Just had an extruciating day trying to set up an installation set for these
components, and thought I would pass on what I have learned, and see if
anyone else has any better methods of reaching an end.
Here are the problems that I encountered:
1) Installed program on a non-Delphi machine, attempted to run the program,
and was faced with an OLE error dialog informing me that it could not find
the liscense for TTCP. Well, I researched through the documentation, and
their website on what could be causing the error. Eventually I located a
file in <Delphi 2.0>\OCX\ISP called Liscense.Reg with the approriate
information in it. Called up NetManage technical support (by the way the
fact that someone answers the phone there at 730am PST does not mean that
anyone is there that can help you from the SDK team. I was informed that
they would not be in for another hour and a half). Confirmed that these
component are Beta, and they do not know when the final release will be,
that they do not know what type of upgrade to the final components will
transpire, and that it is legal to distribute these liscense numbers.
Added these numbers into the instalation set, and set off on another
attempt.
2) Next situation in a day from hell. The program will now start, and the
TCP component will work fine. I figure, this might not be a bad day after
all....WRONG. When I attempt to use either the SMTP or POP component, it
will connect, but as soon as any commands are tried, I receive an error
that "The variant is not an OLE object". Well damn, what is going on now,
there are no other reg files to be had, must be an outdated DLL, or
something of the sort? NO!!! I systematically elimated every file that
what was different from the development machine. Well, back to the
registry. I eventually came to the realization that the error was being
generated from the Shared DLL and OCX. Apparently, when the components
that you drop on the form are activated from the program, they finsish the
registration process in the registry. But guess what, these Shared
components are never directly called from the program, only from the other
OCX's, and never register themselves with the registry. So here I go
trekking through the registry to locate all references to the shard
components. Upon locating them, I still have to incorporate them into the
install program.
3) First of all putting any large amount of registry entries into
InstallSheild is no fun at all...there has got to be a better way. And I
tell you, leave out one louse CLSID, or make one typing mistake, and
sheesh. You would think with all the hype on InstallShield, and this would
be a much less daunting task. If anyone cares to note the time stamp on
this post....I just finished a little while ago, and now still need to wade
through all the newsgroups.
So Much for my day in hell, anyone who can help prevent this in the
future...will be greatly appreciated...because guess what, while I know
what to do now, making another installtion routine will be just as
laborious.....NO....wait, I can copy the izw, and make a few
changes....like the executable, and a few splash screens, and I can be on
my way.
Signing off from the brink of insanity......Leslie
