Conditional install

[George]

Would it be possible in a future version to have different install branches depending on whether the user is doing a new installation or an upgrade? Just downloaded advanced installer yesterday and looks like in the meantime I would need to create two install packages, one for a fresh install and one for an upgrade. It's not that much of a problem actually creating the two different packages but it looks more untidy to the end user.

[Cata]

Have you tried the "Automatically upgrade older versions of the product" checkbox in the Install Parameters page?

[George]

I've tried that but I can't see an option where you can specify which files get installed as part of an upgrade. The application I am working on has a database with sample files which get are needed with a fresh installation, however the contents of this database will have changed when the user wants to upgrade their installation.

[slasc]

I'm facing the same problem here. Maybe you could add something to the properties of installed files that would let us specify whether it should overwrite existing files, prompt for overwrite (and allow continue if they say no), and allow us to specify NOT to overwrite certain existing files.

Reason being, with programs that rely on databases, we need to install the database when installing the program the first time, but we can not risk overwriting someone's existing database on upgrade.

[Cata]

In Windows Installer, the non-versioned files (user data) obey the following rule:

If the Modified date is later than the Create date for the file on the computer, do not install the file because user customizations would be deleted. If the Modified and Create dates are the same, install the file. If the Create date is later than the Modified date, the file is considered unmodified, install the file.

Your sample database being unversioned, everything should just work.

Cata

[slasc]

In testing this just now, it did not seem to work the way you said. It overwrote the database on the installed program with the one from the installer. Even so, it would be nice to be able to have a switch forcing an overwrite or NON-overwrite. Sometimes, if we are forced to change structure of our database it causes errors when attempting to read the old ones. (thus needing to force an overwrite.)

[Cata]

You are right. Files installed with Windows Installer are considered Application files and thus removed on uninstall. Files created after installation are considered User files and the rule I mentioned applies.

See, this is a design fault in the application itself. It should use the initial database as a TEMPLATE, and never change it but instead create a new db based on it for the user.

If you still want this functionality, I suggest a couple of custom actions.

Best regards,
Cata