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I'm already familiar with prebuild steps such as updating XML or using the automation interface to update a project. I'm looking for a far more simplistic approach to the following situation.

I'm using TFS 2010 and InstallShield's native MSBuild support to build an MSI. Is there a way to pass a property into the build to transform the output MSI name?

For example I'm already updated my .isproj file to create an InstallShieldPropertyOverrides item group to override the ProductCode and define the InstallShieldProductVersion property to override the ProductVersion Property. ( I only support Major Upgrades on this install. )

What I want to do is create MSI names like:

[ProductName]_[ProductVersion].msi

I want the name unique to be more obvious and I'm not concerned about side effects since I already support only Major Upgrades.

I tried putting the above string in the ProductConfiguration screen but the compiler didn't evaluate the expression. The result was an MSI of that literal name.

Christopher Painter
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  • I also realize that I could just set the ProductName property to [ProductName]_[ProductVersion] and I should get what I want but I pretty much don't like it when people abuse ProductName. They are too seperate properties for a reason. – Christopher Painter Sep 01 '11 at 15:01
  • Hmm. I'll have to look into this, but my guess is that the best option is a small bit of automation to set the override on the product/release config. It would be cool for IS to have a command-line/MSBuild way of changing this, or to treat the setting as a formatted string. (Though I would worry about the less informed accidentally breaking their minor upgrades.) – Michael Urman Sep 02 '11 at 13:34
  • I was hoping to find a way that leveraged the built-in isproj/targets that IS provides. I'm following the KISS principal today. :-) – Christopher Painter Sep 07 '11 at 15:03
  • Is renaming the MSI after build an option? If it is, it could be done dynamically through a command line. – Cosmin Sep 20 '11 at 20:03
  • Sometimes it would be but sometimes not if I'm building a self extract EXE release. – Christopher Painter Sep 20 '11 at 20:06

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