0_mhamsa asked a question.
Smart Device Setup Project -No CABS
I've got a smart device setup project that isn't generating any cabs. The build is successful and no errors or warnings are reported. The "test" setup project I'm working in is extremely simple - 3 files, 2 registry settings and 1 shortcut and it looks like I can change the target platform configuration of the files and get it to work or not work pretty much at will. I read a somewhat unrelated post that states "targeting multiple device platforms in InstallShield 2008 and 2009 is problematic" but no additional details were provided.
Our "real" smart device setup project has about 50 file and 41 registry setting and target 3 different platforms so if it fairly complex, but I'd expect a simple project with 2 or 3 files to work every time. I upgraded it from InstallShield 12 (which had its own set of problems) so I could target Windows Mobile 6.0 and Windows Mobile 6.1 much easier.
Has anyone experienced this or have any additional information.
mike...
So perhaps you are experiencing the same problem (try dropping and re-adding your files through the UI once more to make sure they are properly linked).
================= Logging started at 12/15/2008 03:38:21 PM ==================
Created release folders
Building Smart Device Setup...
Analyzing data in Application "MyApp Mobile"...
Creating INF file for Application "MyApp Mobile"...
Building CAB files for Application "MyApp Mobile"...
Release - 0 error(s), 0 warning(s)
================= Logging stopped at 12/15/2008 03:38:23 PM ==================
Log file has been created:
Created release folders
Building Smart Device Setup...
Analyzing data in Application "Test"...
Creating INF file for Application "Test"...
Building CAB files for Application "Test"...
Release - 0 error(s), 0 warning(s)
This is a new project I created just to test this problem so I know the files are all linked correctly - it only has 3 files and 2 registry entries? Nothing real complicated.
Our "real" project has over 40 files - it takes close to 10 minutes for the build to complete - and no cabs are generated. This is a project we were building in IS 12 in about 1 minute - and we actually got the CABs. I have a feeling there's a fairly significant bug in the Smart Device Wizard in IS 2009.
How do get InstallShield support? I sent an email to installshieldsupport@acresso.com last week and haven't gotten anything from them at all?
It would be worth considering using Visual Studio to generate the CAB file and consuming that CAB file from within the IS project.
This is horrible – InstallShield 2009 simply does not work!
I inspected the inf file that IS 2009 generated and it is bad - it contains multiple duplicate sections. The inf file generated from IS 12 is 16KB - the inf file generated from IS 2009 for the exact same project (upgraded obviously) is 1,247KB - much larger. I suspect that IS 2009 is generating the inf incorrectly before calling CABWIZ. I'm trying to "work around" this bug now by creating IS projects for each platform - I may try Visual Studio to see if that works any better, but I went to IS because at the time it seemed to be a little easier - now I'm not sure.
This is why I upgraded to 2009, so we could support multiple platforms, including Windows Mobile 6.0.
The question is why doesn't Acresso fix this apparent bug in IS 2009? It obviously is not working correctly and I can replicate the problem with a very simple problem.
mike...
Thank you for your patience and cooperation.
I'll put one together and send it to the email address you supplied. It seems to occur when multiple platforms are targeted.
mike...
Regards.cabwiz
I placed the new cabwiz in the support folder and I was able to successfully build the the test project I provided, however when I attempt to build our real installation (over 40 files targeting various platforms) InstallShield appears to be caught in some sort of loop rebuilding the different CABs over and over again - I can look at the release folder and see the PPC.420.DAT file created, then deleted, then the PPC500.DAT file created, then deleted, then the PPC420.DAT file created, then delete, then the PPC500.DAT file created then delete - the cycle continues over and over again.
It eventually built the CABs, but it took over ten minutes to build a project that took only 1 minute with InstallShield 12. The inf file is almost 2MB, compared with an inf file of 40k from InstallShield 12. The log file from the build is 543MB - that's 543,673k - seems like something may be wrong with the inf causing cabwiz to "freak out".
It's not ideal, but it works. I'm testing the installs now against the various platforms to see if every get installed correctly. Thanks for your assistance.
mike...
I know there were problems in earlier versions of InstallShield with the PlatformMin and PlatformMax values written out to the inf incorrectly - is this still a problem in IS2009?
mike...
Right now (thanks to hidenori's support) I've gotten IS2009 to generate CABs for each of my platforms PPC400, PPC500, PPC600. It takes close to 10 minutes to build the project because the INF file that IS2009 is generating st horribly botched and contains duplicate sections. But, now that I've got the CABs, they install files into the incorrect places - if I inspect the PPC420 CAB, I see several "duplicated" files, for example MFC80U.dll is in the CAB twice, and when I install the CAB, MFC80U.DLL gets install in the Windows folder (which is where I set it to install in IS2009) - but it also gets installed in the Common Files folder for some reason - I've double checked the Project and I've only got MFC80U.dll in the Project once. It's like this for several files - some files are configured to go to the Windows folder in the IS2009 Project, but they go to a different folder all together when installed to the device.
Just checked, the [Files03.PPC600] section is in the INF file 83 times - it should only be in the inf file 1 time.
:mad:
At this point I'm not sure what to do. Has anyone out there had any luck with the Smart Device Setup in IS2009 targeting multiple platforms? Out setup has 59 additional file and 40 registery setting - not too complicated - it worked fine in IS12?
Thanks,
mike...