Suite project makes no entry in Add/Remove Programs

[Shuttledude]

I have a Suite project "MySuite". It installs several features, for simplicity say "Feature1", Feature2", etc. Here is the buggy behavior: if I use the Custom install type and select just one feature at a time, for all features except one I get the expected behavior: the feature installs, and auto-uninstalls when I select to uninstall MySuite from Add/Remove Programs. However, for just one particular feature, if I select it (and no other feature) that feature does indeed get installed, and its entry "Feature4" is in Add/Remove Programs. But ... there is no entry made for "MySuite" in Add/Remove Programs!!

What could be causing this?? There is no difference in the features as far as I can tell, *except* that its feature name used to contain blanks. I renamed the feature to eliminate the blanks, though.

Any ideas?

[Shuttledude]

As a follow-up, the feature that is causing the problem has the only 64-bit installation package. That's one difference.

Are there any special rules in the creation of a Suite project that has a mixture of 32-bit and 64-bit packages? Could that be causing the problem I've described, and maybe others as well? Something tells me this is the root of the problem. :confused:

[DebbieL]

Did you try installing the hotfix that Sheryl posted in the following thread?
http://community.flexerasoftware.com/showthread.php?t=199676
If that doesn't help, I recommended posting the log file. That may help identify what's going on.

[MichaelU]

The other thing I would verify, based on looking at the earlier project you sent me, is to make sure your detection condition is accurate. As John talked about in Mode Condition..., the detection conditions are used to figure out the mode condition. What I don't think he mentioned is that they are also used to determine whether the package was installed, and that's what controls whether the suite creates an ARP entry.

So I would check the detect condition for Feature4. If it evaluates to false and it was the only package you installed, the Suite will think nothing is installed and omit the ARP entry.

(Did you get my email about the detect conditions on the other package? I haven't seen a response and lost track of the community thread it was related to.)

[Shuttledude]

MichaelU wrote:
The other thing I would verify, based on looking at the earlier project you sent me, is to make sure your detection condition is accurate. As John talked about in Mode Condition..., the detection conditions are used to figure out the mode condition. What I don't think he mentioned is that they are also used to determine whether the package was installed, and that's what controls whether the suite creates an ARP entry.

So I would check the detect condition for Feature4. If it evaluates to false and it was the only package you installed, the Suite will think nothing is installed and omit the ARP entry.

(Did you get my email about the detect conditions on the other package? I haven't seen a response and lost track of the community thread it was related to.)

MichaelU, long story short, I believe you're right about the detect conditions. I have applied SP1 and the hotfix from the link you gave me, rebooted, recompiled, but it made no difference. I also set the Eligibility Condition for the 64-bit package (OS Version = 6.1- Architecture = x64). That made no difference either. I can sort of "fake out" the install by selecting a pre-existing file on the test computer as the detection condition, which throws the install into Maintenance Mode when I kick it off, and that gives me the key that it "knows" it's installed.

I think this is the key to problem: the Path I'm using for my "File Exists" detection condition (the only clause in the detection condition, by the way) is:
[ProgramFiles64Folder]MY APPS\App One\TheFile.exe

This should correspond to C:\Program Files\MY APPS\App One\TheFile.exe, and that file DOES get installed, but the detection fails, so no entry is made in Add/Remove Programs for the suite app (it does make the entry for App One). Thinking the blanks might be causing the problem, I enclosed the Path in double quotes like this:
"[ProgramFiles64Folder]MY APPS\App One\TheFile.exe"

Recompiled with the quotes, but still no good. Can't get anything to work. Is [ProgramFiles64Folder] the right variable? I'm Windows 7 64-bit. I believe it just can't find or see the file associated with the detection condition.

[MichaelU]

Ah, yeah that looks like a problem case. I can work around it by adding a 64-bit MSI package and putting an extra backslash in the path, making it look like [ProgramFiles64Folder]\MyPathHere. Neither of these steps should be necessary, so I'm filing IOA-000067153 to track this.

[Shuttledude]

MichaelU wrote:
Ah, yeah that looks like a problem case. I can work around it by adding a 64-bit MSI package and putting an extra backslash in the path, making it look like [ProgramFiles64Folder]\MyPathHere. Neither of these steps should be necessary, so I'm filing IOA-000067153 to track this.

MichaelU, just a little more info. that might be useful for you: I now have a workaround, but the only way I got it to work was to spell out the path in the Detection condition (C:\Program Files\MY APPS\App One\TheFile.exe), and avoid [ProgramFiles64Folder] altogether -- even when I inserted the trailing backslash it still could not find the file.

Since 99% of our customers install to drive C:\ and use 64-bit Win7, this workaround is painless. By the way, the automated uninstall of the app also worked (i.e., uninstalling the top-level Suite correctly auto-uninstalled the 64-bit app ... hooray!:) )