I need to have a distribution set which installs a VC++ app and a VFP5.0 app. Is there any commercial product, which would install the VFP dlls (for runtime) successfully? [other than using VFP Setup] Thank you all.
> I need to have a distribution set which installs a VC++ app and a VFP5.0 > app. > Is there any commercial product, which would install the VFP dlls (for > runtime) successfully? [other than using VFP Setup] > Thank you all.
You might want to look at Stirling's InstallShield, http://www.installshield.com They support all MS dev environments
Hood Gardner Network Administrator/Webmaster Osment Models, Inc.
I faced the installation problm with VFP since I needed to install the main application on a network HD but run it from all workstations,
I ended up using two projects! One is the original project having everything in it and a second project that has only the OCXs & DLLs and an icon showing a text file telling the user how to change the shortcut to point to the main application on the network. I made 2 distribution sets, one for the server (from the 1st project) & one for Workstation Installation (from the second project) I put both sets on the distribution CD and have the user setup each workstation.
>You might want to look at Stirling's InstallShield, >http://www.installshield.com >They support all MS dev environments
> Hood Gardner > Network Administrator/Webmaster > Osment Models, Inc.
Hood,
I wouldn't go so far to say that they support all MS dev environments. I would love to distribute my VFP app using InstallShield. I called them and asked if they support VFP. They said it should work but they couldn't say for sure. So I asked them - if I bought the product and had trouble getting it to work with VFP, would they support it and they said no - nobody there knows how to use it with VFP.
Now I'm not saying it won't work, but I'm not going to drop $700 of my money for no support and a bit headache. I've seen several requests on this newsgroup for help on using InstallShield with VFP, but no replies.
>I faced the installation problm with VFP since I needed to install the main >application on a network HD but run it from all workstations,
>I ended up using two projects! >One is the original project having everything in it and a second project >that has only the OCXs & DLLs and an icon showing a text file telling the >user how to change the shortcut to point to the main application on the >network. >I made 2 distribution sets, one for the server (from the 1st project) & one >for Workstation Installation (from the second project) >I put both sets on the distribution CD and have the user setup each >workstation.
>Hope this help. >Cheers, >Waleed,
Waleed,
What did you build 2 projects with? InstallShield or VFP Setup Wizard? I would like to find someone who used InstallShield with VFP.
I have started to evaluate Eschalon Setup and so far am very impressed with it's flexibility and it's ability to keep the interface as simple or as complex as you want. There is a trial version available for download at: www.eschalon.com
One neat feature is that it will monitor your running application and create a list of all support dll's and their locations that are used by your application and include them in the setup. These files would not include the ODBC administrator accessed by a user through the control panel, so I would not recommend going that route however, even if your code sets up new ODBC connections programmatically.
To be safe, and because no one seems to have a list of all the files needed for VFP runtime and ODBC :(, I plan to comb through my list of files included by VFP's setup wizard with and without VFP runtime and ODBC to deduce which files are actually needed and which files are just used by VFP Setup to do an installation on the user's system.
Cheers,
- Carlos
YC Lo <y...@rocketmail.com> wrote in article <33EBE313.7...@rocketmail.com>...
> I need to have a distribution set which installs a VC++ app and a VFP5.0 > app. > Is there any commercial product, which would install the VFP dlls (for > runtime) successfully? [other than using VFP Setup] > Thank you all.
> What did you build 2 projects with? InstallShield or VFP Setup Wizard?
It was VFP Setup Wizard!
> I would like to find someone who used InstallShield with VFP.
As far as I know, you can't use InstallShield with VFP. I didn't try it but a friend of mine tried but in vain! .. I think we need to stick to the Foxy Installation :-)
I don't believe the problem is as simple as which files are needed by a distributed VFP .exe. To distribute an .exe (without using the setup wizard) in the old FP 2.6 days, we simply created a sub-dir on our cutomer's network, put the .exe, config.fpw, etc. in there along with the 2 FP runtime files (FOX2600.ESL and FOX2600.ESO). You could run the .exe from any WFW workstation without doing a setup or install prog. Then came VFP 3.0. There was no way to get around a workstation setup for WFW 3.11 - VFP 3.0 required all kinds of WIN32s .dll's to be installed in the system sub-dir. Now VFP 5.0. According to the doc the .exe only needs the VFP500.DLL and the VFP5ENU.DLL. We formatted a PC and put a fresh install of WIN95 on it. I created a test sub-dir with a VFP50 test.exe app, put the 2 runtime dll's in the system32 sub-dir and the .exe would not run (It comes up with a VFP500.dll is missing or damaged dialog). The problem goes away after installing the app with VFP50's setup wizard program (which creates about 3 Megs of junk for a 1 form, no data exe!). We theorize that the VFP50 setup program is putting some entrys in the registry that the VFP500.dll needs to load. Can anyone verify this and if so is there a workaround ? The VFP50 setup wizard created a 7+ Meg setup file for one of our real app's and this is really not usable for us.
Carlos Berguido wrote: > I have started to evaluate Eschalon Setup and so far am very impressed > with > it's flexibility and it's ability to keep the interface as simple or > as complex > as you want. There is a trial version available for download at: > www.eschalon.com
> One neat feature is that it will monitor your running application and > create a > list of all support dll's and their locations that are used by your > application > and include them in the setup. These files would not include the ODBC
> administrator accessed by a user through the control panel, so I would > not > recommend going that route however, even if your code sets up new ODBC
> connections programmatically.
> To be safe, and because no one seems to have a list of all the files > needed for > VFP runtime and ODBC :(, I plan to comb through my list of files > included by > VFP's setup wizard with and without VFP runtime and ODBC to deduce > which files > are actually needed and which files are just used by VFP Setup to do > an > installation on the user's system.
> Cheers,
> - Carlos
> YC Lo <y...@rocketmail.com> wrote in article > <33EBE313.7...@rocketmail.com>... > > I need to have a distribution set which installs a VC++ app and a > VFP5.0 > > app. > > Is there any commercial product, which would install the VFP dlls > (for > > runtime) successfully? [other than using VFP Setup] > > Thank you all.
Does anyoune know whether including this file into a distribution set, using other installsoftware like InstallShield Express (not VFP Setup) would work? Thanks.
Brett Barton wrote: > Now VFP 5.0. According to the doc the > .exe only needs the VFP500.DLL and the VFP5ENU.DLL. We formatted a PC > and put a fresh install of WIN95 on it. I created a test sub-dir with > a > VFP50 test.exe app, put the 2 runtime dll's in the system32 sub-dir > and > the .exe would not run (It comes up with a VFP500.dll is missing or > damaged dialog). The problem goes away after installing the app with > VFP50's setup wizard program (which creates about 3 Megs of junk for a > 1 > form, no data exe!). We theorize that the VFP50 setup program is > putting > some entrys in the registry that the VFP500.dll needs to load. Can > anyone verify this and if so is there a workaround ? The VFP50 setup > wizard created a 7+ Meg setup file for one of our real app's and this > is > really not usable for us.
> Is the error message with you get : "VFP500.dll is invalid or damaged" > ? If so, check out > http://www.microsoft.com/kb/articles/q158/0/64.htm. It has to do with > an out-of-date > OLEAUT32.dll file.
> Does anyoune know whether including this file into a distribution set, > using other installsoftware like InstallShield Express (not VFP Setup) > would work? > Thanks.
I'm working with Install shield 5.0 and see no reason why it should not work. I have built a .exe install file for my workstations and it works fine. I don't do any registration at all. I know I would have to place registry entries if my app was to be a OLE sever or such but it does run my app just fine. I included OLEAUT32.dll. The install wizard looks funky to me and it doesn't have the hooks I need. I could also use a list of what the install wizard registers!
I will let the list know how Install shield 5.0 pans out for VFP!