Azure DevOps and Advanced Installer issue

[asimnzr]

Hi,

I tried setting up Pipeline on Azure DevOps to build Advanced installer for one of my Windows Forms application but it is failing with below message:

Failed to execute Advanced Installer task. Error: 'Process 'AdvancedInstaller.com' exited with code '-536805276'.'

Please note that I completely followed the tutorial https://www.advancedinstaller.com/user- ... ation.html from Advanced Installer to setup things properly. I am attaching Log snapshot for reference:

AI-DevOps Error

Adv Instler.png (60.05 KiB) Viewed 8469 times

I did looked through similar sort of issues on the forum but none of them worked for me. Also, I do have a valid license of Installer. Any help please?

Thanks in anticipation.
Asim

[Daniel]

Hello Asim and welcome to our forums,

I have tested the scenario but cannot replicate any error. Could you please manually download as a ZIP your DevOps Repository, and try to build manually your Advanced Installer setup project or maybe the entire VS solution and see if this works?

Also, could you send us by email to support at advancedinstaller dot com a few screenshots with the settings you configured for the Advanced Installer tasks included into your build pipeline? And the complete build log content of those tasks so we can try to further investigate your scenario?

All the best,
Daniel

[asimnzr]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your timely support. Actually, I was able to figure out and fix the issues related to Build and now things are working fine.

Additionally, do we also have a tutorial or steps to deploy (CD) Advanced Installer Output (Executable application) - using Azure DevOps release, on a VM? It will be great if you can help on this as well.

Thanks,
Asim

[Daniel]

Hello Asim,

I am glad you got the Azure pipeline build working.

Unfortunately we do not have a step by step tutorial about how to deploy the Advanced Installer artifact output on a VM using an Azure release task.

Basically I think this should be done like this:

1. configure for your Azure pipeline build a publish artifact task to publish the output of Advanced Installer Build task
2. configure an Azure pipeline release (for the above published build artifact) to run a script deployment on your VM

The script deployment (e.g. you can use PowerShell) should just launch a silent installation for the EXE or MSI setup package built by the Advanced Installer Build task.

To silently install an MSI package type you can use a command line like this:

Code: Select all

msiexec.exe /i setup.msi /qn

respectively for an EXE package type you can use a command line like this:

Code: Select all

setup.exe /exenoui /qn

Hope this helps you somehow.

All the best,
Daniel

[asimnzr]

Hi Daniel,

Going back to https://www.advancedinstaller.com/user- ... ation.html for building setup using Advanced Installer, how can we generate the Updater.txt file in this case?

Both Full and Update MSIs are getting generated correctly but I need update text file as well. Please note that I am passing Version Number as Command line parameter:

RIMS installer.png (34.18 KiB) Viewed 8398 times

I have highlighted the field I am talking about:

AI tool.png (57.58 KiB) Viewed 8398 times

Also, in case version is downgraded even then everything should work fine, right?

Please help.

Thanks,
Asim

[Daniel]

Hello Asim,

To generate the Updater.txt file within your Azure DevOps environment you should just add an additional "Advanced Installer Build task" configured to build the AIP file of your updates configuration project.

Of course, the updates configuration project should be uploaded into your Azure DevOps repository alongside with the updates setup package file (EXE or MSI) it uses to build the updates configuration file for. The Updates setup package (EXE or MSI) should be uploaded into your Azure DevOps repository to the same relative path (relative to the .AIP location of the updates config project) as it resides on your desktop machine where you created the updates configuration setup file (.AIP).

Also, in case version is downgraded even then everything should work fine, right?

There should be no problem excepting the situation when you need to install a setup with an old product version over an already installed new version setup. The downgrade operation is not allowed by Windows Installer, but if you do want to build setup packages downgrade compatible then you can implement the workaround exposed in our "uninstalling version if trying to install older version" thread.

All the best,
Daniel

[asimnzr]

Hi Daniel,

To generate the Updater.txt file within your Azure DevOps environment you should just add an additional "Advanced Installer Build task" configured to build the AIP file of your updates configuration project. Of course, the updates configuration project should be uploaded into your Azure DevOps repository.

Thanks for quick response. In my current .aip project I am generating both Full and Update setups. What you are suggesting is that I should add another aip configuration project targeting Update-only setup generation. So, there will be two .aip files i.e. one for Full and another for Update only. Is it?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Asim

[Daniel]

Hello Asim,

Yes this is right. You should also add to your Repository and configure a build task for the updates configuration project you use to build the Updater.txt file.

All the best,
Daniel

[asimnzr]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your help. One more question: As you suggested, I have added another task pointing to Updates type project but Is there any command line argument available using which we can set "Update Installer File Path" and other variables? Just to remind you, we are working in Azure DevOps build pipeline.

Please refer below snapshots for detail:

AI2.png (29.87 KiB) Viewed 8368 times

Variables requiring updates:
File path:

Az-Copy issue.png (30.57 KiB) Viewed 8368 times

Similarly we need to update download URL as well:

AI.png (28.21 KiB) Viewed 8368 times

Please help.
Asim

[asimnzr]

Also, I was going through the documentation and wanted to know how can we rename the update in case of pipeline task? Is this renaming required? Please refer snapshot for details:

AI tool.png (203.94 KiB) Viewed 8348 times

https://www.advancedinstaller.com/user- ... pdate.html

[Daniel]

Hello Asim,

I apologize for the delayed reply.

Everytime you want to build an update configuration file for a new version of your setup product you should just add a new Updates entry in the "Organization" middle pane from "Updates" page of your updates configuration project.

To automate this you can just use our "/NewUpdate" command line support against the AIP file of your updates configuration project.

All the best,
Daniel

[kadlecja]

Hello Daniel,
I have a similar issue. I have working CI build pipeline in DevOps which creates a setup file, but I'm not able to prepare a release pipeline.

relase pipeline.png (81.05 KiB) Viewed 8226 times

Problem is with the build of Update.aip project. This project was created according to your manual and works correctly on local but not in the DevOps.

Detailed DevOps log is the following:
2019-05-28T15:28:51.0168521Z ##[section]Starting: Build Advanced Installer package Updater.aip
2019-05-28T15:28:51.0270114Z ==============================================================================
2019-05-28T15:28:51.0270168Z Task : Advanced Installer Build
2019-05-28T15:28:51.0270197Z Description : Build setup packages using Advanced Installer.
2019-05-28T15:28:51.0270226Z Version : 2.0.1
2019-05-28T15:28:51.0270296Z Author : Caphyon
2019-05-28T15:28:51.0270323Z Help :
2019-05-28T15:28:51.0270351Z ==============================================================================
2019-05-28T15:28:51.3192745Z Checking if a cached copy exists for this version...
2019-05-28T15:28:51.3203872Z Found tool in cache: advinst 15.9.0 x86
2019-05-28T15:28:51.3204134Z Cached copy of AdvancedInstaller exists. No need to install afresh. Cached tool location: C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\advinst\15.9.0\x86.
2019-05-28T15:28:51.3227241Z Prepending PATH environment variable with directory: C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\advinst\15.9.0\x86\bin\x86
2019-05-28T15:28:51.3280801Z [command]C:\hostedtoolcache\windows\advinst\15.9.0\x86\bin\x86\AdvancedInstaller.com /execute "d:\a\r1\a\_Servis App MASTER build\drop\Servis_App.Updater\Servis_App.Updater.aip" d:\a\_temp\707.aic
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5624610Z SetOutputLocation -path "d:\a\r1\a" -buildname ""
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5625176Z Your 'update' Advanced Installer project cannot be used to execute command 'SetOutputLocation'. One of the following types of projects is required 'simple | java | professional | enterprise | architect | express'.
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5625395Z
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5625549Z Advanced Installer 15.9
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5626048Z
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5626201Z Usage:
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5626376Z AdvancedInstaller.com <path_to_project_file>
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5626510Z AdvancedInstaller.com /help [<command>] | /? [<command>]
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5626646Z AdvancedInstaller.com /build <path_to_project_file> { [-buildslist <builds_list>] | [-configurationslist <configurations_list>] }
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5626842Z AdvancedInstaller.com /rebuild <path_to_project_file> { [-buildslist <builds_list>] | [-configurationslist <configurations_list>] }
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5626984Z AdvancedInstaller.com /RunInVM <path_to_project_file> [-build name] -vmprofile {GUID} [-quiet]
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5627120Z AdvancedInstaller.com /edit <path_to_project_file> <command>
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5627277Z AdvancedInstaller.com /execute <path_to_project_file> <command_file_path> [-nofail]
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5627412Z AdvancedInstaller.com /loadpathvars <path_variables_file_path>
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5627564Z AdvancedInstaller.com /newproject <path_to_project_file> [-type project_type] [-lang project_language] [-overwrite]
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5627719Z AdvancedInstaller.com /register <license_id>
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5627853Z AdvancedInstaller.com /registerfloating <host>:<port>
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5627987Z AdvancedInstaller.com /cfglicensesrvproxy [-set <host>:<port>] | [-disable]
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5628155Z AdvancedInstaller.com /setrepositorypath <repository_path> [-move]
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5628290Z AdvancedInstaller.com /getrepositorypath
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5628404Z
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5628536Z SetOutputLocation command:
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5628694Z /SetOutputLocation -buildname <build_name> -path <output_path>
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5628811Z
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5628924Z
2019-05-28T15:28:57.5717654Z ##[error]Failed to execute Advanced Installer task. Error: SetOutputLocation -path "d:\a\r1\a" -buildname ""
Your 'update' Advanced Installer project cannot be used to execute command 'SetOutputLocation'. One of the following types of projects is required 'simple | java | professional | enterprise | architect | express'.

I think there is a problem with SetOutputLocation parameter where is missing backslash.
That's one thing. Another issue is with the passing parameter for a new update. As you wrote I can use NewUpdate parameter, but I'm not able to pass it to Advanced Installer build component. Maybe its because there is previously mentioned error.
My parameter line for NewUpdate is : /NewUpdate "_Servis App MASTER build/drop/Servis_App.Installer/Servis_App.Installer-SetupFiles/setup.exe" -name "Update v.$(AssemblyInfo.AssemblyVersion)" -display_name "Update v.$(AssemblyInfo.AssemblyVersion)" -url http://mywebpage.com/updates/v.$(Assemb ... /setup.exe

Regards,
Jaroslav

[Daniel]

Hello Jaroslav,

Unfortunately the "SetOutputLocation" command cannot be used for an updates configuration project. However, to make sure we get a full picture of your Azure DevOps pipeline build configuration, can you share with us a screenshot or more details about the exact parameters you have used to configure the Advanced Installer Build Task?

Also, share more details about the error you get when using the "NewUpdate" command and the build task configuration you have used.

All the best,
Daniel