Distribute After Build Settings Event is Called Before Postbuild Events

[#1]

Summary

InstallShield currently distributes the built install before postbuild events occur.

Symptoms

InstallShield currently distributes the built install before postbuild events occur. Therefore, any postbuild events that directly modifies the resulting built installer will not be reflected on the distributed copy unless the postbuild event specifies the distribution location for the install.

Cause

An enhancement request to do the postbuild events before the files get distributed or otherwise having an option to do so has been submitted and is pending review from our Engineering team. The issue is being tracked under issue #IOJ-1742499.

Steps To Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create a new Basic MSI project.
2. Add Feature, Component, and file to the project.
3. In the Releases view, add a new release.
4. Select the Release and go to the Events tab.
5. Add the following command to the Postbuild Event field:

6. cmd.exe /c echo "Build Complete" 2>"<ISReleasePath><ISProductConfigName>\<ISReleaseName>\DiskImages\DISK1\MyNewFile.txt"

7. Create a VM Configuration and set the Distribute After Build setting to Yes.
8. Set the Copy to Folder field to a local location, such as the Desktop folder, and the Distribute After Build property to Yes.
9. Build the project.

Workaround

The workaround is to implement distribution as part of the postbuild event or otherwise specify the built install in the distribution location to apply the post build event to the distributed install..