Building, Testing, and Deploying Installations

Once you have configured the features, components, files, shortcuts, registry entries, end-user dialogs, and other elements of your installation project, you are ready to create and build a release for your installation. InstallShield lets you create multiple releases for a project and configure each release for a different media type and according to different sets of requirements. Building releases packages the content of your installation, creating a disk image that you can copy to your distribution media and distribute or deploy as needed.

Testing is an essential part of creating a reliable installation. InstallShield enables you to selectively test run just the end-user interface portion of a release. You can also run your installation by simply clicking a button in InstallShield; when you run an installation by using this method, your installation executes exactly as it would on an end user’s machine. All files are transferred, shortcuts and registry entries are made, and the user interface is displayed.

Before you release your product, you may want to validate your installation project. Validating a Windows Installer project involves applying a set of internal consistency evaluator (ICE) rules to your installation project. These ICEs are designed by Microsoft to help you determine whether your resulting installation package contains a valid database that performs its actions correctly.

With the debugging tools in InstallShield, you can debug your InstallScript script or Windows Installer release to identify the sources of problems. When you debug a script, you execute your script, statement by statement, and trace the flow of control by watching the execution point as it moves through the script. You can also monitor the value of any variable in your script at any point during script execution. When you debug a Windows Installer release, InstallShield runs through each action and dialog box until it reaches your breakpoint, when it halts execution. At this point, you can view and set properties.