Adminstudio 11 Tuner vs Installshield 2012
Hi I am trying to make a mst by using Adminstudio 11, I created a transform using the tuner and built the Project. After that I thought of making more customizations so I jus right clicked in the transform and selected Edit with InstallShield now I got more options so I did the modifications as I needed so now I have only option to save the transform I can not built the Project.
Here my doubt is
- When do I need to use tuner and when do I need to use InstallShield.
- As mentioned above after I saved the transform some changes are not saved (like I added one registry). But If I did the same thing by opening the tuner and selecting the option open an existing transform it got installed the same registry
- If I want to add some custom actions can I do that by using tuner (by selecting open an existing transform: coz I didn't find that option there)
- If I use InstallShield to make the changes in transform how can I validate the changes I made were right and done without errors (is there any other method by not using validation option under the project)
any help would be appritiated.
Thanks
Answers (2)
Even though there is a 'Transform' project in Installshield 2011, I don't think you should see a transform in that light. In my view, when you build a complete installer using an .ism file, that's a project. A transform is only an addition to an existing msi file, so all you do is save that .mst file, it does not need to be compiled.
The way to open an mst is to just right-click it and select "Edit with Installshield". You should then get a dialog to select the base MSI to work against. After doing your modifications, you do a simple save of the MST file.
The way to create an MST is to open the base MSI in Installshield, make the changes you want (properties, registry, files, customactions) and then selecting "Save As" and choosing to save as a transform file. Another option there is to use the Tuner, which will run a base MSI for you, and put all the selections you make into an MST file. This will not cover things like added customactions, registry, files and such though (it only records property changes through dialogs really), you will still have to do this by hand with the procedure described above
The 'open existing transform' option in Tuner is to run the base installer with another transform besides the one you're going to make, so as not to double-change certain options
Comments:
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Thank you so much for your advice sir. Today I learnt how to create a transform and Response Transform by using InstallShield 2012. I felt this way is much better than creating a transform by using Tuner - ontari.ontari 12 years ago
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I don't know what the situation is with InstallShield 2012, but I've always found Tuner to be more of an indicator tool to see what you should adapt in an MST. I find a lot more changes in properties get recorded in a Tuner-MST than are necessary. As an example, if there are properties to hold detected versions of .NET, or Java, or similar, these also get changed in the MST, while they should be left alone imo in a 'clean' mst. - pjgeutjens 12 years ago
