Christopher Painter wrote: Speechless. If wasn't a crazy idea, basically what you can do now with the new tfs vnext builds and release tasks ... View more

Christopher Painter wrote: Are you seriously proposing using MSBuild to call a batch file to call a VBScript to call an EXE when all of this can be done natively in MSBuild? Yes using msbuild to call a script, it gives me much more flexibility specially when dealing with automation tasks. And all the major build tasks are separated in build definitions that anybody can trigger from teamviewer, or group in a batch using tfsbuild and add to the tree. All I need to know about msbuild is "Exec Command=" that's it This is what a build script would look like in a simple batch file that anybody can modify or use as reference to create their own, they can also go to team viewer and trigger anything from there. rem increments the build number tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectInstallerProjects IncrementBuildNumber rem visual studio solutions builds start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectVisualStudio VSProject1 start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectVisualStudio VSProject2 start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectVisualStudio VSProject3 start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectVisualStudio VSProject4 start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectVisualStudio VSProject5 start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectVisualStudio VSProject6 start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectVisualStudio VSProject7 tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectVisualStudio VSProject8 rem Installers builds start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectInstallerProjects CopyTFSBuilds start tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectInstallerProjects Installers_WindowsApps_Build_All tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectInstallerProjects Installers_WebApps_Build_All tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectInstallerProjects Installers_WindowsServices_Build_All tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectInstallerProjects Installers_SQLDBMigrations_Build_All tfsbuild start http://domain:8080/tfs/defaultcollection TeamProjectInstallerProjects Installers_ReportsDeployments_Build_All ... View more

NeilHayes wrote: Thank you for your input......I'm going to set up a very small project and see how far I get. If all goes well I'll implement it on all my builds. Regards Neil You can just call your isdev commands from a batch. Something like this goes in your .isproj file (the one you select as project to build in TFS) Something like this goes in your batch file: ISCmdBld.exe -p "%InstallersProjectsPath%\YourInstallshielProject.ism" -r "YourRelease" -c COMP -a "YourProductConfiguration" You can also just call a vbscript from the batch and handle all the installshield part in a vbscript file, or whatever you like Indeed, you can use the build service just like a windows scheduling service to schedule whatever you want, you don't need an installshield project or visual studio solution, just use the Exec Command You can create a Build definition for each "Build Target" and schedule them on demand or apply the same batch approach using tfsbuild start to trigger whatever group of Build definitions (or targets) you want automatically ... View more

psexec tool will do the job and works flawesly with pure installscript setups with response files arguments for silent installs ... View more

You get to set OverwriteMainOptions to 1 instead of 4 so it works as the option #4 per installshield 2011 help files. (when using the automation object to create installscript projects) ... View more

Why removing the Merge modules objects and the features they provide from the Installscript based project model instead of improving it? Merge module objects provide fuctionality to dynamically link merge modules produced by other tools that allow collaboration, for example WIX. And it was the only option I could find to really allow collaboration for this type of projects when combined with some transformations to the ISFeatureMergeModules and ISMergeModule tables in the .ism project to fit adding the merge modules automatically in an automated builds environment. Why flexera opted for removing merge modules support for their most flexible project type (installscript), instead of adding Merge Modules to the automation inteface (that could be achieved by simply modifying the ISFeatureMergeModules and ISMergeModule tables) that would bring a lot of value when it comes to collaboration. I share Michael Forshaw concern, how would you achieve the object - feature association functionality with prerequisites in IS Installscript 2012 ? The only way I see it is by completelly programming the feature - object logic in a script that run as a prerequisite, which doesn't worth the upgrade to 2012 There are type of projects like the "No Maintenance" ones, that could be used to deploy stuff internally etc... that don't mind the upgrade/maintenance issues with the merge module object in those scenarios. ... View more

I'm adding a script using IS automation and updating the ISWiSQLScript properties. Do you know why MySQLScript.Name fail? set MySQLScript = MySQLConnection.ISWiSQLScripts("SQLScript" & ScriptNo) MySQLScript.FullPath=InstallersFilesPath & "SQLDeployments\" & scriptName MySQLScript.Order=ScriptNo MySQLScript.Name="test" No matter the name I use MySQLScript.Name throws error: Microsoft VBScript runtime error: Object required: 'MySQLScript' It only happen with MySQLScript.Name, I can set all the other properties and much more without a problem And I can read MySQLScript.Name, wscript.echo MySQLScript.Name returns the script name, but it fails when I try to set a name by using MySQLScript.Name="newname" Note: MySQLConnection.AddSQLScriptEx works as alternative to set the name when creating the script Thanks, Orlando ... View more

operaza wrote: Hello, Is there a way to use a variable in installscript projects so the text substitution happen based on a custom value set a run time? Thanks I was missing the % %, it worked by using: 1- the %variable% in the script (sql script tab) 2- in the script text replacement tab find what: %variable% replace with: 3- Calling the function TextSubSetValue ( " ", "Now it Works", TRUE ) ... View more

Create a database (that could also be updated automatically for new "environments") and use the installshield automation object to create your installer project with the information from the database. For stuff not supported by the automation interface, which I'm sure you will find in the process, you can use xmldom to modify directly the .ism project as part of the build script, and you can also use WixXML to create merge modules for stuff not supported in installscript projects (thanks Christopher Painter for the tips) ... View more

Hello, Is there a way to use a variable in installscript projects so the text substitution happen based on a custom value set a run time? Thanks hidenori wrote: Can you try a new InstallScript project with a very simple SQL script like this? CREATE DATABASE %DBNAME% GO Add the following SQL Text Replacement, and see if the Hello database is created on the target server. Find What: %DBNAME% Replace With: Hello ... View more

Hello, I used the rs.exe tool to deploy reports from tfs changes. Then IT management asked me to deploy every single report with the tool (about 300s reports, total size around 40Mb) and it took the rs.exe around 30min to deploy those. I wrote the equivalent to what the rs was doing in a .net program to bypass the compiling step and there wasn't any major performance increase. My questions are? Do you guys know if this is expected behavior? Do you guys could share your experience in this regard? Thanks ... View more

On Error Resume Next URL = WScript.Arguments(0) Set oXMLHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP.6.0") oXMLHTTP.open "GET", URL, false oXMLHTTP.send Result="URLNotFound" If oXMLHTTP.status = 200 Then Result="URLFound" else Result="URLNotFound" End If ... View more

I was running some tests and the only way I found was by modifying the project xml file directly (the ISFeatureMergeModules and ISMergeModule tables) using xml transforms through scripts But I guess there should be a cleaner way to do this, maybe through the IS automation object?? It isn't that hard either way when using xmldom through the automation script adding the merge modules, just add a row in ISFeatureMergeModules for the feature/s containing the merge module/s, and an entry in ISMergeModule for each merge module you are adding. Thanks ... View more

In installscript there is a method (AddObject) that can be used to add the objects but you need to pass a "moniker" to that method. In InstallShield help it specify: "To get an InstallScript object's moniker, create a new Professional project in the IDE and add the InstallScript object to a feature, then go to the Direct Editor view's ISFeatureExtended table and see the Moniker column." Is there another way to get the moniker or add objects automatically without having to go through creating a new project and checking the direct editor? Thanks ... View more

As an alternative to Mike's advice you can also check for the URL of the reporting services web service availability with a simple vbscript, a lot of time the SSRS is in a different computer. And a lot of times you are developing reports deployment tools instead of real installers so checking for the URL works also. On Error Resume Next URL = WScript.Arguments(0) Set oXMLHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP.6.0") oXMLHTTP.open "GET", URL, false oXMLHTTP.send Result="URLNotFound" If oXMLHTTP.status = 200 Then Result="URLFound" End If wscript.echo Result ... View more