creating package with sms installer

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creating package with sms installer - 2/20/2008 7:26:21 PM

phenry194

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OK, can I ask a question that is right up there with tying your shoes to the rest of you folks? I was wondering about the "other side" of sms installer. The side where you run a wizard to "record" installing an application, so you can supply input where needed so you can ultimately render a silent install. I haven't really done much with that component of the program and am wondering how well it works. I have dabbled with it a bit, but can't quite get a handle on it, so I am not yet comfortable with the process and how it is really supposed to work. I don't have install shield or wise or any of the other applications made for this kind of process, so I was wondering if sms installer is a good bet or maybe I would be better off using a different approach. I am getting more and more requests for different kinds of software installs that require a variety of processes to produce a silent installation, and since I am limited on resources, I was wondering what my best bet would be, since you are all much more adept at this process than I am (still learning here). Thanks for any input. : )

Post #: 1

RE: creating package with sms installer - 2/20/2008 11:33:32 PM

tmatthews344

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it works. Especially for a 'free' utility. MSIs are poor but exe's are fine.

other tools are more robust and easier to use.

Post if you have more specific questions.

Terry

(in reply to phenry194)

Post #: 2

RE: creating package with sms installer - 2/21/2008 9:51:09 AM

jsandys

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From: San Antonio, TX
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If you are getting lots of requests, invest in a real tool like Installshield or Wise (there are a couple others out there as well). Learning to do MSIs correctly has a steep learning curve, but these tools make it much easier. They are pricey however.

Caphyon offers a free version of their MSI creation tool: http://www.advancedinstaller.com/. This is a good place to start to see if it meets your needs. From there you can move up to one of the professional products if needed.

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(in reply to tmatthews344)

Post #: 3

RE: creating package with sms installer - 8/13/2008 7:06:11 AM 1 votes

ChrisR

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quote:

ORIGINAL: jsandys

If you are getting lots of requests, invest in a real tool like Installshield or Wise (there are a couple others out there as well). Learning to do MSIs correctly has a steep learning curve, but these tools make it much easier. They are pricey however.

Caphyon offers a free version of their MSI creation tool: http://www.advancedinstaller.com/. This is a good place to start to see if it meets your needs. From there you can move up to one of the professional products if needed.

But what if you don't want to create msis, not everyone does :)

I've always used SMS installer, tried all the others and found no need to switch.

I've been in places whereby the previous person doing the job has had wise/installshield to play with but has no clue on how things actually work so has just done before/after capture installs and created very bad msis that have caused us a lot of problems.

I'd have to be shown something pretty special to switch over to a 'repackage everything into an msi' way of doing things!

(in reply to jsandys)

Post #: 4

RE: creating package with sms installer - 8/13/2008 1:33:21 PM

tmatthews344

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Without going into the mny many features of MSI technology (see technet)... what about self healing? that's a pretty special feature?

Also like I said above many times if you need something simple done SMS Installer will work but... there's a million ways to do things simplier and more professional using a tool like admin studio. Another thing to keep in mind is SMSI has not been updated in how many years? 5? 6?

Plus if you've used SMSI for any length of time you know there are many many limitations to it just in what it's capabilities are and bugs that will never be fixed, etc... This is only going to keep becoming more obvious.

Have you repackaged apps for Vista yet? or 64 bit OS's? just curious?

What's the most lines in one of your SMSI scripts?

Anyway, if you need something simple and it works for you fine, but I'd still recommend learning one of the professional tools so that you have the skills when you need them.

Terry

(in reply to ChrisR)

Post #: 5

RE: creating package with sms installer - 8/13/2008 2:22:07 PM

cireton

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I've been using the free FlexNet installer and am quite happy with how it works. Creating transforms is a piece of cake and doing installation monitoring works as well. The only down side of installation monitoring, or "snapshot", is that you have to weed out all of the unwanted registry changes that Window, McAfee, and others make during the timeframe of an install. Still, it's a good way to take an .exe file that has no command line options and turn it into an msi. Adn, if you're really brave, you can dig right into MSI's with the Orca tool and edit the MSI directly. Risky, but it works.

Chuck

(in reply to tmatthews344)

Post #: 6

RE: creating package with sms installer - 8/15/2008 11:24:52 AM

jmaclaurin

Posts: 877
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From: Ottawa, Ont., Canada
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We use Wise for our msi packaging and mst creation or we use what ever the vendor provides (eg: Adobe and MS usually have packaging tools).

However, if you want to put real logic into the installation critera such as look for this and then remove/update that, SMS Installer is great. I even use it to simplify day to day tasks or create menues for my PE boot disks. I've posted a couple scripts I have created if you want to have a look at them.

But, would I use it to create msi's? Simply put, no. Its just not the tool for the job.

(in reply to cireton)

Post #: 7

RE: creating package with sms installer - 8/18/2008 6:36:54 AM

ChrisR

Posts: 42
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quote:

ORIGINAL: tmatthews344

Without going into the mny many features of MSI technology (see technet)... what about self healing? that's a pretty special feature?

I know about MSI tech, been working with it for quite a while, but I can honestly say I've never needed to use any of it's features like self healing. Infact some of it's features have caused us more problems than good due to people trying to be clever with packages but just plain getting things wrong :(

quote:

ORIGINAL: tmatthews344
Also like I said above many times if you need something simple done SMS Installer will work but... there's a million ways to do things simplier and more professional using a tool like admin studio. Another thing to keep in mind is SMSI has not been updated in how many years? 5? 6?

Plus if you've used SMSI for any length of time you know there are many many limitations to it just in what it's capabilities are and bugs that will never be fixed, etc... This is only going to keep becoming more obvious.

Again, I can honestly say at the moment I've got no problems, nor have I had any problems, in using SMS installer. No bugs that affect me, and as for updating I couldn't really care less if it's working fine :)

quote:

ORIGINAL: tmatthews344
Have you repackaged apps for Vista yet? or 64 bit OS's? just curious?

Not yet and I know that when we start the Vista/next OS push I will be moving away from SMS installer, but I'll have to eval which product to use when the time comes :)

quote:

ORIGINAL: tmatthews344
What's the most lines in one of your SMSI scripts?

Almost all my scripts are based on templates for that installer type, this ensures some consistancy. The template I've got for an MSI runs to a weighty 500 odd lines however it's been created in a way that I only have to 'fill in the blanks' for each package. It also has quite a bit of logic and other extra bits in above just the main installation routine.

quote:

ORIGINAL: tmatthews344
Anyway, if you need something simple and it works for you fine, but I'd still recommend learning one of the professional tools so that you have the skills when you need them.

Terry

When we move OS we'll be moving packaging utility, no idea which one we'll be choosing though, what's your favourite? :) Actually I've got a license for WISE package studio, I should dig that out and have a play again.

< Message edited by ChrisR -- 8/18/2008 7:24:46 AM >

(in reply to tmatthews344)

Post #: 8