Installer problems with exe files

[Buck_Smith]

I am working on a project to improve our company’s performance in installers and deployment of custom PC and embedded software.  Fishbone analysis of problem projects shows this is a repeated cause of dissatisfaction and cost overruns.  One repeated cause of installer problems with compiled executable files is difficulty with paths and with finding files such as lvanalsys.dll.   A possible solution we have come up with is to install LabVIEW, but not activate it.  This gives vi.lib and user.lib folders in a place where they are easily found.   Is this permissible under NI license agreements and contracts?

[Dennis_Knutson]

So you think this is better than having the people build the exe and installer correctly?

[Buck_Smith]

I guess I am think about from the standpoint of what is the best, fastest, cheapest way to make the installer.

[smercurio_fc]

Are you talking about installing LabVIEW on the target machines and not activating that? What would you be distributing then? I guess I don't understand what you are proposing for your company.

What are these issues that you say you are having with paths when it comes to the installers?  Are you including additional installers (such as the RunTime Engine, or DAQmx installers) as part of the overall installer?

[altenbach]

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@buck Smith wrote:

One repeated cause of installer problems with compiled executable files is difficulty with paths and with finding files such as lvanalsys.dll. 

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You will not be able to find it even after installing full LabVIEW, unless you are looking for the slighly different lvanlys.dll, not lvanalsys.dll.

If you properly build an installer from your project, all dependecies will be correctly included. What is your definition of "installer"? Are you just moving the executables around? What is your LabVIEW version? Also make sure that the standard runtime gets installed. Some users install the minimum version, which is typically insufficient.

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@buck Smith wrote:

A possible solution we have come up with is to install LabVIEW, but not activate it.  This gives vi.lib and user.lib folders in a place where they are easily found.   Is this permissible under NI license agreements and contracts?

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If you don't activate LabVIEW, it will stop working after the evaluation period. I don't see the advantage and logic of this extreme complication. So you decided to spend half a day per machine to install a full LabVIEW distribution instead of speding a few minutes building a proper installer? No wonder your users are dissatisfied with installations! 😮

In any case, you should have a full copy of the license agreement. Did you read it to see how it applies to this scenario?

[Buck_Smith]

Ni's licensing agreement says

"LabVIEW relies on licensing activation. You must activate a valid LabVIEW license before you can run LabVIEW.  To activate the license, use the serial number you received as part of your installation package.

Refer to the LabVIEW Release Notes for more information about licensing in LabVIEW."

In the scenario I am proposing LabVIEW is never run, so activation is never checked.   But the support files LabVIEW creates for the development environment are there in the same locations. The goal is minimize differences in the locations of vis and other support files between the development environment and the deployed environment...

[altenbach]

Well, three sentences of the license are not enough, you might want to read the full license here.

For example the sentence:

"Further, all uses of the SOFTWARE shall be in accordance with the applicable documentation that accompanies the SOFTWARE and not in any manner intended to (or that) circumvents such documentation or the intent of this Agreement."

This sentence seems to apply here, because you are not using the software in a documented way.

(I am not a lawyer and don't even play one on TV, so you can easily ignore what I just said. ;))

Anyway, This is a moot point, because your suggestion is simply not reasonable. You really need to learn how to correctly build an installer, it is not that hard. Everybody else does it successfully.