Images Page
A patch is basically the difference between a Target version and an Upgraded version of a product. On this page you can create images for such versions and group them into families. Any number of image families can be defined in a patch, each containing any number of upgraded images. Each Upgraded image can in turn have any number of Target images.
An image consists of an administrative installation of a product version, an expanded form in which both the MSI and the files are unpackaged for diff. Thus the actual images will be created by performing administrative installs into the folder specified in the Build page.
In the left-side pane there is a tree with all the families you defined on the first level. Under each family you will see all the associated Upgraded images containing all its Target images. In the right-side pane there will appear the properties of a family, Upgraded image or Target image, depending on your selection in the left-side pane.
Creating new Upgraded images
Use the toolbar button, the “New Upgraded” tree
context menu or press the + key while the "Families
and Images" panel is focused. This action will create a family and an
Upgraded image with the default properties. To create an Upgraded image
under an existing family, make sure the family (or one of its children)
is selected before doing a .
Drag and drop the Upgraded image over a different family to change it. If you drop it on another Upgraded image, the dragged image will become a Target image of that Upgraded image.
Creating new Target images
Use the toolbar button, the “New Target” tree
context menu item or press the * key while the
"Families and Images" panel is focused. This action will create a Target
image with default properties for the selected Upgraded
image.
Drag and drop the Target image over a different Upgrade image to change it.
Refreshing administrative images
Use the
toolbar button or the
“Refresh Administrative Image” tree context menu item.
Renaming families, Target or Upgraded images
Use the “Rename” tree context menu item or press the F2 key while an element from the left-side tree control is selected.
Removing families, Target or Upgraded images
Use the
toolbar button, the “Delete” tree context menu item or press
the Delete key while an element from the
“Families and Images” panel.
Image Family Properties
Media Property Name
A unique Windows Installer property that is set whenever this patch is applied. This is useful for conditioning Custom Actions on patch install.
Disk ID and File Sequence Start
These two value are used in the patched MSI's Media table. They are set with default values by Advanced Installer that can be customized.
Upgraded Image Properties
Package
The MSI package containing the product's upgraded version. This package will be extracted with an administrative install in an administrative image in order to create the patch.
Patch Package
The optional patch package points to a modified copy of the upgraded installation database that contains additional authoring specific to the patch installation process. For example, additional dialogs or custom actions conditioned on the PATCH property.
Ignore Package Files
A comma (,) separated list of files to be ignored when creating the patch. Basically the upgraded-target diff process will ignore these files. Use the button on the right to select files from the upgraded package.
A value of the form
"<prefix>*" matches all files
that begin with that prefix. No text can follow the asterisk.
Symbol Folders
Windows Installer can use PDB symbol files generated for PE code files (EXE, DLL, etc.) to generate more optimal diffs, thus reducing the patch's size.
Use the button to add a folder, the button to replace one or the button to remove it.
Target Image Properties
General
Package
The MSI package contains the product's target version. This package will be extracted with an administrative install in an administrative image in order to create the patch.
Ignore missing source files
If this option is set the patch is built even if files used by the patch are missing from the image (administrative install).
Checking Ignore missing source files and removing
the files that known not to be changed will reduce the time necessary
for patch generation.
Validation
A set of rules that will be used in order to validate a patch before applying it on an installation. In this context, the "Installed" version is the package being patched and the "Base" version is the package used to create the patch.
Default language must match base database
If this option is set the default language of the target image must be the language used during the installation of the original package.
Product must match base database
If this option is disabled then the package used by the target image can be different from the package used to install the application.
This option should be unchecked when creating a patch for a multi-language package. This is because you need to create a patch for each language and the MSI generated for that language is different from the multi-language package which was installed.
UpgradeCode must match base database
If this option is set, the target image's Upgrade code must be the same as the installed package's Upgrade Code.
Product Version Checks
This combo allows you to specify which version fields will be used in the check performed for the target image.
The following options are available:
- No check.
- Check major version only.
- Check major,minor versions only.
- Check major,minor and update versions only.
Only the version's first three fields are taken into consideration
by Windows Installer (the fourth field is ignored).
Product Version Relationship
This combo allows you to define the relationship between the version of the installed package (Installed version) and the version of the target image (base version). Under normal circumstances, these versions should be equal.
The following options are available:
- No check.
- Installed version < base version.
- Installed version <= base version.
- Installed version = base version.
- Installed version >= base version.
- Installed version > base version.
Symbols Folders
Windows Installer can use PDB symbol files generated for PE code files (EXE, DLL, etc.) to generate more optimal diffs, thus reducing the patch size. Use the button to add a folder, the button to replace one or the button to remove it.