A few distribution questions.

[John]

Hi,

I have been developing CVI applications for a number of years (since
version 4.something) and have never quite cleared up a few questions I
have over distribution. I am currently using version 6.0.0.

My applications have always been targeted at Windows (95, 98, Me, 2000,
XP Home & XP Pro) environments.

My questions are to do with developing on one Windows version and
installing the application on a different version.

1. There are a number of definitions which are different from one
Windows type to another. E.G. MAX_PATHNAME_LEN. This is defined in
userint.h as 80 for 16 bit and 260 for 32 bit. I dare say there are
other examples of this kind. Do issues like this need to be resolved by
the distribution kit and if so how are they?


When developing an application for a customer it is convenient to send
updates via email. As the distribution kit is quite large and we don't
all have broadband yet I use the following short cut. Email the full
distribution kit (setup.exe etc.) once and then just email the release
executable and UIR files as they are updated. This system always works
when the customer is using the same operating system as me (currently XP
Home) and sometimes works when they are using a different one (Win98). I
should stress that I would never distribute a finish application this
way, this is just a convenience thing during development.

2. Clearly installation from the distribution kit is more complex than
just copying files but I should like to understand the issues here.
Perhaps you could point me at a helpful URL?
--
Regards,

John

[bilalD]

Hello

CVI uses Microsoft Installer technology (MSI) for the CDK. Basically these tools are suppose to take care of issues like this. Althought I should mention that the current versions of CVI only create 32 bit applications, and generally file path lenghts limits are pretty much the same among 32 bit windows systems.

But in any case, the MSI framwork is responsible for probing for factors like the OS, there the system directory is located ( usually an enviornment variable ) etc.. But the great thing about MSI is that since its an open framwork, its been documented in great detail on the Microsoft Developer Network. You can download several tools for MSI as well, since MS provides an Installer SDK. There are
third party tools like Wise and InstallShield and a free one WinInstall LE that make it easier for you to create packages using MSI.

Check out this link as well for info on the Windows Installer.

Hope this helps

Bilal Durrani
NI