Strange MSI Behavior
About a year and a half ago I repackaged MatLab 7.0.1 as a MSI using InstalShield Editor 10.5. In the last six months or so we've been noticing that the shortcuts are not always installed in the All Users profile, in fact they are not installed at all, but the install finishes successfully. The package does install a shortcut to the INSTALLDIR and a nonprivleged user can launch that shortcut and the windows installer will install the shortcuts in the proper location in the all users profile. It seems obvious that the component is not getting installed, except that there are no coditions associated with that component and other components in the same feature are being installed.
Now the interesting part of this whole deal is that when I run the install on a clean OS with no software intalled, the shotcuts are installed fine, but when I install it on an OS with all of our software we deploy installed, the shortcuts are not installed. Is it possible that there is a collision with another component in another package? Any one got any other ideas?
Now the interesting part of this whole deal is that when I run the install on a clean OS with no software intalled, the shotcuts are installed fine, but when I install it on an OS with all of our software we deploy installed, the shortcuts are not installed. Is it possible that there is a collision with another component in another package? Any one got any other ideas?
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Posted by:
Digitalweezil
16 years ago
I looked back in my companies history (I've only been working here for 6 months) to find that someone did package 7.01, and it isn't pretty (The package looks pretty broken). I did however find something of note, there is a file called shortcuts.xml that is in the package: Windows\Profiles\Application Data\Mathworks\MATLAB\R14\shortcuts.xml I dont know if this will help, as it looks like toolbar stuff and not related to desktop shortcuts but who knows.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
- <FAVORITESROOT>
<title>My Shortcuts</title>
- <FAVORITECATEGORY>
<name>Help Browser Favorites</name>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>Help Using the Desktop</label>
<icon>Help icon</icon>
<callback>helpview([docroot '/mapfiles/matlab_env.map'], 'matlabenvironment_desktop');</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>Full Product Help</label>
<icon>Help icon</icon>
<callback>helpbrowser</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
</FAVORITECATEGORY>
- <FAVORITECATEGORY>
<name>Toolbar Shortcuts</name>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>How to Add</label>
<icon>Standard icon</icon>
<callback>helpview([docroot '/techdoc/env_csh/env_csh.map'], 'shortcut_on_toolbar', 'CSHelpWindow');</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>What's New</label>
<icon>Standard icon</icon>
<callback>helpview([docroot '/base/relnotes/relnotes.html']);</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
</FAVORITECATEGORY>
- <FAVORITECATEGORY>
<name>Shortcuts</name>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>What Are Shortcuts?</label>
<icon>Help icon</icon>
<callback>helpview([docroot '/mapfiles/matlab_env.map'], 'matlab_shortcuts');</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
</FAVORITECATEGORY>
</FAVORITESROOT>
I wish I had more to offer you on this. A few months ago I set to package R2007b but in doing so, I discovered that using a FlexLM server and constantly adding licenses, thus new products under our key it made more sense for me to use their Installer. Mathworks Support was really good in helping me through the process of combining our Keys under a single generated one.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
- <FAVORITESROOT>
<title>My Shortcuts</title>
- <FAVORITECATEGORY>
<name>Help Browser Favorites</name>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>Help Using the Desktop</label>
<icon>Help icon</icon>
<callback>helpview([docroot '/mapfiles/matlab_env.map'], 'matlabenvironment_desktop');</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>Full Product Help</label>
<icon>Help icon</icon>
<callback>helpbrowser</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
</FAVORITECATEGORY>
- <FAVORITECATEGORY>
<name>Toolbar Shortcuts</name>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>How to Add</label>
<icon>Standard icon</icon>
<callback>helpview([docroot '/techdoc/env_csh/env_csh.map'], 'shortcut_on_toolbar', 'CSHelpWindow');</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>What's New</label>
<icon>Standard icon</icon>
<callback>helpview([docroot '/base/relnotes/relnotes.html']);</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
</FAVORITECATEGORY>
- <FAVORITECATEGORY>
<name>Shortcuts</name>
- <FAVORITE>
<label>What Are Shortcuts?</label>
<icon>Help icon</icon>
<callback>helpview([docroot '/mapfiles/matlab_env.map'], 'matlab_shortcuts');</callback>
<editable>true</editable>
</FAVORITE>
</FAVORITECATEGORY>
</FAVORITESROOT>
I wish I had more to offer you on this. A few months ago I set to package R2007b but in doing so, I discovered that using a FlexLM server and constantly adding licenses, thus new products under our key it made more sense for me to use their Installer. Mathworks Support was really good in helping me through the process of combining our Keys under a single generated one.
Posted by:
spottedcoin
16 years ago
Yeah if I remember right their installer is not fun, and as a general rule for most packages that are not already packaged as MSI we run the repackaging wizard and create our own MSI. This is the case we had with MatLab and we decided to repackage it as our own MSI.
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