Disappearance of PREREQUISITE Screen after Advanced Installer 13.2 Update

[edwardjoe.vincent]

Hi Team,

After installation of the latest update 13.2, we have prepared the installer of our application and verified. After the update, the PREREQUISITE screen is not appearing in the created Application Installer. Instead, if any of the prerequisite condition is not satisfied, the prerequisite is getting installed automatically without user control.

Currently our application has the following prerequisites,
1) Java JRE 1.8 32bit
2) Java JRE 1.8 64bit
3) License Activation Client (LAC)
4) PostgreSQL 9.2

Installers created using Advanced Installer 13.1 displays all these prerequisites in a separate screen. However, post update to 13.2, the prerequisite screen is not appearing. Is there any option available to bring back/display the prerequisite screen?

Thanks & Regards,
Edward Joe Vincent

[Eusebiu]

Hi Edward,

Starting with version 13.2, we changed the way prerequisites installations, multiple language and multiple instances support are managed to allow the customization of any dialog from the installation.

You can read more details in the "Important Changes in 13.2 Bootstrapper and Prerequisites Functionality" and "Prerequisites Page" articles.

So, the behavior you see is caused by a limitation of the "Framework" prerequisites. We are already working to an improvement for this. In order for the prerequisite dialog to be displayed again, you can move them to the "Pre-install" section, but you need to make sure that they do not conflict with Windows Installer like .NET Framework or SQL Server Express applications do.

We can assure you that the "Java JRE 1.8 32bit", "Java JRE 1.8 64bit" and "PostgreSQL 9.2" prerequisites from your package are supported as "pre-install", but you need to make sure that your "License Activation Client (LAC)" custom prerequisite is supported, too.

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[edwardjoe.vincent]

Hi Eusebiu,
Thank you for the quick response and the helpful suggestions. The suggested approach is followed and works except for the condition PostgreSQL as prerequisite placed in PRE-INSTALL. Could you please help us with this? Here are two scenarios which explains the problem,

Scenario #1:
This compiles and works.
a) FEATURE-BASED:
1) PostgreSQL 9.2
b) PRE-INSTALL:
1) Java JRE 1.8 32bit
2) Java JRE 1.8 64bit
3) License Activation Client(LAC)

Scenario #2:
The compilation fails with the message, "Invalid MSI identifier string [1]."
a) FEATURE-BASED:
None
b) PRE-INSTALL:
1) Java JRE 1.8 32bit
2) Java JRE 1.8 64bit
3) License Activation Client(LAC)
4) PostgreSQL 9.2

Our application requires all the above listed prerequisites in the Prerequisites Custom Dialog. Please find attached the AIP files used and the screenshot of the error window.

Thanks & Regards,
Edward Joe Vincent

[Eusebiu]

Hi Edward,

Can you use the "Options" toolbar button, then go to the "Build Caching" tab, uncheck the "Speed up builds by caching unchanged archives" option and see if the problem persists?

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[edwardjoe.vincent]

Hi Eusebiu,

Unchecked the "Speed up builds by caching unchanged archives" option in "Build Caching" tab, and tried to build the project. The problem persists with the same error message. This happens only when PostgreSQL 9.2 is placed in PRE-INSTALL folder. Otherwise, the build happens without any issue.

Thanks & Regards,
Edward Joe Vincent

[Eusebiu]

Hi Edward,

I'm afraid that I could not open and test your projects because I do not have the repository dialogs and the resource files they use. Can you reproduce the behavior in a buildable sample (.aip + its referenced files) and send it to support at advancedinstaller dot com, so we can test it and investigate the problem?

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[edwardjoe.vincent]

Hi Eusebiu,

The MSI logs are collected for analysis. I believe the migrated AIP file has a problem. Created a Test project using AI 13.3 which has only the aforementioned prerequisites in "Pre-Install" section. The Test project distributable generated works as expected and launches/installs the prerequisites chosen. However, our actual application fails to install the prerequisites. Actually, it bypasses the Prerequisites Installations though the prerequisites list window appears.

All the preconditions for the Test project and our actual project remains the same.

Thanks & Regards,
Edward Joe Vincent

[Eusebiu]

Hi Edward,

I'm not sure why this problem appears in your working project. Can you try to remove its prerequisite, then re-add and re-configure them to see if the problem persists?

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[Syusaku Takara]

Hi Edward,

I'm not sure why this problem appears in your working project. Can you try to remove its prerequisite, then re-add and re-configure them to see if the problem persists?

Best regards,
Eusebiu

Dear Eusebiu
I'm team member of Edward.
We have observed Requirements->Prerequisites->Global Prerequisite Options-> Download/extract folder: is set as %TEMP% now.
It had been working fine before 13.1, but it's not replaced to absolute path from 13.2.
Installer log shows %TEMP% instead of absolute path like c:\temp.
I changed it to [SETUPEXEDIR] then it works fine.

Is it expected change?

[Eusebiu]

Hi,

I see no difference in the prerequisites extraction behavior between the 13.1 and the 13.2 versions of Advanced Installer. However, please keep in mind that if you want to use an environment variable in the "Download/extract folder" field, you need to write it enclosed in square brackets (e.g. [%TEMP]).

Can you test this and see if it works?

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[Syusaku Takara]

Hi,

I see no difference in the prerequisites extraction behavior between the 13.1 and the 13.2 versions of Advanced Installer. However, please keep in mind that if you want to use an environment variable in the "Download/extract folder" field, you need to write it enclosed in square brackets (e.g. [%TEMP]).

Can you test this and see if it works?

Best regards,
Eusebiu

Dear Eusebiu
In my observation, 3 issues are existing with Edward shared aip.
(1) Pre-install items are moved to Frameworks when opening by new Prerequisites from 13.2.
(2) Build will fail after moving from Framework to Prerequisites by mouse drag and drop. In our case, postgreSQL9.2 fails to move. Cut and paste is OK to move.
(3) In fact, it's not correct, but Download/extract had accepted %TEMP% ,without square brackets, till 13.1. But after 13.2, extracting prerequisites software is failing.

Anyway, currently it's works fine by specifying a temporary folder property.
Thanks

[Eusebiu]

You're welcome. I'm glad you got everything working.

(1) Pre-install items are moved to Frameworks when opening by new Prerequisites from 13.2.

Yes, this behavior has changed starting with version 13.2.

(2) Build will fail after moving from Framework to Prerequisites by mouse drag and drop. In our case, postgreSQL9.2 fails to move. Cut and paste is OK to move.

I was not able to reproduce this. Does it also appears in the latest version of Advanced Installer?

(3) In fact, it's not correct, but Download/extract had accepted %TEMP% ,without square brackets, till 13.1. But after 13.2, extracting prerequisites software is failing.

This is strange because, as far as I know, a value like %TEMP% has never been expanded to a valid path in any field of the application.

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[Syusaku Takara]

You're welcome. I'm glad you got everything working.

(2) Build will fail after moving from Framework to Prerequisites by mouse drag and drop. In our case, postgreSQL9.2 fails to move. Cut and paste is OK to move.

I was not able to reproduce this. Does it also appears in the latest version of Advanced Installer?

Best regards,
Eusebiu

I attached sample aip and required file.
Please confirm it can be build first.
Then please move a postgreSQL from framework to pre-install by mouse drag and drop in Requirement->Prerequisites then it cannot be built.
I can reproduce it 13.4 as see in aip.

regards,

[Eusebiu]

Hi,

Indeed, I was able to reproduce the problem, thank you for the resources. This was an Advanced Installer issue that will be fixed in the next version of Advanced Installer. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

Meanwhile, you can try to remove that prerequisite from the project, then add it directly to the "pre-install" section and see if it works.

Best regards,
Eusebiu

[Eusebiu]

Hi,

The 13.5 version of Advanced Installer was released on December 14, 2016. Can you test your project using this version and see if the problem persists?

Best regards,
Eusebiu