redistribute .Net applications w/ Meas. Studio

[m_c]

How do I redistribute an application using Meas. Studio .Net?

The runtime version of the .Net framework must be shipped with the executable. What about Meas. Studio .Net ?

According to the "Distributing Measurement Studio .NET Applications" help, the Measurement Studio .msm files must be located in the Program files\Common File\Merge Modules directory.

The problem is that the \Merge Modules folder does not exist even after installing the .Net framework on a machine that does not have VStudio. Creating the folder and copying the corresponding .msm file does help.

Thanks for your help.

[bilalD]

Hello

The merge modules needed for distributing Measurement Studio applications should be installed with Measurement Studio 7.0, not with the .NET framework. To develop applications using Measurement Studio 7.0, you need to have Visual Studio.NET 2003 and Measurement Studio installed on the machine. When you install Visual Studio 2003, it creates the merge module folder for you. Measurement Studio then adds the additional merge modules in that folder for you.

I hope this helps

Bilal Durrani
NI

[TonyH]

The Measurement Studio .msm files are located in Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules only on the system you are using for development. The .msm files contain information on how to add Measurement Studio libraries to another system, but copying them to the Merge Modules folder on another system is not sufficient. To redistribute your developed application to another system, you need to include your application and those merge modules in a Windows Installer package. The easiest way to do this is:

(1) Create a Setup Project in Visual Studio in the same solution as your application.
(2) In the solution explorer, right-click on the new setup project and choose Add->Project Output, then select your application project and choose "Primary output". This sh
ould add your application and then detect the necessary .msm files and add them to the setup project as well. You can verify this in the Detected Dependencies folder in the Solution Explorer.
(3) Build the setup project. The .exe, .ini, and .msi files created in the build directory of the setup project are your complete installer with the .msm files included.

Tony H
Measurement Studio

[m_c]

I tried creating an installer as described above, but I was getting "Unable to import merge module" errors when building the .msi library although the NI .msm dependencies were detected properly.

I contacted a NI support engineer but he could not reproduce the problem after I sent him my project. I don't know if something is wrong with my system or if the problem is with Meas. Studio. A repair or uninstall-reinstall does not help.

In case other users experience the same problem, the only way I can distribute my application is to copy the required dlls (NationalInstruments.UI.WindowsForms.dll, etc.) from the C:\Program Files\National Instruments\MeasurementStudio70\DotNET\Assemblies\Current folder to my .exe folder. It can be done manually or with an insta
ller.

MC