Unexpected Pre-Requisites

[robert_sanford]

I have an installer in which I have specified a handful of prerequisites (SQL Server Compact 4 for instance) and have modified the path to those files to a location that is
a) Shared across the developer and TFS build boxes and
b) Specified in the Tools->Options->Prerequisites dialog panel.

Those prerequisites work just fine and dandy.

But I'm now getting errors that there are prerequisites that I have NOT specified that cannot be found (see build log errors below). I have searched my .ism file (formatted as XML) and NONE of these are specified as prereqs in that. So this must be a "standard" set of prerequisites that are being included by InstallShield.

But if they are being included by default then they should be respecting the path that I specified in the options dialog.

How do I tell InstallShield where to look for these files so that I have a single location for them that is both shared and respected by InstallShield?

Many thanks!

rjsjr

ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\Windows Installer\3.1\x86\WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe' into setup.exe
ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\WindowsImagingComponent\x86\wic_x86_enu.exe' into setup.exe
ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\Windows Installer\3.1\x86\WindowsServer2003-KB898715-x86-enu.exe' into setup.exe
ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\WindowsImagingComponent\x64\wic_x64_enu.exe' into setup.exe
ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\Windows Installer\3.1\ia64\WindowsServer2003-KB898715-ia64-enu.exe' into setup.exe
ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\Windows Installer\3.1\x64\WindowsServer2003-KB898715-x64-enu.exe' into setup.exe
ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\Windows Installer\3.1\x64\WindowsXP-KB898715-x64-enu.exe' into setup.exe
ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\Microsoft .net\3.5 SP1\Full\dotnetfx35.exe' into setup.exe
ISDEV : error -6003: An error occurred streaming 'C:\Program Files (x86)\InstallShield\2013\SetupPrerequisites\Microsoft .net\3.5 SP1\Full\Helper.exe' into setup.exe

[DebbieL]

InstallShield is likely pulling these in because they are dependencies of ones that you selected to include in your project. For example, some of the .NET Framework prerequisites require minimum versions of Windows Installer and Windows Imaging Component, so these prequisites are listed as dependencies of those .NET Framework prerequisites.

To see the dependencies that are associated with a prerequisite, click the prerequisite, and then review the Dependencies section in the Details pane (the pane on the right). If the Details pane is not visible, you'll need to click the Show Details button in the view. (It's the third button in the row of buttons.)

So, you'll need to do one of the following:
* Change the locations of the prerequistes that are referenced in the build errors.
* If you know the dependencies will already be present on target systems, you may want to consider removing the dependencies from the prerequisites that you added to your project. To do this, you would right-click a prerequisite that includes dependencies and then click the edit option. On the Dependencies tab, remove the applicable references.
* Some combination of the above two options.

I hope that helps.

[robert_sanford]

Debbie,

First - Thank you. This was very helpful. My problem is not yet solved but at least I'm pointed in the correct direction.

I went into the Dependencies and replaced the path placeholder with instead since this is where our prereqs are stored in TFS. I re-ran the build and received the exact same error with the exact same file paths.

What I'm finding as I dig deeper into this is that the prerequisites all seem to ignore the configuration in Tools->Options and that I have to go in and manually modify each of the prereq files themselves.

I'm also finding that unlike other areas of the application the prerequisite path editor does not seem to provide support for path variables. I want to store my prereq files relative to the project file because that's how our builds are managed but the path dialog doesn't recognize/respect path variables at all.

Both of these are very frustrating.

rjsjr

DebbieL wrote:
InstallShield is likely pulling these in because they are dependencies of ones that you selected to include in your project. For example, some of the .NET Framework prerequisites require minimum versions of Windows Installer and Windows Imaging Component, so these prequisites are listed as dependencies of those .NET Framework prerequisites.

To see the dependencies that are associated with a prerequisite, click the prerequisite, and then review the Dependencies section in the Details pane (the pane on the right). If the Details pane is not visible, you'll need to click the Show Details button in the view. (It's the third button in the row of buttons.)

So, you'll need to do one of the following:
* Change the locations of the prerequistes that are referenced in the build errors.
* If you know the dependencies will already be present on target systems, you may want to consider removing the dependencies from the prerequisites that you added to your project. To do this, you would right-click a prerequisite that includes dependencies and then click the edit option. On the Dependencies tab, remove the applicable references.
* Some combination of the above two options.

I hope that helps.

[DebbieL]

Ah, well, Tools > Options > Prerequisites is simply where you specify the paths that you want InstallShield to search when building releases that include prerequisites. For more information, see Specifying the Directories that Contain InstallShield Prerequisites. It does not influence where the prerequisites and their files are actually stored.

If it helps, when you are specifying paths of the files for a prerequisite, you can use paths that are relative to the prerequisite's .prq file. For example, if the .prq and its .exe file are in the same folder, you can use this to specify the path and file name of your .exe file:
.\MyFile.exe

[robert_sanford]

Debbie,

Thank you so much! I'm up and running the way that I wanted to be.

rjsjr

DebbieL wrote:
Ah, well, Tools > Options > Prerequisites is simply where you specify the paths that you want InstallShield to search when building releases that include prerequisites. For more information, see Specifying the Directories that Contain InstallShield Prerequisites. It does not influence where the prerequisites and their files are actually stored.

If it helps, when you are specifying paths of the files for a prerequisite, you can use paths that are relative to the prerequisite's .prq file. For example, if the .prq and its .exe file are in the same folder, you can use this to specify the path and file name of your .exe file:
.\MyFile.exe