Installer issues and NI merge modules

[Developer/Programmer]

I created a setup project for windows application using Microsoft visual studio.net 2003. I am using measurement studio 7.0 and vb.net.

The setup project included
· mstudiocommon.msm
· mstudioui.msm
· mstudiouiwinforms.msm,
· mstudiovisa.msm
· �MyLibrary.dll� (with NationalInstrument.Visa reference for serial communication).

The Installer works on my development machine (Windows 2000 server with measurement studio). Our testing machine is (windows XP SP1 Professional with.NET 1.1 framework).
I have few issues with the installation
a) Installer fails with a 2705 error. I found a work around, when I created an empty �National Instruments� under program files. The installation works.
b) This installation only works
if the NI Visa library is installed on the testing machine. My application is installing �NationalInstruments.VisaNS.dll� with it the application folder. But that seems to be not sufficient. I would prefer not install NI visa on every production version.
c) Windows application is not using mstudiovisa.msm but the �MyLibrary.dll� is using it. Do I need to include mstudiovisa.msm in the setup project?
d) I also developed a web application that takes the �MyLibrary.dll� reference. Do I need to include �NationalInstruments.VisaNS.dll� in the same web folder? How does that works?

Thanks for your time.

[jlaney]

Hello,

Let me try and answer your questions as they appear.

a) The error 2705 is a directory error and is probably happening becasue you are not including the niMetaUtils.msm. This does not make sense though, because the Merge Modules you have do not need the directory information stored in the other niMetaUtils.msm. Can you please send me a log of a failed installation? You do this by calling the MSI with a /l*v "c:\testlog.txt".
b) The VisaNS library is the .NET interface to the driver. You must still have the Visa driver installed on the machine to have that work properly.
c)I do not know how you are separating the installation, but if hte Windows application is also installing the "MyLibrary.dll" then it will also have to include the MStudioVisa.msm.

d)I do not know much about the web application deployment, but I would assume that it has the same rules as a Windows app. You must include the dependent assemblies in the same directory or in the Global Assembly Cache or else the runtime will not know where to find it and will give you errors.

You could probably create a application config file to locate things differently if you really need to but this would be just for appearances.

Hope I answered some of your questions and helped out.

Jeff
NI

[bilalD]

This post describes the license restrictions for NI-Visa, since you will need to deploy the driver on each machine.

Bilal Durrani
NI