Upgrade installshield 2003 to 2012

[topgun]

Hi all,

I am looking to upgrade installshield version 8 to the latest 2012 professional or enterprise version. I am fairly new to installshield can anyone help me in doing the upgrade process from scratch..

Thanks

[DebbieL]

The best place to start is to review the applicable help topics in the "Upgrading from Earlier InstallShield Versions" section of the help, as shown in the screen shot below. I don't think we've ever released a version called InstallShield 2003. In any case, though, you'll want to open your .ism file in InstallShield, and InstallShield will convert the project to InstallShield 2012 for you.

[rguggisberg]

Each time I have upgraded it has been relatively painless.
I would recommend that you leave your old version installed so that you can go back and refer to your options. There are a few that you may have to change under Tools, Options
Merge Modules
Preferences

[topgun]

Thanks for the reply I simply ran the old project(which was in version8) in 2012.. But I get this error message cant find dotnetsp1 in the redistributable folder, I would like to make installshield not look for dotnetsp1 can anyone suggest a way to do this...

[DebbieL]

Which project type are you using? (InstallShield shows the project type within square brackets in the title bar.)

Also, which version of .NET Framework? As described in the following help topic, there are different ways to add the .NET Framework to a project. It depends on which version of .NET Framework you are including, as well as which project type you are using. In order to fix the error, it's necessary to figure out where the missing redistributable file is supposed to be, and what type of redistributable (for example, InstallShield prerequisite) it is.
Adding .NET Framework Redistributables to Projects

[topgun]

I just exclude the dotnet redistributable for the error but I have another where the installshield is unable read anything from the source directory ..Can anyone help on this

[DebbieL]

Can you provide the exact error number and message? And also the project type?

[topgun]

there is no specific error number for this when test the release i dont see installshield copying any files from the sourcedir

[palanisamy]

You need to check in Installshield IDE 'Media -> Pathvariable" is defined corresponding path of sourceDir.

[topgun]

The path variables looks correct and indicating the right folders i ran the same .ism file in installshield version 11 it worked fine. The SOURCEDIR is empty does anyone know any alternative for this. thanks

[MichaelU]

Is this in a deferred custom action? If so, you need to use CustomActionData to pass this around. See the migration notes for InstallShield 12.

[topgun]

this is in the installscript in debug mode and also when running the setup misses some files. I use the resolvesourceaction in the userinterface sequences. How can i use customactiondata for getting the sourcedir

[topgun]

i m looking to uninstall existing msde or sql server instance using the script. is there a way to dis