All or nothing atomic installs..

[MikeWilson]

Dear Community,

I am deploying a .NET 2.0 application with some third party .dll's.

I have a problem on Windows XP whereby if a user (without .NET 2.0 - which is a "CORE PRE-REQUISITE") somehow interrupts the installation process, .NET 2.0 doesn't install and yet my application does.

I want an all-or-nothing install.

If they do not have .NET 2.0, it installs and then our software installs.

Some users have reported errors during our install process (they don't say what, the error appears and dissapears somewhat quickly) which seems to sometimes not install the Report Viewer pre-requisite or the .NET Framework.

This is all the information I have right now, but is there a setting to somehow force an atomic installation?

[MikeWilson]

A quick reproduction - if the .NET 2.0 framework installation is cancelled, the software still installs.

If I check ".NET Framework is Installed" under "System Software Requirements", will this solve the .NET issue - or will it prevent the .NET Framework from being installed, as it wasn't already installed when the installer runs?

Also, assuming the above fixes the .NET deployment scenario, what about the Report Viewer (and other) components that install, if the user clicks them?

(I have some very, very, very, stupid users - sorry, if you're reading this!)

Any advice to bulletproof the pre-requisites process would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Unregistered]

Mike,

Why not use the Get System Information (.NET Status) function to find out if the users has a valid .NET2 installation. If not, terminate the installation?

Peter

[MikeWilson]

Because if they don't have it, they need it.

My user base are comprised mostly of illiterate 40-50 year old males, working in construction, who have no idea what a "mouse" or "keyboard" is. They report every fault in the software as a "download problem" and really can't cope with getting the .NET 2.0 framework themselves.

In fact, if I were to say, .NET - they'd look at me like a dog being shown a card trick.

I need to atomicalise (is that a word) the installation process so that the pre-requisites I select in SetupBuilder actually install or not.

Currently, the installation works by:

Install pre-req 1
Install pre-req 2
Install pre-req 3
Install software

If 1 or 2 get 'cancelled' - one user smashes the escape key and clicks all over the instllation progress message - cancelling the installation of certain pre-requisites... then my software is still invited to be installed - and of course, crashes once it is run!

I need to install ALL of the above elements, or NOTHING. But, if they don't have the .NET Framework installed, they need it installed.

This works fine for users prepared to wait patiently for 5-10 minutes for the installer to do its thing.

But for the other 50% of users, it's not working as they impatiently abort processes and cancel pre-requisite installs, falsely believing them to be error messages :(

Can I hide the pre-req installation progress dialogs?

Surely I must be able to do something, and quickly from within the GUI without scripting (haven't got a great deal of time here).

[linder]

Mike,

What about the following (see screenshot).

You can check whether the .NET installation was successful. If not, terminate the installation.

What do you think?

Friedrich

[MikeWilson]

Brilliant, I'll give it a shot.

What about the other pre-requisites? I'm using the redistributables downloaded from the Lindersoft server, nothing complicated, just:

Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1 (not caused a problem)
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC 2.8) (not caused a problem)
Microsoft Report Viewer 2005 redistributable (problem - possible to quit this)

Many thanks,

Mike

[linder]

Mike,

Very good question :)

I have to check whether the Microsoft redistributables return an error code. If this is the case, we can use that error code to find out whether the install succeeded or not.

I'll do this tomorrow morning (SetupBuilder 6.5 will reach code-complete status later today).

I will keep you posted.

Friedrich

Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

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[MikeWilson]

Thanks Friedrich,

I have a play myself and see :p