How to repackage Articulate Studio '13
Hello Everyone
The vendor provided media is an EXE and when extracted throws out InstallShield setup.exe and in a separate folder multiple MSIs under sub folders with the same name but only a few hundred KB in size and just one around 4 MB. None of them install the full product.
When using the extracted setup.exe, it stops and looks for data2.cab which doesn't exist and the setup has to be aborted. However, when using the vendor provided EXE which also embeds VC++ redistributable, it installs just fine.
I captured the installation using the vendor EXE and the two components work fine but the presenter, which is a Power Point plug-in, doesn't work. Upon launching the Presenter, it gives a splash screen and asks to click to launch the power point at which point, in different captures, I got different errors:
a)it either gets stuck in an infinite loop of self healing
b)says a compatible version of Office was not found, which is not the case since the application works fine on manual install.
If anyone has successfully packaged this application, please let me know, what is the best way to do it and if anyone encountered this issue, please let me know how it was resolved.
Thanks.
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OK. Short of getting a copy of the app and trying myself I can't help you here then. - EVEEN 10 years ago
Answers (2)
Do not capture vendor MSIs... Instead, create transforms or if you dont have time then proceed with silent install..
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The MSI are only a few hundred KB in size and don't actually install the application. - tellmehow 10 years ago
For repackaging have you tried snapshotting? Just run the setup and don't bother extracting or disassembling it.
It seems however you are more interested in getting the application silently installed. The vendor has a manual for that: http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter-13/how-to-silently-install-articulate-studio-13
Just ceate the answerfile and fire off the commandline with the argument in your favorite ESD solution.
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I mentioned in my post that I've already tried capturing it using the installation monitoring method using the vendor executable without extracting it and I have also posted the results.
We have a policy of creating MSIs no matter what so answer while is no option. Besides, I tried it and the setup errors out while creating the answer file. - tellmehow 10 years ago-
OK, missed that part.
Just to be specific, in you used the Repackager option "Installation Monitoring"?
Especially in complex installs where setup calls sub applications this can result in missed application data. The version with two step snapshot gets you a bit more dirt to clean up but captures every change on the system.
There is however a second issue that could be causing the trouble. The vendor site states that it's an admin install, user activates setup. This might therefore be a case of hardware bound licensing where the setup generates a checkfile based on the machine it's installed on and allows only run on that machine. This system isn't compatible with repackaging as the package will be specific to your packagemachine. Most vendors provide Volume licensing solutions around these issues or provide license server solutions. - EVEEN 10 years ago-
I also tried the multiple steps repackaging with the same results. We have a volume license. And it installs fine on the VM and runs fine too, manually but the presenter part of it gives errors on launch even in the same VM so it can't be hardware specific. - tellmehow 10 years ago
