>>>>Hi there,
>>>>
>>>>>I have the Visual Studio that had VFP 5 in it. Is it in that version?
>>>>
>>>>Yep. Run the install off of the first CD and at the very bottom of the list of products you will see InstallSheild 5 Free, a single user edition of version 5.0 of this product. You have to look for it because I too missed it the first couple of times I installed Visual Studio.
>>>>
>>>>I don't have the CD's right here, but if you have problems, email me at
pmiles@dda.ns.ca and I will check the install this evening back at the office, and send you the appropriate instructions.
>>>>
>>>>Phil
>>>
>>>Ok, I'll try that.
>>>
>>>I remember someone saying it would be nice if VS came with an installing program, and I guess it does. Unfortunately, I don't remember who said it, so I can't tell him/her. :(
>>
>>The version of InstallShield is not InstallShield Pro; the scripting capabilities are far more limited. It's a big improvement over the Setup Wizard as far as a professional installation, and in conjunction with a VFP Runtime install created by Setup Wizard, it offers a good deal more flexibility than VFP's Setup Wizard alone.
>
>
>I don't need scripting, so that's not a problem. What do you mean by using them in conjunction?
Setup Wizard is relatively inflexible, but it knows what components are required by VFP. InstallShield is flexible, but doesn't have a built-in knowledge of VFP's runtime requirements.
The approach I recommend is use Setup Wizard to handle what it's good at, and let InstallShield or some other more flexible tool do the rest. Build a minimal VFP Runtime install using Setup Wizard. Construct a NetSetup distribution.
When building your InstallShield script, have InstallShield fire off the Setup Wizard runtime installation using it's LaunchAppAndWait() function as one of its steps. The Setup Wizard script can be run silently, and since it is only installing runtime components, you don't need it to handle where the application is placed or any of the other things that require interaction with the VFP Setup Wizard install. Once the VFP Setup Wizard completes, InstallShield (or whatever else you're using) can continue the installation process, without having ever hacked the Setup Wizard to figure out exactly what was required to put VFP's runtime in place.
The real value of this becomes apparent when you transition from one runtime version to another. There's no need to go back, hack the Setup Wizard to find out what new things are needed, and then change your InstallShield script. All that needs to be done is to build a new Setup Wizard install for the new runtime version, and place that in the directory used by InstallShield to do the runtime install.
For example, with an application that doesn't have ActiuveX components in any forms, I can recompile my .EXE under VFP 6, replace the VFP 5 Setup Wizard runtime install in my InstallShield distribution with my VFP 6 Setup Wizard runtime install, replace the VFP 5 .EXE with the VFP 6 .EXE, and ship out a new CD with the app ready to go under VFP 6.
>
>Thanks,
>
>-Michelle
