Unhandled MSI error message on run of built Setup.exe

[drummaniac83]

LOL Andromeda, it's like we are encountering the same issues over and over.

I use the report generation toolkit quite a bit and ever since 2010 SP1 have issues with it not including the proper VIs from the vi.lib (being object oriented they are of course dynamically called)....

I was hoping this was fixed in 2011, but I have seen it in 2011 as well.

Project files seemed to be super robust until 2010SP1.......not sure what they changed.

I love the project concept, but if every time it becomes corrupt their only solution is "create a new one" that is horrible.  I like you have huge project files with intricate builds specs with lots of customer data, bat files, etc.  It takes me about an hour to recreate everything.

I did notice that you can create a new project and drag all your files from an exisiting project over....this saved me quite a bit of time.  It did not work with auto populating folders though.

If you don't mind update this thread if you ever find real solutions.

Thanks,

Josh

[Andromeda]

Thanks Josh.

Don't even get me started on problems with the report generation toolkit! Yes, I encounter the same kinds of problems with VIs not being included in the build. I also encounter problems with analysis VIs not being included in the build.

My workaround is to force them to be directly dependent on a startup VI. This is far from ideal, and causes all kinds of problems with other dynamically loaded VIs.

Now if I could only re-create a project file in "only and hour"!

[Chris-G]

Josh and John,

In terms of the report generation toolkit, you must include a few extra source files in your build for it to work properly. This is because the toolkit uses LabVIEW classes and some other source files. See this KB for more information. Maybe this will at least clear up basic issues with the toolkit.

In terms of the MSI error... Josh, you are able to recreate this error every time, correct? And more specifically, is the error occurring only when you install your installer on a separate deployment computer? or is it happening even when you try to run the installer on the same machine that you are developing it? What are the basic specs of the deployment computer (if applicable)? The problem is that I am having trouble replicating the issue. I stepped through your procedure of building the installer several times, deleting and modifying destination folders and default folders, adding files to the folder, and then rebuilding the installer. But I am not getting an error. I've tried with LV 2010 SP1 and LV 2011 and it still works fine for me.

I understand that having to create a new project every time you want to modify an installer is a pain, so we'd certainly be willing to do more to figure this out. The problem is that the error must be reproducible for us to fully investigate it. Josh, is it possible to post the code/files and any other important information to help me replicate the error? In fact, it may be easier if you can send me a private message with your email and we can communicate that way. That would also allow us to fully open up this issue.

I understand your frustration with this error and thanks for the posts, Josh and John. Hopefully with a little more information we can go about finding the root cause of the error.

Chris G

[Andromeda]

Chris,

I have such a project, which contains both a corrupted project file, which always produces an installer that exhibits the problem, and a new, uncorrupted project file, which produces a working installer.

I believe that inspection of the project file, using an XML viewer, should give you a handle on what is happening in the project file that causes a problem, although it may not tell you exactly which steps to take in order to duplicate the problem.

[Chris-G]

Yea that'd certainly be worth a look. It would at least allow me to duplicate the error on my machine. Can you post the project? or is it too big?

Chris G

[Andromeda]

Hi Chris,

The project is far too large to post, and in any event, there would be confidentiality issues. If you can PM me your e-mail address, I will give you access to it.

[scrook]

This is probably a little late for the original posters but here is a way that I have used successfully to rescue project files with build specification corruption.

First,create a backup of your LVproj file and put it someplace safe.

Next, create (or open an existing) .lvproj file. You will want one that doesn't have any build specifications defined. If you scroll down to the bottom you will see a line like: <Item Name="Build Specifications" Type="Build"/>

Copy this line to your clipboard.

Now open your problem project file in LabVIEW. Remove all your build specifications from the project and save the file. Now open this LVproj file in your text editor and find the <Item Name="Build Specifications"...> area.

It will likely look like this:

<Item Name="Build Specifications" Type="Build">

<Property .....>

</Item>

You will want to get rid of everything up to the closing tag  (the </Item>) for the Build Specifications Item. The easiest way to do this is use a text editor like Notepad++ and under the language menu select XML to show which </item> is the one your are looking for. Once you have found the offending text, replace it with what you copied from the clean LVproj file earlier and save. You should now be able to re open the project in LabVIEW and set up your Build Specs again but now the MSI errors should be gone.

I can't guarantee that this will work for every issue but it might save someone some time down the road.

Scott Crook

CMOS Test Engineer

TriQuint SemiConductor

[Andromeda]

That's a great idea thanks!

In the past, I've tried to rescue corrupted project files with a standard XML editor, but with limited success - your idea of replacing the corrupted branch of the XML tree with an earlier saved branch, seems like a good one.

[charliep]

This is correct. I deleted and re-built my Installer, and presto, it works. This seems to be normal, if it does something weird, ru-build it.