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Customizing the dependent packages location

By default, supporting components upon which your custom user interface extension is dependent (.NET Framework, Meridian interop libraries, and so on) will download automatically from the Internet. You can customize the download location of these dependent packages to install them from a network location instead. The PackageBuilder tool creates a Support sub-folder where it places all of the files that were used to build the user interface extension .CAB file. You can edit these files to change the deployment behavior.

Caution note Caution

Be careful, if you customize the support files, do not run the PackageBuilder again without first backing up your changes or being prepared to reproduce the changes. The PackageBuilder will overwrite the contents of the Support folder and you will lose your changes. But do run the PackageBuilder when you change the version number of the extension or define additional COM classes. Running the PackageBuilder is necessary to add information to the setup files that is required for correct COM class registration.

To customize the dependent packages download location:

  1. Open the Bootstrapper.proj file in any text editor, find the Target xml node at the end of the file, and change the ComponentsLocation, ComponentsUrl, and CopyComponents attributes as follows, specifying your local network location in ComponentsUrl.
    Bottstrapper.proj fragment
    Copy
    <Target Name="Bootstrapper">
<GenerateBootstrapper
      ApplicationFile="run.exe"
      ApplicationName="BlueCielo Meridian Extension"
      BootstrapperItems="@(BootstrapperFile)"
      OutputPath="$(TargetDir)bin"
      ComponentsLocation="Absolute"
      ComponentsUrl="\\ServerAddress\ComponentsFolder"
      CopyComponents="true"
      Culture="en"
      Path="$(SDKBootstrapperPath) "/>
     </Target>
  2. Open the Build.bat file in any text editor. At the end of the file, find and comment out the line that removes the Support\bin output folder:

    rem if EXIST "bin" RD /s /q "bin"

  3. Run Build.bat to rebuild the CAB file. When the build succeeds, you will find dependent component sub-folders in the Support\bin folder:

    Support\bin\BCMeridianNetInterop
    Support\bin\DotNetFX35SP1
    Support\bin\WindowsInstaller3_1

  4. Copy these folders to the network location specified in the ComponentsUrl attribute of the Bootstrapper.proj file.

Note Note

When you create a .CAB file with the PackageBuilder tool (or the Build.bat support file) that bootstraps the UI extension with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, the following build warning may appear:

Item 'Microsoft.Net.Framework.3.5.SP1' could not be located in 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\'.

If you use Visual Studio 2008, make sure you have installed Service Pack 1. If the service pack does not resolve the issue, then follow the instructions that can be found in section 2.3.1.1 "Enable Samesite for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 bootstrapper package" of the Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Readme file, which is also available online at the following link.

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Readme
See Also