User Guide

361
Import Visual Studio Projects
Importing an Installation From a Visual Studio Project
" Not available in the Visual Studio integrated editor.
Use the following procedure to create a Windows Installer package from a Visual Basic,
Visual C#, or Visual J# project. For general information on these tools, see Import Visual
Studio Projects on page 360.
1. Do one of the following:
• Select File menu > New. On the New Installation File dialog, select Import Tools
from the Categories list, and in the Templates/Tools list, double-click the
type of project to import. Use this method to create an installation that contains
only the information from the imported installation.
• Select Tools menu > Import Tools and select the type of project to import. Use
this method to add the imported installation’s information to the current
installation file.
The Project or Solution File dialog appears.
2. In the Project or Solution File field, specify the path to the project or solution file,
and click Next.
The dialog that appears depends on what kind of file you import.
• If you import a Visual Basic .NET, C#, or J# file, the Select Configuration dialog
appears, which shows the configurations stored in the solution or project. These
correspond to build configurations in your Microsoft development environment.
• If you import a Visual Basic 5 or 6 file, the Select Visual Basic Directory dialog
appears.
3. If the Select Configuration dialog appears, select the configuration to import. To be
prompted at the end of this wizard to select which assembly dependencies get
added to which feature, clear Automatically add Assembly Dependencies
without prompting. Otherwise dependencies will be added silently.
4. If the Select Visual Basic Directory dialog appears, specify the directory on your
computer where Visual Basic is installed. The Visual Basic installation directory
contains the support files that must be included as part of the installation because
they are needed by the Visual Basic program.
5. Click Next.
The Scanning Project Files dialog appears.
During the scan, you might see an error about the project being out of date or
missing. You can attempt a rebuild of the project from this tool, or open the
development environment yourself and rebuild the project. Another error, Project
<Project Name> contains a reference to the project with GUID..., means that you
selected a project that has a reference to another project. In this case, the import
ends. You must select the solution (.SLN) file that contains both projects.
Next, the Dependency Files Not Found dialog appears if necessary, which lists
missing dependency (.DEP) files for Win32 target files. Dependency files list
referenced files. This dialog usually does not apply to .NET projects, which use
assembly manifests instead of dependency files, unless the .NET project depends on
a COM .DLL that has a dependency. If the dependency files cannot be read, then the
files they refer to cannot be added to the installation you are creating.
6. If any files in the Dependency Files Not Found dialog are crucial to this installation,
cancel the import process, locate the files, move them to the System or System32
directory, and then restart the import process.
7. Click Next.