My employer currently has access to a singular InstallShield 2016 Professional key. They're looking at upgrading to 2018 Premier and getting a second license, but want me to test out 2018 Premier by working with our actual installer. All of our installer files are checked into version control with the rest of our project.
According to Flexera's documentation, an evaluation copy of InstallShield implements a time limit for running setups produced by it. Makes sense - they don't want you creating your installer in the 21 day limit and then never buying the product.
If I'm careful not to implement anything specific to 2018 or Premier, will checking in anything I create and having it re-built on the machine with the full license avoid triggering this restriction? There are concerns that using the evaluation copy of 2018 Premier in an actual working environment will ruin what's already checked into version control and implement a five-day limit for our installer.
Note: We do plan on using the evaluation copy only as an evaluation. The trial period will be to determine how much more efficient it is to have two devs working on the installer, as well as to figure out if upgrading to Premier is worth the cost. We may or may not end up purchasing a second license at the end of the trial.
The expiration is built based on either the project requesting it, or the use of an evaluation copy of InstallShield for the build. So merely opening and saving the project with an evaluation copy will not mark a project as an evaluation. Nor will making and saving changes.
However, opening and saving a project in a newer version of InstallShield will upgrade the project, rendering it unusable (and thus unbuildable) in the older version of InstallShield. The Professional and Premier editions of the same version are generally compatible, but opening a project in the Professional edition may disable various features that were enabled in the Premier edition, even if you don't attempt to alter them.
Source control should make it easy to undo any project changes that interfere with your builds.
Related
First of all Sorry all that I have to write the lengthy question, But it is necessary to write these things to explain my problem better.
We have an installer to install our application. I want to upgrade the database through installer. So, I have created a snapshot of the latest structure database and placed in the package of the application. I have used the RedGate SQL Comparison SDK API to compare structure of two databases and then synchronize the customer database with the latest snapshot (which I have provided).
I am using custom action class library project to write the methods and those methods will be called the installer itself.
I have purchased the RedGate License key and also RedGate Tool is installed on one machine. On the same machine, I have a installshield license, So I am writing the custom action code on that machine only.
We need to add 'licenses.licx' file in the project where we are using the RedGate SDK API. I have added that file as mentioned in 'http://documentation.red-gate.com/display/CSD11/Distributing+your+SDK+applications'.
I have added that file and the compilation succeeded, as I have the license activated on the same machine. So, first of all to embed the license with the project I had deactivated the RedGate License from the installed RedGate and then While compiling the project I got a popup for activation as shown below:
I have applied the valid license, then I have compiled the installer project from installshield 2014 (which is using the custom action project).
My code of synchronizing the database is working as expected. So, I didn't found any problem in the synchronization code.
Here, the problem is: If I will install the product on the machine which have the Redgate License, then the product will be installed and database will be synchronized successfully. On the client machines, it is obvious that they would not have the RedGate license. The installer is giving the activation popup as shown in above image just before starting the synchronizing.
Even though I have given the valid license at the time of compiling the, I am not able to sync the dbs on other machines.
Hope, someone has a solution for this.
Thanks in anticipation.
Did you rename the assembly after compiling? The engine requires that the assembly file name is the same as the name of the embedded licence resource. Here's a quote from the relevant page in the documentation.
When deploying an assembly utilizing SQL Comparison SDK to a remote site where SQL Comparison SDK is not already installed and activated, you may be asked to activate the SDK, even though the assembly had been built and licensed correctly.
The problem occurs after renaming an assembly. SQL Comparison SDK assemblies cannot be renamed after they are built, because the licensing system requires the licence resource embedded into an assembly to bear the same name as the assembly file name.
You can either change the assembly back to its original name, or change the settings in your Visual Studio project so that the output assembly is compiles as a different name and deploy the assembly built with the desired name.
I used Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) to build my project. Scripts are written in python. The BDD I am having doesn't support Visual Studio 2008.
Please tell me what is the latest version of BDD which supports VS2008
where I can get more info about Business Desktop Deployment?
BDD is a mini-methodology related to acceptance testing and TDD (it does stuff higher up, but this is probably what you're doing).
From your question, it looks like you've been writing BDD scenarios or unit examples in Python. Visual Studio isn't a great tool for writing Python in. If you want to carry on in Python, try Vim, or you might be able to get a Python plugin for Eclipse or IntelliJ.
If you want to use Visual Studio to program, use C# or F#. There are a couple of great BDD frameworks - SpecFlow or TickSpec - which can help you.
More information, including a list of tools, is available on the Wikipedia page on BDD.
Otherwise, please clarify your problem. It doesn't make huge sense in its current form!
Edit: Well, I learn something new every day. BDD also stands for "Business Desktop Deployment", and is a Microsoft product. Here's a page with an update suggesting you should use Microsoft Development Toolkit. Hope that points you in the right direction. I imagine the tool we've been using, click-once, does something similar.
You should probably know that few people seem to recognise BDD as meaning anything other than Behaviour Driven Development in software these days. I've heard Binary Decision Diagram as well; not often though. Good luck in your search.
There's an article here that might help you with Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) versions. It's dated March 2009 and says:
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2008 Update 1 replaces all prior versions of MDT and BDD. It provides additional support for new OS versions and deployment scenarios and is the upgrade path for users of earlier versions.
The article points to the MDT 2010 download page.
Does no such plugin exist?
So to be clear, I realize that RedGate has their own SSMS SCC app, and I realize that VSS2k5 will integrate in. I'm looking to stay with Hg as that's where my source already is, and I'ld like to find something that my team can stay consistent with on their tools.
As is, I guess I'm going to have to just run it through TortoiseHg and a folder with manual maintenance. Which isn't terrible, but naturally it would be nicer if there was an app pre-existing that I could consume.
And no, I don't have the time or inclination to write one myself. Not before Summer 2011.
Thoughts or ideas?
There are two versions of HgScc plugin:
HgScc - uses old MS SCCI API, works with MS VS2005/2008/2010 and with some third party IDEs. Last version of this plugin was released in 2008. It is not actively developed anymore, because MS SCCI API is very limiting and does not allow a tight integration with Visual Studio.
HgSccPackage - uses MS SCC Package, works only with MS VS2008/2010. This version of plugin currently in active development.
To get the first version of HgScc follow the instructions here:
MSSCCI compliant Mercurial client
Red Gate SQL Source Control is looking into supporting Mercurial in a future version, http://redgate.uservoice.com/forums/39019-sql-source-control/suggestions/803713-mercurial-support-as-source-control-system.
SQL Server 2012 (Denali) is using the Visual Studio 2010 Shell as the basis for the new Management Studio. I haven't tried it yet but I am hoping that tools such as VisualHg will work in Sql Server 2012. I will update this post after I get on my laptop that has the 2012 SQL Management Studio installed.
Have you tried hgscc? I know it integrates with Visual Studio, but I haven't tried it with SSM
All,
I'm currently in the process of attempting to create a repeatable process for the upgrade of a TFS 2008 installation to new hardware in what Microsoft call a migration upgrade, but am experiencing issues when building the VS 2008 projects on the new hardware.
Our TFS 2008 installation consists of two machines; one which houses the SQL databases and Application Tier, and the other which acts as a dedicated Build Server.
The new hardware for our TFS 2010 installation consists of two machines; one which houses the SQL databases, Application Tier, SharePoint and the Reporting Services.
So far, I have managed to successfully repeat the backup of the necessary TFS databases from the original server to the new server and restore them, followed by the 'tfsconfig import' command to successfully import and upgrade the databases to a Team Project Collection. The Team Project Collection appears correctly, and it is immediately usable. All security settings, shelvesets, workspaces etc. are intact.
Our issues start when we begin trying to build solutions. We are initially trying to build these solutions without upgrading them to the VS 2010 format, nor modifying the target Framework of any of the projects.
We get the following errors when various projects build:
< filename>.resx(x,y): error RG0000: Could not find a type for a name. The type name was 'System.Collections.Generic.List`1[[< class>, < assemnbly>, Version=a.b.c.d, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=9557797252b44220]], mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089'. Line x, position y. [< projectfilename>]
ResGen : error RG0000: Could not load referenced assembly "< filename>.dll". Caught a FileNotFoundException saying "Could not load file or assembly '< filename>.dll' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.". [< projectfilename>]
Various 'ambiguous' MSBuild target references when compiling workflow-related projects:
C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\Windows Workflow Foundation\v3.5\Workflow.VisualBasic.Targets (153): 'GeneratedCodeAttribute' is ambiguous in the namespace 'System.CodeDom.Compiler'.
There are various suggestions about how to eliminate these issues, including modifying the 32-bit support flag on ResGen, or forcing the use of the 64-bit ResGen, and upgrading projects to VS 2010 format and changing them to target Framework 4.
Issue 1. can be fixed by changing the offending projects to target Framework 4, however this particular project cannot be upgraded yet due to compatibility issues, and I have not yet found a solution for issues 2. & 3.
We have upwards of 20 Team Projects, with multiple branches in each, and would therefore (due to the amount of work involved) like to avoid manually changing all projects/solutions (especially as some products cannot be upgraded to Framework 4 yet for compatibility reasons, and building Framework 3.5 targeted projects in Framework 4 MSBuild does not appear to be as compatible as Microsoft would have us believe).
If anybody has any ideas which may prove helpful, then please let me know.
Cheers,
Antony
EDIT:
Issue 1 has been seen by other people, and relates to resource files referencing generic lists of a custom type. As it turns out, these were superfluous in our project, so I simply removed them, and that build issue was history.
Issue 2 seems to have dissappeared all by itself, possibly as a result of fixing issue 1.
Issue 3 relates to building VS2008 Workflow projects in MSBuild 4, when they target Framework 3.5. Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, have apparently chosen to not address this issue (Link to Connect site), and there are several ideas to fix it (referencing specific versions of the Framework, changing the build workflow to use MSBuild 3.5), none of which work.
So our upgrade to 2010 is on hold it would seem, until either the products for which we build the 3.5 workflows (CRM 4.0 and SharePoint 2007/2010) support Framework 4, or until Microsoft fix the issue.
EDIT:
Microsoft have admitted that there is an issue, and have released the following information relating to the above KB number: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2023579
As stated in my commented addition on my original post, this issue relating to the workflows not building is indeed resolved by a patch for the Microsot .Net Framework 4 Extended, which is outlined in KB2023579, which has not yet been made public (at the time of this post).
This solution was provided by Microsoft through a support call, and as such I am bound by the terms and conditions of that call, which prevent me from distributing a link to the patch until the official KB article is made available, at which point I will post the link. Sorry.
Hotfix that worked for us: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2249629
I know NAnt sees frequent use (well, I always use it for my CI builds) but there has been no new official release since December 2007. Is the project receiving active development any more or is it dead-pooled? It worries me that if I carry on using it, and it stops tracking the latest version of .NET, I'll eventually be left with a massive job when it comes to upgrading systems to a version of the framework that it can't build.
Has everyone else gone over to some other tool like MSBuild these days?
It seems as if development will be more active in the near future. This is from a message from the developers mailing list from 05 Mar 2010:
since we are in an early stage of
getting drive on nant again, I want to
ask if we could moving away from CVS.
My first proposal is to switch to
subversion.
...
I'm also using NAnt for quite some time, and while I was a little bit concerned about the project being dead, so far NAnt did its job very well.
Update: NAnt 0.90 Beta 1 was released on April 17, 2010
See the official blog - NAnt’s not dead, it was just resting
https://sourceforge.net/apps/wordpress/nant/2010/04/05/nants-not-dead-it-was-just-resting/