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Visual FoxPro Tips |
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Using InstallShield
Express For Distributing Your VFP Application. |
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The setup program
that came with VFP 5 and 6 worked just fine for
me. I took it for granted that my applications would
install properly on user's computers. Actually the
only complaint I had was from some users who could
not find the "large button" when the installation
program promoted: "To start installation, click
the large button." (some users didn't realize
the large computer icon was actually a button!). |
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As you know the
traditional setup wizard was removed from the latest
version of Visual FoxPro. Instead VFP 7 includes
a special version of InstallShield Express (ISE)
for distributing applications. While ISE offers
some capabilities that were not present in the older
VFP setup program, these new capabilities come at
a price. The setup program is now more complicated,
takes longer to learn, and does not always work
on user's computers! |
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The following tips
will go over some of the issues we had with ISE
and how we solved them. |
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Application Shortcut
Launching Installation Program! |
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The first problem
our users reported with ISE is a weird "reinstall"
problem. Our default installation includes a "Data"
folder with blank dbf files. If users want to use
shared data, they can either delete or move this
folder to some other location. While this worked
fine with the old installer, users had trouble doing
this procedure with ISE installations. Once the
data folder was removed, every time the user attempted
to launch the application, ISE came up instead and
attempted to reinstall the software. Of course since
the installation CD was no longer present, this
lead to even more errors and problems! |
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The reason for
this problems is that ISE creates an "Advertised"
shortcut. Whenever this shortcut is launched, it
will launch the Windows Installer, which would in
turn make sure all the files needed to run your
application are installed. If not, it will attempt
to install them again before launching the application! |
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The solution to
this problem is to create a normal shortcut. To
do this in ISE, in the shortcuts view TYPE IN the
target as [INSTALLDIR]...exe instead of selecting
it from the drop-down combo. |
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Suppress a Common
InstallShield Error on Windows 2000 |
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Some of our users
reported the following InstallShield error when
attempting to install an application on Windows
2000 Professional: |
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"1207: Windows®
Installer 1.11.2405.0 found. This is an older version
of Windows®. Click OK to continue." |
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The error message
gave users the impression that the software will
not run on their "older version of Windows".
Fortunately, this is not the case and the message
is harmless. If the users click on "OK",
installation will continue without further trouble. |
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The error is caused
by version discrepancies with Windows Installer.
There is an update to the Windows installer engine(MsiExec.exe)
in ISE which is newer than the version of MsiExec.exe
included with Windows 2000/SP1. However, Windows
2000 will not allow updating files in the System
folder, which causes the error message. Older version
of Windows will allow the update and you will not
see the error message there. |
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Luckily there is
away to suppress this error message. Here's how: |
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Go to "Build
Your Release" View. |
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Select the media type to build. |
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Set the "Suppress Launcher
Warning" property to "Yes". |
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Build the project as usual.
The warning message will not appear. |
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TAKING ADVANTAGE
OF INSTALLSHIELD "FEATURES" |
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One of the advantages
of InstallShield Express over the older installer
is having three installation options: Typical, Minimal,
and Custom. For example, you can setup the Minimum
install so it only installs your software .exe file.
The Typical install can do a full installation including
.exe file, database files, and documentation. While
the Custom install gives user the option to decided
which they want installed. |
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To set this up,
first you need to create "features". A
feature is a building block of the application.
For example, the documentation files of your application
can be setup as a separate feature. The users can
then decide whether to install the documentation
files at setup time. |
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When you start
a new InstallShield project, you only have a single
feature called "Always Install". All files
in this feature are automatically installed regardless
of the setup type the user selects. To add your
own features, first click on "Features"
in the "Organize Your Setup" menu then
right click on the word "Features" in
the middle pane and select "New Feature Ins".
Type the new name of the feature and hit enter.
For example, you might add a feature called "Database
files" and another called "Manuals". |
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Next you need to
tell InstallShield which features to include in
the three setup types (Typical, Minimal, and Custom).
Click on "Setup Types" in the "Organize
Your Setup" menu. Click on the setup type you
want to setup and then simply check features you
want to include with the selected setup type. For
example, click on the "Minimal" setup
and only leave the "Always Install" option
checked. Note that you can also customize the text
that appears to users when they select each setup
type by entering the text in the "Setup Type
Description" box. |
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Now you need to
let InstallShield now which files to include with
each feature. To do this, select "Files"
in the "Specify Application Data" menu.
At the top of the middle pane you will see a "Features"
drop down box. Use this drop-down to select the
feature you want to setup, and then drag the files
from your source computer folders to the appropriate
place in the Destination computer. To set up the
next feature, simply use the feature drop-down to
select it and then drag the associated files to
the proper location. |
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What if you want
to move a file from one feature to another? In that
case click on the "Files and Features"
item in the "Specify Application Data"
menu. To move a file from one feature to another,
first click on the features that currently have
that file and drag the file and drop it to its new
feature. You can select and drag a single file or
a group of files using the ctrl key. To remove a
file from setup completely, select the file and
hit the delete key. |
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Another thing you
can do with features is to create special shortcuts
for files installed with certain features. For example,
you can create a shortcut to the User's Manual and
only install that shortcut if the "Manuals"
feature is installed. |
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We use features
to give users the opportunity to only install the
.exe file if the data files are shared on another
machine. Also if a user selects "custom"
install, he or she can specify whether to install
the user's manuals, or data files as well. |
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This tip is provided
to you by Foxy
Classes. For more Visual FoxPro tips,
click here. |
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