Building and Debugging Installations
The Wise Installation Studio Build System
Build configurations
A build configuration provides a way to customize the way your installation is built and specify what will be included with your MSI file. You can have more than one build configuration, each one suited for a specific purpose or release type. For example, you can make a build configuration for your English, CD-ROM release and another build configuration for your French, Web release.
Each build configuration generates a different type of build output. This depends on how you set up the configuration. For instance, you can specify different product codes, languages, or distribution media, for different configurations. Normally, each build configuration uses the default language and global product code. However, you can override these to build separate releases. To learn more about setting up build configurations, click here.
You must set up at least one build configuration before you can build an installation package. Whenever you build your installation, you build the default build configuration. You can easily select another default build configuration from the list in the toolbar or from the Distribution section of the Project Explorer.
Build configurations are not supported by all types of projects. They are only supported by installation and merge-module projects. For projects where separate build configurations are not supported, you can still specify the location where the build output will be placed and the output filename (where applicable) in the Distribution section in the Project Explorer.
To set up build configurations for your project, go to the Distribution section (under General) in the Project Explorer.
The build process
As mentioned earlier, depending on your project type, you need to configure and select a build configuration before you build your project. This can be done by selecting the configuration from the list in the main toolbar, which is located next to the build button ().
To build your project, either press F7 on your keyboard, select Build -> Build from the main menu, or press the build button () on the main toolbar. You can cancel a build by pressing the Esc key or by selecting Build -> Stop Build from the main menu. You will get a build error saying that the build could not be completed because it was cancelled.
As a project is being built, the status of the build is shown in the Output Window (located at the bottom of the main Wise Installation Studio window) and in the status bar. To view the build status at any time (if available) and see if your build was successful, expand the Output Window. Select Build from the drop-down list inside the Output Window and you will see all the messages given by the last build. To save the build output to a file, simply click the save button to the right of the drop-down list.
You may receive errors or warnings occasionally during build. The difference between an error and a warning is that an error causes the build process to fail. A warning allows the build process to complete successfully, but you should normally address all warnings, as they can lead to greater problems. All errors and warnings for the last build are shown in the Tasks window right next to the Output Window. There is a way to diagnose these errors and warnings. You can use the error code reference (in the Troubleshooting section of this help file) to locate your error message and then find a way to fix it. Just double-click an item in the Tasks window to open up the error code reference.
Batch and command-line builds
Batch builds allow you to build multiple configurations with a single click. If you have many build configurations in a single projects, this is the best way to build them. To do a batch build, select Build -> Batch Build from the main menu. Then, place a checkmark next to all configurations you want to build, and click OK.
You are not limited to building projects only from the Wise Installation Studio IDE. You can also use the command-line build tool provided with Wise Installation Studio. It is called Bldcmd.exe, located in the Wise Installation Studio root directory. To use it, type: BLDCMD ProjectName.wsi Merge module search paths. The merge module search paths are optional. The Common Files\Merge Modules folder is always searched. Separate the merge module search paths by a single space. To capture the output of a command-line build to a file, append " > Filename.txt" (without the quotes) to the end of the command line. Note: The default build configuration of the project is built when you use Bldcmd.exe.
Windows Installer Logging
About MSI logging
Windows Installer can provide a means to track down errors or problems during an installation through the use of log files. These files show you the results of all actions executed during the installation as well as the values of all the properties. Normally, you would activate MSI logging at the command line using the /L option with Msiexec.exe. However, when you run an installation from Wise Installation Studio's environment, the logging is always enabled and tracked behind the scenes. This is why installations running from Wise Installation Studio are sometimes slow.
Logging in Wise Installation Studio
When you execute your installation (by pressing the F5 key or the button on the toolbar), Wise Installation Studio tracks the MSI log output and places it in the Output Window (located at the bottom of the main Wise Installation Studio window). To view it, expand the Output Window and select Debug from the drop-down list at the top of the Output Window.
You can also view the log output as a text file by going to Debug -> View MSI Log in the main menu. Also, to save the log as a text file, simply click the save button to the right of the drop-down list in the Output Window.
To stop debugging at any time and therefore terminate the Windows Installer process, click the button in the main toolbar or go to Debug -> Stop Debugging in the main menu.