also, how do I find out what I can/can't do with a patch if it does not perform one of these upgrages?

Thanks.

Scott

[DebbieL]

A patch is a mechanism for distributing a minor upgrade or a small update with a small footprint. Creating a patch involves first creating the upgrade and then packaging it as a patch. For more details, see Packaging Options for Upgrades. The InstallShield help has an entire section called "Updating Applications," and it explains more about upgrades and patches. The following page has several valuable white papers on upgrades and patches:
http://www.acresso.com/downloads/downloads_7481.htm

[sgoldstein]

Thanks, Debbie. The whitepaper was helpful. But, one thing I don't understand. In the docs and in your e-mail, you state that, "Creating a patch involves first creating the upgrade". However, we used the patch design view without first creating an upgrade item in the upgrades view. In addition, I don't see anywhere in the patch design view where you point to an upgrade configuration. So what is meant by "first creating the upgrade"? And, what is the relationship between the patch design and output to this "upgrade"?

Last question - This one is a bit more in depth. Are there any white papers or documentation that talk about the difference between the msi runtime process of a Patch versus a Minor or Small Update?

Thanks.

Scott

DebbieL wrote:
A patch is a mechanism for distributing a minor upgrade or a small update with a small footprint. Creating a patch involves first creating the upgrade and then packaging it as a patch. For more details, see Packaging Options for Upgrades. The InstallShield help has an entire section called "Updating Applications," and it explains more about upgrades and patches. The following page has several valuable white papers on upgrades and patches:
http://www.acresso.com/downloads/downloads_7481.htm

[DebbieL]

Hmm. I guess I don't quite understand what you did in the Patch Design view. A patch is basically the difference between two different .msi packages. Did you specify a path for the before and after .msi files, or browse to the .msi files? So, the screen shot below has a Latest1 node and a Previous1 node. When the Latest1 node is selected, the right pane has a field that lets you specify the path of your new release. When the Previous1 node is selected, the right pane has a field that lets you specify the path of your old release. Have you configured your patch this way? Or are you doing something else?

[sgoldstein]

Hi Debbie,

No, this is what we did.

My confusion lies in the sentence ""Creating a patch involves first creating the upgrade". When I intepret this, I believe it to mean that I have to create something in the Upgrades View first. So, maybe this is just a misintepretation of the documentation.

If this is the case, I suppose I have just one question left - Are there any white papers or documentation that talk about the difference between the msi runtime process of a Patch versus a Minor or Small Update?

Thanks.

Scott

DebbieL wrote:
Hmm. I guess I don't quite understand what you did in the Patch Design view. A patch is basically the difference between two different .msi packages. Did you specify a path for the before and after .msi files, or browse to the .msi files? So, the screen shot below has a Latest1 node and a Previous1 node. When the Latest1 node is selected, the right pane has a field that lets you specify the path of your new release. When the Previous1 node is selected, the right pane has a field that lets you specify the path of your old release. Have you configured your patch this way? Or are you doing something else?

[PilotBob]

sgoldstein wrote:

My confusion lies in the sentence ""Creating a patch involves first creating the upgrade". When I intepret this, I believe it to mean that I have to create something in the Upgrades View first. So, maybe this is just a misintepretation of the documentation.

The "upgrade" is just an install project with your new resources and PackageCode and perhaps ProductVersion. You should be able to correctly run this "upgraded" installer on your project and have it work correctly. So, yes you are reading it wrong.

Once that is done, you can author a patch pointing that the previous MSI(s) you want it to be able to patch.

BOb

(Personally, I have never seen a need to add something to the "upgrade" view unless you want it to do things like only upgrade certain versions or update a previous install that has a different upgrade code than your current package. But, that's just me.)

[DebbieL]

About this:

Are there any white papers or documentation that talk about the difference between the msi runtime process of a Patch versus a Minor or Small Update?

Sorry, I don't know of anything like that.