Providing the necessary information to allow a Support Engineer to begin troubleshooting your issue is one of the best ways to avoid delays.  This article discusses what type of information to include and how to gather it when submitting an InstallAnywhere case to Flexera Technical Support.

Version and Edition of InstallAnywhere

Include the version and edition of InstallAnywhere used to design and build the installer.  Going to Help > About InstallAnywhere in the IDE is one of the easiest ways to verify this information.

IDE or Standalone Build

Specify whether you are using InstallAnywhere as a standalone product with its IDE or using the Standalone Build to build a project.

InstallAnywhere Project File
Provide your InstallAnywhere project file. This file has a .iap_xml file extension. The project file allows the Support Engineer to review your project settings, try to reproduce the issue, and so forth.

When the Error Occurs

Most errors can be classified as either a “Design-/Build-Time Error” or an “Install-Time/Runtime Error” depending on whether the issue occurs in the process of creating your installer or when running your installer.

A Full Java Stack Trace, If Applicable

If there is an error and/or a Java stack trace, it is critical to provide the full error message and/or full Java stack trace. This information is useful in tracing the origin and possible cause of the issue.

Expected Versus Actual Results

Describe in as much detail as possible what you expect the behavior to be and what the actual behavior observed is.

Screenshots

When applicable, including screenshots often provides valuable information that supplements the written description of the issue.  Screenshots comparing expected to unexpected or desired to actual appearance/behavior can be incredibly helpful.

Reproducibility

The best way to ensure a timely resolution to your issue is to provide a list of steps the Support Engineer can use to reproduce the issue you’re reporting.  Steps to reproduce that start with creating a new project in InstallAnywhere are the best, though not always possible.  Detailed steps to reproduce the issue allow the Support Engineer to understand the exact scenario and submit the issue to Engineering if necessary.

Verbose Log File

Attaching a verbose log file from when the issue was reproduced is always a good idea.  See the following Knowledge Base articles for more information regarding generating a log file:

Logging an Installation with InstallAnywhere

Verbosely Log a Command-Line Build on Windows and Linux

Verbosely Log a Command Line Build on Mac

Additional Pertinent Details

Providing any additional details you believe are integral to the issue being reported is most often helpful.  It’s often better to provide more details than necessary rather than providing too few.