Build Installer LV8.0 - is this real??

Question

Hi all
I recently received LV8.0. After playing around and test some new features, I wanted to start to bring all testrigs that run under LV to LV8.0. Therefore I chose one of them, made a LV-project, modified the source code, created a application build script and an installer build script. I run the application build script without any problems. OK - everything's fine up to now. But as I wanted to create an installer, it obviously just creates a lot of "nonsense".
I checked some additional installers (Datasocket, LV8.0 runtime engine, MAX 4.0, Fieldpoint, Scope and VISA) to make just one Installer, which would be very nice to handle. When checking NI Datasocket, I saw in the distribution title on the right side (see attachment) LabVIEW 8.0 Real-Time Module. Why???? There is no need to include the rt-module, as I don't use it.
I thought "ok, maybe a wrong string displayed - let's create the installer" and run the build script. While running it asked me for the device driver cd's (ok - could be logical) and out of a sudden it also asked me for the cd of the LV realtime module. Well - I inserted it an continued the build.
In the end I got a directory structure (Volume/bin/lotsOf"pXX") with a size around 650 MB - for a simple application of approximatly 10MB.
When I browse some of these "pXX" directories I discover subdirectories like "p14/LV711RTE", "p15/LVBrokerAux71" and lots of different msi-files (for instance "NIRegistrationWizard.msi" - but why?).
Is there anyone out there who can help me quickly?
Thomas
Using LV8.0
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Attachments:
Installer.JPG ‏167 KB

Answer 1

Thomas,
Thanks, I too have been waiting for us to have the ability to build installers that include all the drivers and related software you need. There was a lot of work that went into it by a team of people here at NI. Their work is being used in LabVIEW, CVI and TestStand now for generating such installers. I'll pass along your complements to the people involved.
So you unchecked DataSocket yet your DataSocket communications are still working? I think that might be due to DataSocket being included through one of the other installers. When you check an item we'll include all the dependencies that you need. Most of the time those dependencies don't show up in the list of additional installers, because they are lower level drivers and software you don't interact with directly and don't need to know about. Some of the items that are dependencies for other installers do appear in the list such as DataSocket, LabVIEW Run-Time Engine and MAX. FieldPoint for instance is dependent on MAX and will include it if you are including FieldPoint. If you check MAX too, the Installer Builder will only include one copy of MAX. I'm not sure which of the other items is dependent on DataSocket but it could be getting included that way. Another possibility is some older LabVIEW Run-Time Engines are being included in your installer because of MAX and they include an older version of DataSocket as part of their installer not as a dependency so it could get included that way, but that would be an older version of DataSocket and not what you are using on your development machine. Since you know you are using DataSocket I recommend checking it, so you know the version you are using will get included.
When you uninstalled LabVIEW Real-Time, the core portion of LabVIEW Real-Time was removed, however any dependencies it had that are also a dependency of another NI Installer would not be removed. As I mentioned earlier LabVIEW 8.0 installed DataSocket and the Real-Time Installer upgraded it. The installers have the necessary logic to know that just because RT installed a newer DataSocket we cannot remove it with RT because LabVIEW depends on it as well. When you ran the RT installer the progress bar probably showed installing part X of Y, and when you uninstalled it there was also a progress bar that showed removing part X of Z. Where Z is a smaller number than Y because some dependencies of other products were updated and they can't be removed until all the installers that need them are removed.
So the next question is "I want to rebuild this installer without having to put the CD in. How can I do that?" The ideal answer would be for us to have a check box on the dialog when you are prompted for the distribution that says something about copying the necessary files to your hard drive and you could choose to uncheck it. We didn't get around to putting that in for LabVIEW 8.0 but if you happen to use CVI you'll notice they have such a check box and as I said we use the same installer building technology so it wouldn't be unreasonable to see that in the future for LabVIEW . But what can you do right now?
One options would be to always copy your CDs over to the hard drive before you install them and leave the installers on your hard drive, that way the last place they were installed from was somewhere on you hard drive that can be found without user interaction. We don't do that by default since copying the LabVIEW CD(s)plus the driver CDs would really use up your free space. This is messy though because you have to uninstall everything and reinstall it.
Another option is to copy the distribution you are being prompted for (the entire disc) to your hard drive and then in the Installer Builder select NI DataSocket and change the Installer location path to the location you copied it to (the top level folder that has a nidist.id file in it). The press OK on the dialog, now the Installer Builder will look in that location for NI DataSocket, until a newer version is installed. We have had some problems with this mechanism not getting all the dependencies from the new location, so it isn't a 100% solution, but I just tried it for DataSocket and it worked.
The first option will catch 100% of the dependencies, where as the second option unfortunately won't.
Kennon