I.S. Express Update?

[DSummZZZ]

I'm using VFP 9 and InstallShield Express v5.0 on an XP Pro box.

I get a notice saying InstallShield 12 Express is available.
Have any of you upgraded yet? Any pros? Cons?


-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[Mike Lewis]

Dave,

I see you didn't get any replies (the forum has been unusually quiet lately).

I haven't tried the new version of ISE Express yet, but I would be disinclined to upgrade unless you have any particular issues that the new version will solve.

In fact, I'm likely to abandon ISE completely. Following the advice of several people, I recently tried Inno Setup, and I find it considerably easier than ISE. I have just created my first Inno script, and I will be trying it out at the client's site next week. If all goes well, I'll definitely go over to this product.

Mike

__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[DSummZZZ]

Mike,

That's sort of what I was thinking. I haven't had any issues with the 'default' version that came with VFP 9, so I didn't see a reason to upgrade unless someone had any issues I hadn't foreseen. But ISE is a pain to use.

I would be interested to know how you fare with Inno Setup though so please do post your results when you get a chance.


-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[Mike Lewis]

Dave,

Well, I've just run my first Inno setup at the client's site, and it went like a dream.

Creating the script was fairly easy. I had to do a bit of digging to figure out where to find all the VFP run time files, but that's a one-off process. For my next script, I'll re-use most of what I've already got.

Inno generates a single SETUP.EXE file for distribution to the user. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was less than 5 MB. That includes the setup program itself, two (compressed) VFP executables, a help file, empty data structures, VFP run times files, and VFP help support file. Admittedly, the EXEs are quite small, but even so, the small size of the setup program is admirable. (The script file was only 4K -- but then it's only a simple text file.)

The actual installation went completely smoothly, with no problems of any kind. It only took about 20 seconds to install the whole thing.

I can't see myself ever going back to InstallShield (at least, not by choice). I'd definitely recommend you look at Inno. You can download the program from

http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php

Doug Hennig has written a useful paper which shows an example Inno script for installing the VFP runtimes and supporting DLLs. I got my copy from Doug at SW Fox last month, but it's probably also on his site.

Hope this of interest.

Mike



__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)

My Visual FoxPro site: www.ml-consult.co.uk

 

[DSummZZZ]

Thanks Mike. I may give it a try one of these days.
Of course, I already have my current setup made with ISE.


-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm

 

[TamarGranor]

Just to add my 2 cents worth, I've been working with Inno for a while now. Until recently, I rarely had to create setups, so I don't have a lot of experience with this.

I found learning Inno to be easy and the results quite good. For the first app I used it for, not only do I have a regular installation, but two post-setup EXEs and everything works flawlessly.

Tamar

 

[DSummZZZ]

I appreciate the input Tamar.




-Dave Summers-

Even more Fox stuff at:

http://www.davesummers.net/foxprolinks.htm