We are developing a Petrel Ocean plugin aimed at Petrel 2011 as well as Petrel 2012 that won't be distributed via the store. From reading various documents, I'd planned on using PluginManager.exe to install the pip file on clients' PCs. However, when testing this idea on an installation of Petrel without the OCean SDK installed, PluginManager.exe doesn't exist in the Petrel 2011 directory.
It's likely that I've missed something obvious in the docs, but I'm left puzzled as to how PluginManager.exe is intended to be used. Do I add it to the installer and install it into the Petrel 2011 directory, or are there restrictions on redistributing this utility?
this is not an Ocean feature: the PluginManager.exe is a part of standard/standalone Petrel's installation, but it was introduced in Petrel 2011.2, this is probably "why" you cannot see it (if you have a deal with 2011.1). The best suggestion is to update Petrel 2011 to any appropriate 2011.2.x patch.
Cheers.
Related
Windows installer version 5.0 released long time ago. Will there be any future development on this or Microsoft is going to deprecate it?
I am asking this as we are creating many new installers based on MSI technology. If not MSI, what it's alternative?
Windows Installer hasn't had a roadmap in years. It's not deprecated either though. It just is what it is and still works and is still supported.
There's been a half dozen attempts to replace MSI with the latest being MSIX but all of them fall short of what MSI can do.
MSI is still the best choice for most installers IMO. (Been writing installers since 1997 and MSI since 2003.)
At FireGiant, we've taken to calling the Windows Installer (MSI) the "Anything Installation Engine". It is the only Windows installation technology that is powerful and flexible enough to install anything.
While I'd like to see Windows continue to invest in the technology over more constrained installation technologies, they don't need to.
This fact leads to the sole upside of a stable installation technology: They aren't messing with it. :)
I have a Outlook add-in installer made using visual studio installer. I wish to add vsto runtime into my installer package so that user is not required to install it manually. Any suggestions?
I believe this runtime is installed as part of the main Office installation? It looks like the runtime is just needed for server installations: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178739.aspx (have a good read of this link and its linked sub-pages).
Apart from that, if you require more advanced installer features you should seriously consider switching to using the WiX toolkit (free and open source, here are some quick start suggestions) or something easier and faster to learn such as the free version of Advanced Installer. There is a "Prerequisites" view in Advanced Installer with several versions of the runtime that can be added. There is a free version of the tool, but I am not sure what features are available for use without a license.
Are there are any templates or guidelines for creating a Windows Installer XML (WiX) project for deploying a Petrel plugin?
Are there any reasons for WiX not having been selected as the natural successor to the old *.vdproj/MSI recommendation?
Has anyone tried WiX for Petrel plugins? I'm interested in exchanging ideas and experiences. I'm new to WiX, and find it difficult to get started.
(Off topic: the "new" PIP paradigm is lean and simple, but is a bad fit for enterprise use, where clients expect to be able to repackage an MSI in order to facilitate mass deployment through e.g. group policies. I'll post another question on this.)
MSI deployment is still supported in Ocean/Petrel regardless of the way of MSIs generation (and WiX is just another way to generate them).
In Ocean/Petrel 2012.1 you need to define custom action calling command-line tool PluginManager.exe with /install and /uninstall switch during the installation and uninstallation steps respectively. Custom actions are defined using <CustomAction> tags in WiX. There are two tricks you need to keep in mind when calling PluginManager.exe from MSI custom actions:
you need to supply your MSI installer ID (usually GUID) in /installerId:your_installer_id command-line switch during the installation. This will enable automatic MSI uninstallation of your plug-ins when Petrel is uninstalled
you need to run PluginManager.exe with /runFromInstaller switch during the uninstallation. By doing this you let PluginManager know that you run it from MSI installer, and so there is no need to run MSI uninstallation once more
You can find these and other tips and tricks, with full PluginManager.exe command line speicifications in the Plug-in Identity and Deployment White Paper in Ocean.chm (section "How to use PluginManager.exe in MSI installer").
Important information with Petrel 2013:
We have plugins that can be installed or uninstalled using MSI, created with Wix. When installing a PIP with PluginManager.exe without using the argument /installerId:<msi_installer_id> uninstalling the plugin using the Petrel physically deletes all your files, but create an inconsistency in windows uninstaller plugin. If we use the argument /installerId:<msi_installer_id> uninstalling the plugin using the Petrel occurs only logical deleting the plugin, keeping it physically in their original directory. This allows it to be installed subsequently also by Petrel. In the latter case, there is no inconsistency, because the windows uninstall the plugin and be able to delete all your files.
The problem is that uninstalling the plugin using the Petrel 2013 is not calling its MSI uninstaller. It should not be? This looks like a bug.
I have an existing exe file which I would love to have launched from a new installer using the OpenCandy platform.
See here: http://www.opencandy.com/developers/signup/ for OC's integration options. Maybe it could be in the form of a downloader? Or maybe it could just be a fairly empty installer that has OC's api integrated and then will open an embedded exe (all I have is the exe).
Thanks.
You can download our SDK at http://media.opencandy.com/sdk/OpenCandyPublisherKit.zip, which includes instructions for integrating OpenCandy. If you have any questions, there's also a contact address in there.Basically you create an installer (like NSIS or Inno) to install your app/exe and integrate OpenCandy into it.
Be well and good luck integrating!
Dr. Apps
Software Community Guru
OpenCandy
i have published my project and exe file has been created....
now i want to make a installer with some other applications...i have
myproject.exe
.netframework 3.5
adobeflashplayer.exe
now i want to make a single installer that should install these application at once...how should i do that
Regarding packaging the .NET Framework 3.5 into your setup project, read Microsoft KB Article 324733. In short, you can't do what you asked for. You can specify .NET as a pre-requisite, and you can detect that the pre-req is missing, but the user must elect to install .NET separately, and must run a separate MSI to install .NET.
About Adobe Flash, I don't know.
"You can't do what you asked for." --
Well, at least not with the deployment model offered by Microsoft inside Visual Studio.
Pay $$$ and get InstallShield (or some such) and, oh, spend A LONG TIME learning it, then its cake !