Deployments

Description

When creating a "setup.exe" to deploy, some of the MapObjects components fail to register, and you are unsure which files must be included for a successful deployment.

Cause

There are numerous causes for this problem.

Solution or Workaround

Warning:
The instructions below include making changes to essential parts of your operating system. It is recommended that you backup your operating system and files, including the registry, before proceeding. Consult with a qualified computer systems professional, if necessary.

Esri cannot guarantee results from incorrect modifications while following these instructions; therefore, use caution and proceed at your own risk.

1. Read Chapter 9, "Deploying Applications" in "Building Applications with MapObjects" for a comprehensive discussion of the deployment process.

2. Run the Dependency Walker Utility. Use this tool to identify missing dependencies. The utility installs with Visual Studio and you can also find it on ESRI's MapObjects Developer Connection Web site.

3. Install Microsoft's DAO 3.5 if your MapObjects 2.0x application uses Jet or DAO syntax in the Database property of the Table object.

For MapObjects 2.1, install MDAC 2.5 for tables and ODBC.

4. Deploy ODBCTbl20.dll if your MapObjects 2.0x application requires ODBC support for the Database property of the Table object. Many computers already have ODBC support installed. However, if your target machine does not have ODBC support installed, you can use the ODBC system-level DLLs that reside on the MapObjects installation CD.

5. Always restore your target machine to its "clean" state after each deployment test. To do this, uninstall the project and delete the project folder. Unregister and remove all core components that are required by MapObjects. Restore the original versions of the Microsoft system components.

6. Review log files that your deployment software generates. The Visual Basic Package and Deployment Wizard creates SETUP.LST on the development machine and ST6UNST.LOG on the target machine. Some versions of InstallShield create a file with extension .IWZ on the development machine.

7. Be certain you've included non-MapObjects OCXs and DLLs that you've introduced into the application. For VB users, in your VB project click on Project Menu > References and Project Menu > Components.

8. InstallShield users: create a special group for the ESRI SelfRegister files. Place this group after all other DLLs have installed.

9. Login as an administrator of the target machine when you run the SETUP.EXE.

10. Experiment with other deployment software.

11. For MapObjects 2.1, use the Runtime Deployment, MO21RT.exe, as an alternative to creating your own setup package. Refer to MO21Runtime.doc found in \Program Files\ESRI\MapObjects\Runtime. If the Runtime directory does not exist, you will need to re-run the installation of MapObjects 2.1 to include the Runtime setup utilitiy.