I finally got around to trying to move my application from Paradox 7 Runtime to Paradox 10 Runtime. What was holding me back was the lack of an Installation Package in Paradox 10 Runtime. I thought I would report on my experience if anyone else is facing the same problem.
I first tried to make InstallShield Express Paradox Edition (that comes with Paradox 7) do the install. This was moderately successful. The biggest problem was that I could not change the directory names where Runtime was installed, but it seemed to install everything properly under a Borland directory in Program Files. However it was necessary to completely delete any Paradox 7 Runtime files in these directories prior to installation. I could see that being a problem with users of prior versions and I was not completely sure what might be happening with registry changes (I never tested on a "clean" computer).
Based on advice here I decided to try Inno (see other posts about this). I downloaded the sample Paradox script and Inno and also the 3rd Party GUI (ISTool, or something like that). I edited the script, to replace the sample files and directories with mine. My application has over 100 files, so I fired up the GUI interface to add those with one drag and down. The GUI interface was also handy for easy changing of the appearance of Inno during installation. I couldn't find anything about how to install an icon on the desktop, but a web search located an Inno script that did just that and I manually added the two lines necessary.
I thought InstallShield was rather slow in compressing files to create the delivery exe file. Inno takes about twice as long!
It took me less time to figure out Inno that it did to figure out InstallShield Express the first time. The installation works great. Inno looks more like Wise than InstallShield when running.
The only problem is that users are stuck with a two step installation process (unlike InstallShield which installs Runtime and the BDE also). Your user will have to run the Runtime Installation program and then your application installation program (Inno).
If anyone knows how to make this into a one step process (ie the user only executes one program to install everything) I would like to know about it. There was a cryptic comment with the sample Inno script that talks about Inno being able to launch the Runtime Installer - however it has to be done before running Inno for the registry entries required by Inno (it needs to know where Runtime was installed). However, it implies there might be a work around. Does anyone know?
By that way, that Expert in Paradox 10 that allows you to deliver all the forms/reports in one step and place them in whatever directory you desire is wonderful! Thanks to whoever it was who posted about this feature or I never would have found it!
Lynn
I first tried to make InstallShield Express Paradox Edition (that comes with Paradox 7) do the install. This was moderately successful. The biggest problem was that I could not change the directory names where Runtime was installed, but it seemed to install everything properly under a Borland directory in Program Files. However it was necessary to completely delete any Paradox 7 Runtime files in these directories prior to installation. I could see that being a problem with users of prior versions and I was not completely sure what might be happening with registry changes (I never tested on a "clean" computer).
Based on advice here I decided to try Inno (see other posts about this). I downloaded the sample Paradox script and Inno and also the 3rd Party GUI (ISTool, or something like that). I edited the script, to replace the sample files and directories with mine. My application has over 100 files, so I fired up the GUI interface to add those with one drag and down. The GUI interface was also handy for easy changing of the appearance of Inno during installation. I couldn't find anything about how to install an icon on the desktop, but a web search located an Inno script that did just that and I manually added the two lines necessary.
I thought InstallShield was rather slow in compressing files to create the delivery exe file. Inno takes about twice as long!
It took me less time to figure out Inno that it did to figure out InstallShield Express the first time. The installation works great. Inno looks more like Wise than InstallShield when running.
The only problem is that users are stuck with a two step installation process (unlike InstallShield which installs Runtime and the BDE also). Your user will have to run the Runtime Installation program and then your application installation program (Inno).
If anyone knows how to make this into a one step process (ie the user only executes one program to install everything) I would like to know about it. There was a cryptic comment with the sample Inno script that talks about Inno being able to launch the Runtime Installer - however it has to be done before running Inno for the registry entries required by Inno (it needs to know where Runtime was installed). However, it implies there might be a work around. Does anyone know?
By that way, that Expert in Paradox 10 that allows you to deliver all the forms/reports in one step and place them in whatever directory you desire is wonderful! Thanks to whoever it was who posted about this feature or I never would have found it!
Lynn