InstallShield LE - Relative paths to file

Question

When I add a dependency to my installer, I'm always left with a hard coded path to the file.

According to this blog, the only way around this is to manually change the hard coded paths in the ISL file with the ISProjectFolder variable. This isn't any good as the file will get blitzed every time I rebuild the installer.

I've also seen path variables mentioned but there seems to be no feature for them in InstallShield LE.

Anyone got any ideas?

Phlebotomize

Since posting this, I've encountered numerous other limitations of Install Shield LE and I have come to the conclusion that it's a complete waste of space. – Phlebotomize

Answer 1

• fixed relative paths for file content to be copied by the Install Shield Limited Edition to the output directory ( Visual Studio 2012 ) Steps:
• Expand your install project in the Solution Explorer so you see the 1,2,3,4,5,6 sections
• Expand '2' and double click on 'Files' You will see a four panel page: with 'Source computer's files' and 'Destination computer's files'
• delete your hard coded paths and files from the 'Destination computer's files'
• Click in the top left panel, on the project that has your files as 'Content Files'
• the top right panel will show 'Content Files from MyProject'
• click and drag this to the bottom right panel (the 'Destination computer's files')

Go back into your project and make sure all your files you want copied have properties: Build Action=Content and Copy to output directory=Copy Always

Pall

Great, thanks for that. I've ditched Install Shield in favour of Wix but I had a brief fiddle with your solution earlier and it seems to work. – Phlebotomize

What if you files are not a part of any project? I keep 100's of configuration files, etc that are used by my project after it compiles that are not actually in the project but are kept in source control separately. – Uziel

you should look at the answer provided by bvg in this post. It takes into consideration that you may have files that cannot be added by by this solution. (ie. files not part of the project) – Aponeurosis

still not sure how to include the .vsto file since that's not part of the solution but it is generated in bin. i included all source paths (including primary output), but that file is not being copied. – Placebo