version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number)

[johnmichaloski]

I was asked what version of MTConnect software I was distributing. Needless to say, I had no real answer. I am using version 1.2 adapter and agent that I downloaded from github, and know work. No drips, no runs, no errors. I tweak as appropriate (e.g., I commented out threading from the adapter). I have a msi script with version increments (so it will overwrite existing installations.) but this is no real answer. I realize there is a version.hh in the agent, but its only for major.minor MTConnect version. Visual Studio C++ versioning is horrible, C# is better (of course). If there is a way to identify version including build in MTconnect, then I will spend some time figuring out how to automate a post-build in windows.

Any thoughts appreciated before I jump in the MTConnect versioning pool...

[wsobel]

I can add a version.rc file that will encode the version in the exec. The agent dumps out the version number when it starts.

For the agent itself, it can support any version since 1.0 of the standard. It automatically reconfigures. You can also select by setting the SchemaVersion configuration variable to the version of the schema you want to support. The schema itself is served from the local directory referenced by the Files section. The version.h file is generated when the agent is built and has a major, minor, patch, and build number. These are written out when the agent is started.

    MTConnect Agent Version 1.3.0.8 - built on Fri Oct  3 12:28:19 2014

I have not embedded the version number in the .exe, but I will do that.

[wsobel]

Added the version number to the exe and update release v1.3.0.8. Commit 031ef81. Binaries now contain version numbers and the rest of the info in the latest 1.3.0.8 release zip files. The version.rc.in file contains the template.

[wsobel]

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

[johnmichaloski]

I use Microsoft 2008/2010 visual setup. Microsoft install projects were discontinued after 2010, and replaced by Installshield lite – which didn’t do what I wanted…

Microsoft install project helps when installing C++ version specific libraries or other libraries, such as OPC libraries. It should install and start the agent/adapter, and it “often does”. Likewise, it uninstalls the code, but stopping and uninstalling the service is iffy. I have run into many UAC headaches that should not happen since installs are elevated privileges.

Anyone is welcome to the code – to debug I suggest debugview.exe, as debugging is hard. I have 32 and 64 installs. Of note, I reset all the file permissions on Windows 7 during install, so agent can write to agent.log and users can change agent.cfg and actually save it.

I have a custom action which for agent queries the user for adapters(name,ip,port), http port, service name. It then uses the custom action to build the cfg and devices.xml file. It is not fancy and usually the devices.xml are geared to a specific limited device. The adapter was a simple all next install, but now I need a device name, which requires a custom action.

I should learn wix, or some tool, but I should learn Qt C++ etc.

Example of the code can be found at https://github.com/johnmichaloski/Adapter---fanuc-iSeries - 3 parts - adapter, custom action dll, and setup project.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:21 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60966102.

[wsobel]

i’m looking into NSIS, which I find easier to understand than WIX. I found WIX a bit obtuse.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

I’m going to check this out as well as it integrates with CMake, so it will auto generate a template to do the installation.

• W

On Oct 29, 2014, at 12:06, John Michaloski notifications@github.com wrote:

I use Microsoft 2008/2010 visual setup. Microsoft install projects were discontinued after 2010, and replaced by Installshield lite – which didn’t do what I wanted…

Microsoft install project helps when installing C++ version specific libraries or other libraries, such as OPC libraries. It should install and start the agent/adapter, and it “often does”. Likewise, it uninstalls the code, but stopping and uninstalling the service is iffy. I have run into many UAC headaches that should not happen since installs are elevated privileges.

Anyone is welcome to the code – to debug I suggest debugview.exe, as debugging is hard. I have 32 and 64 installs. Of note, I reset all the file permissions on Windows 7 during install, so agent can write to agent.log and users can change agent.cfg and actually save it.

I have a custom action which for agent queries the user for adapters(name,ip,port), http port, service name. It then uses the custom action to build the cfg and devices.xml file. It is not fancy and usually the devices.xml are geared to a specific limited device. The adapter was a simple all next install, but now I need a device name, which requires a custom action.

I should learn wix, or some tool, but I should learn Qt C++ etc.

Example of the code can be found at https://github.com/johnmichaloski/Adapter---fanuc-iSeries - 3 parts - adapter, custom action dll, and setup project.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:21 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60966102.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

[johnmichaloski]

Ok, I downloaded and will try NSIS. Let you know how it goes. So much stuff out there, word of mouth is only way to know what really works.

Wix is a Microsoft open source - it is beyond confusing.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 3:09 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

i’m looking into NSIS, which I find easier to understand than WIX. I found WIX a bit obtuse.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

I’m going to check this out as well as it integrates with CMake, so it will auto generate a template to do the installation.

• W

On Oct 29, 2014, at 12:06, John Michaloski <notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com> wrote:

I use Microsoft 2008/2010 visual setup. Microsoft install projects were discontinued after 2010, and replaced by Installshield lite – which didn’t do what I wanted…

Microsoft install project helps when installing C++ version specific libraries or other libraries, such as OPC libraries. It should install and start the agent/adapter, and it “often does”. Likewise, it uninstalls the code, but stopping and uninstalling the service is iffy. I have run into many UAC headaches that should not happen since installs are elevated privileges.

Anyone is welcome to the code – to debug I suggest debugview.exe, as debugging is hard. I have 32 and 64 installs. Of note, I reset all the file permissions on Windows 7 during install, so agent can write to agent.log and users can change agent.cfg and actually save it.

I have a custom action which for agent queries the user for adapters(name,ip,port), http port, service name. It then uses the custom action to build the cfg and devices.xml file. It is not fancy and usually the devices.xml are geared to a specific limited device. The adapter was a simple all next install, but now I need a device name, which requires a custom action.

I should learn wix, or some tool, but I should learn Qt C++ etc.

Example of the code can be found at https://github.com/johnmichaloski/Adapter---fanuc-iSeries - 3 parts - adapter, custom action dll, and setup project.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:21 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60966102.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60985809.

[johnmichaloski]

I have put together two NSIS scripts (one installs everything and configures agent) and another install script for configuring multiple adapters. I have documentation of NSIS but it changed drastically since I only recently found out that long strings are not supported by NSIS (<1024) but lists of string are. I attached two powerpoint presentations of the sequence.

Questions I had:

1.  Is there somewhere I should upload NSIS script?
   

2.  Has the thought been given to templates for instantiating the devices.xml file? I use a simple template that prepended the device name before each XML “id” attribute.
   

3.  Recent license agreement? Found old one.
   

In general, NSIS is fast, been around, seems rebust. one install handles 32/64 bit installs, MSVC dll’s and my kludgy way to specify adapters. Designing GUI sheets in NSIS is remarkably easy. There are issues, but with NSIS, they have already crossed this bridge a decade ago.

I ran into unrelated agent stopping issue that has side tracked me and prevented a complete debugging.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 3:09 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

i’m looking into NSIS, which I find easier to understand than WIX. I found WIX a bit obtuse.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

I’m going to check this out as well as it integrates with CMake, so it will auto generate a template to do the installation.

• W

On Oct 29, 2014, at 12:06, John Michaloski <notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com> wrote:

I use Microsoft 2008/2010 visual setup. Microsoft install projects were discontinued after 2010, and replaced by Installshield lite – which didn’t do what I wanted…

Microsoft install project helps when installing C++ version specific libraries or other libraries, such as OPC libraries. It should install and start the agent/adapter, and it “often does”. Likewise, it uninstalls the code, but stopping and uninstalling the service is iffy. I have run into many UAC headaches that should not happen since installs are elevated privileges.

Anyone is welcome to the code – to debug I suggest debugview.exe, as debugging is hard. I have 32 and 64 installs. Of note, I reset all the file permissions on Windows 7 during install, so agent can write to agent.log and users can change agent.cfg and actually save it.

I have a custom action which for agent queries the user for adapters(name,ip,port), http port, service name. It then uses the custom action to build the cfg and devices.xml file. It is not fancy and usually the devices.xml are geared to a specific limited device. The adapter was a simple all next install, but now I need a device name, which requires a custom action.

I should learn wix, or some tool, but I should learn Qt C++ etc.

Example of the code can be found at https://github.com/johnmichaloski/Adapter---fanuc-iSeries - 3 parts - adapter, custom action dll, and setup project.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:21 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60966102.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60985809.

[wsobel]

Thanks a lot! This is great. We should commit them into the cppagent repository directly. Here is the license header I use. I need to update the License.txt file as well.

• Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
• you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
• You may obtain a copy of the License at

•   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  
• Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
• distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
• WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
• See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
• limitations under the License.

create a subdirectory call install and place the files there. We can even tie into the cmake build as well, it has some NSIS support.

re the templates. we have thought about templates. SI has a tool we may release as a service, people have been asking, but need to clean up. It will generate an entire sites configuration with Devices.xml file generated using existing device templates. Still debating how to support/release. It’s a ruby script with a DSL to configure the devices.

btw. I’ll be at NIST next week for the prognostics meeting - we can discuss then.

best,

• W

On Nov 14, 2014, at 12:21, John Michaloski notifications@github.com wrote:

I have put together two NSIS scripts (one installs everything and configures agent) and another install script for configuring multiple adapters. I have documentation of NSIS but it changed drastically since I only recently found out that long strings are not supported by NSIS (<1024) but lists of string are. I attached two powerpoint presentations of the sequence.

Questions I had:

1. Is there somewhere I should upload NSIS script?

2. Has the thought been given to templates for instantiating the devices.xml file? I use a simple template that prepended the device name before each XML “id” attribute.

3. Recent license agreement? Found old one.

In general, NSIS is fast, been around, seems rebust. one install handles 32/64 bit installs, MSVC dll’s and my kludgy way to specify adapters. Designing GUI sheets in NSIS is remarkably easy. There are issues, but with NSIS, they have already crossed this bridge a decade ago.

I ran into unrelated agent stopping issue that has side tracked me and prevented a complete debugging.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 3:09 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

i’m looking into NSIS, which I find easier to understand than WIX. I found WIX a bit obtuse.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

I’m going to check this out as well as it integrates with CMake, so it will auto generate a template to do the installation.

• W

On Oct 29, 2014, at 12:06, John Michaloski <notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com> wrote:

I use Microsoft 2008/2010 visual setup. Microsoft install projects were discontinued after 2010, and replaced by Installshield lite – which didn’t do what I wanted…

Microsoft install project helps when installing C++ version specific libraries or other libraries, such as OPC libraries. It should install and start the agent/adapter, and it “often does”. Likewise, it uninstalls the code, but stopping and uninstalling the service is iffy. I have run into many UAC headaches that should not happen since installs are elevated privileges.

Anyone is welcome to the code – to debug I suggest debugview.exe, as debugging is hard. I have 32 and 64 installs. Of note, I reset all the file permissions on Windows 7 during install, so agent can write to agent.log and users can change agent.cfg and actually save it.

I have a custom action which for agent queries the user for adapters(name,ip,port), http port, service name. It then uses the custom action to build the cfg and devices.xml file. It is not fancy and usually the devices.xml are geared to a specific limited device. The adapter was a simple all next install, but now I need a device name, which requires a custom action.

I should learn wix, or some tool, but I should learn Qt C++ etc.

Example of the code can be found at https://github.com/johnmichaloski/Adapter---fanuc-iSeries - 3 parts - adapter, custom action dll, and setup project.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:21 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60966102.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60985809.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

[johnmichaloski]

I don’t have permission to create a repository on mtconnect. So I created my own installation repository for now:

https://github.com/johnmichaloski/installation

I will try to hammer out the documentation both in word and md format. You can save a lot of web searching with documentation especially if you cut/paste code like me. NSIS on sourceforge has most of the answers.

However, you know you’re in trouble when your search turns up NCIS results.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 3:30 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

Thanks a lot! This is great. We should commit them into the cppagent repository directly. Here is the license header I use. I need to update the License.txt file as well.

• Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
• you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
• You may obtain a copy of the License at
  *
• http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  *
• Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
• distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
• WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
• See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
• limitations under the License.

create a subdirectory call install and place the files there. We can even tie into the cmake build as well, it has some NSIS support.

re the templates. we have thought about templates. SI has a tool we may release as a service, people have been asking, but need to clean up. It will generate an entire sites configuration with Devices.xml file generated using existing device templates. Still debating how to support/release. It’s a ruby script with a DSL to configure the devices.

btw. I’ll be at NIST next week for the prognostics meeting - we can discuss then.

best,

• W

On Nov 14, 2014, at 12:21, John Michaloski <notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com> wrote:

I have put together two NSIS scripts (one installs everything and configures agent) and another install script for configuring multiple adapters. I have documentation of NSIS but it changed drastically since I only recently found out that long strings are not supported by NSIS (<1024) but lists of string are. I attached two powerpoint presentations of the sequence.

Questions I had:

1. Is there somewhere I should upload NSIS script?

2. Has the thought been given to templates for instantiating the devices.xml file? I use a simple template that prepended the device name before each XML “id” attribute.

3. Recent license agreement? Found old one.

In general, NSIS is fast, been around, seems rebust. one install handles 32/64 bit installs, MSVC dll’s and my kludgy way to specify adapters. Designing GUI sheets in NSIS is remarkably easy. There are issues, but with NSIS, they have already crossed this bridge a decade ago.

I ran into unrelated agent stopping issue that has side tracked me and prevented a complete debugging.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 3:09 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

i’m looking into NSIS, which I find easier to understand than WIX. I found WIX a bit obtuse.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

I’m going to check this out as well as it integrates with CMake, so it will auto generate a template to do the installation.

• W

On Oct 29, 2014, at 12:06, John Michaloski <notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com%3cmailto:notifications@github.com>> wrote:

I use Microsoft 2008/2010 visual setup. Microsoft install projects were discontinued after 2010, and replaced by Installshield lite – which didn’t do what I wanted…

Microsoft install project helps when installing C++ version specific libraries or other libraries, such as OPC libraries. It should install and start the agent/adapter, and it “often does”. Likewise, it uninstalls the code, but stopping and uninstalling the service is iffy. I have run into many UAC headaches that should not happen since installs are elevated privileges.

Anyone is welcome to the code – to debug I suggest debugview.exe, as debugging is hard. I have 32 and 64 installs. Of note, I reset all the file permissions on Windows 7 during install, so agent can write to agent.log and users can change agent.cfg and actually save it.

I have a custom action which for agent queries the user for adapters(name,ip,port), http port, service name. It then uses the custom action to build the cfg and devices.xml file. It is not fancy and usually the devices.xml are geared to a specific limited device. The adapter was a simple all next install, but now I need a device name, which requires a custom action.

I should learn wix, or some tool, but I should learn Qt C++ etc.

Example of the code can be found at https://github.com/johnmichaloski/Adapter---fanuc-iSeries - 3 parts - adapter, custom action dll, and setup project.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:21 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60966102.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60985809.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-63124377.

[wsobel]

I was thinking of just creating a subdirectory in the cppagent project and committing the files there. You are one of the collaborators on the cppagent project.

On Nov 14, 2014, at 13:16, John Michaloski notifications@github.com wrote:

I don’t have permission to create a repository on mtconnect. So I created my own installation repository for now:

https://github.com/johnmichaloski/installation

I will try to hammer out the documentation both in word and md format. You can save a lot of web searching with documentation especially if you cut/paste code like me. NSIS on sourceforge has most of the answers.

However, you know you’re in trouble when your search turns up NCIS results.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 3:30 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

Thanks a lot! This is great. We should commit them into the cppagent repository directly. Here is the license header I use. I need to update the License.txt file as well.

• Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
• you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
• You may obtain a copy of the License at
• http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
• Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
• distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
• WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
• See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
• limitations under the License.

create a subdirectory call install and place the files there. We can even tie into the cmake build as well, it has some NSIS support.

re the templates. we have thought about templates. SI has a tool we may release as a service, people have been asking, but need to clean up. It will generate an entire sites configuration with Devices.xml file generated using existing device templates. Still debating how to support/release. It’s a ruby script with a DSL to configure the devices.

btw. I’ll be at NIST next week for the prognostics meeting - we can discuss then.

best,

• W

On Nov 14, 2014, at 12:21, John Michaloski <notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com> wrote:

I have put together two NSIS scripts (one installs everything and configures agent) and another install script for configuring multiple adapters. I have documentation of NSIS but it changed drastically since I only recently found out that long strings are not supported by NSIS (<1024) but lists of string are. I attached two powerpoint presentations of the sequence.

Questions I had:

1. Is there somewhere I should upload NSIS script?

2. Has the thought been given to templates for instantiating the devices.xml file? I use a simple template that prepended the device name before each XML “id” attribute.

3. Recent license agreement? Found old one.

In general, NSIS is fast, been around, seems rebust. one install handles 32/64 bit installs, MSVC dll’s and my kludgy way to specify adapters. Designing GUI sheets in NSIS is remarkably easy. There are issues, but with NSIS, they have already crossed this bridge a decade ago.

I ran into unrelated agent stopping issue that has side tracked me and prevented a complete debugging.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 3:09 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

i’m looking into NSIS, which I find easier to understand than WIX. I found WIX a bit obtuse.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

I’m going to check this out as well as it integrates with CMake, so it will auto generate a template to do the installation.

• W

On Oct 29, 2014, at 12:06, John Michaloski <notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com%3cmailto:notifications@github.com>> wrote:

I use Microsoft 2008/2010 visual setup. Microsoft install projects were discontinued after 2010, and replaced by Installshield lite – which didn’t do what I wanted…

Microsoft install project helps when installing C++ version specific libraries or other libraries, such as OPC libraries. It should install and start the agent/adapter, and it “often does”. Likewise, it uninstalls the code, but stopping and uninstalling the service is iffy. I have run into many UAC headaches that should not happen since installs are elevated privileges.

Anyone is welcome to the code – to debug I suggest debugview.exe, as debugging is hard. I have 32 and 64 installs. Of note, I reset all the file permissions on Windows 7 during install, so agent can write to agent.log and users can change agent.cfg and actually save it.

I have a custom action which for agent queries the user for adapters(name,ip,port), http port, service name. It then uses the custom action to build the cfg and devices.xml file. It is not fancy and usually the devices.xml are geared to a specific limited device. The adapter was a simple all next install, but now I need a device name, which requires a custom action.

I should learn wix, or some tool, but I should learn Qt C++ etc.

Example of the code can be found at https://github.com/johnmichaloski/Adapter---fanuc-iSeries - 3 parts - adapter, custom action dll, and setup project.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:21 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60966102.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-60985809.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/11#issuecomment-63124377.
—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub #11 (comment).

[johnmichaloski]

Ok, I’ll update the documentation and create a cppagent subdirectory.

I you think of any simple device template mechanism (simple since NSIS not overly slick) I’m all ears.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 4:20 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

I was thinking of just creating a subdirectory in the cppagent project and committing the files there. You are one of the collaborators on the cppagent project.

On Nov 14, 2014, at 13:16, John Michaloski <notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com> wrote:

I don’t have permission to create a repository on mtconnect. So I created my own installation repository for now:

https://github.com/johnmichaloski/installation

I will try to hammer out the documentation both in word and md format. You can save a lot of web searching with documentation especially if you cut/paste code like me. NSIS on sourceforge has most of the answers.

However, you know you’re in trouble when your search turns up NCIS results.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2014 3:30 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

Thanks a lot! This is great. We should commit them into the cppagent repository directly. Here is the license header I use. I need to update the License.txt file as well.

• Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
• you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
• You may obtain a copy of the License at
  *
• http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  *
• Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
• distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
• WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
• See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
• limitations under the License.

create a subdirectory call install and place the files there. We can even tie into the cmake build as well, it has some NSIS support.

re the templates. we have thought about templates. SI has a tool we may release as a service, people have been asking, but need to clean up. It will generate an entire sites configuration with Devices.xml file generated using existing device templates. Still debating how to support/release. It’s a ruby script with a DSL to configure the devices.

btw. I’ll be at NIST next week for the prognostics meeting - we can discuss then.

best,

• W

On Nov 14, 2014, at 12:21, John Michaloski <notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com%3cmailto:notifications@github.com>> wrote:

I have put together two NSIS scripts (one installs everything and configures agent) and another install script for configuring multiple adapters. I have documentation of NSIS but it changed drastically since I only recently found out that long strings are not supported by NSIS (<1024) but lists of string are. I attached two powerpoint presentations of the sequence.

Questions I had:

1. Is there somewhere I should upload NSIS script?

2. Has the thought been given to templates for instantiating the devices.xml file? I use a simple template that prepended the device name before each XML “id” attribute.

3. Recent license agreement? Found old one.

In general, NSIS is fast, been around, seems rebust. one install handles 32/64 bit installs, MSVC dll’s and my kludgy way to specify adapters. Designing GUI sheets in NSIS is remarkably easy. There are issues, but with NSIS, they have already crossed this bridge a decade ago.

I ran into unrelated agent stopping issue that has side tracked me and prevented a complete debugging.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 3:09 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

i’m looking into NSIS, which I find easier to understand than WIX. I found WIX a bit obtuse.

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Main_Page

I’m going to check this out as well as it integrates with CMake, so it will auto generate a template to do the installation.

• W

On Oct 29, 2014, at 12:06, John Michaloski <notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.com<mailto:notifications@github.com%3cmailto:notifications@github.commailto:notifications@github.com%3cmailto:notifications@github.com%3cmailto:notifications@github.com%3cmailto:notifications@github.com>>> wrote:

I use Microsoft 2008/2010 visual setup. Microsoft install projects were discontinued after 2010, and replaced by Installshield lite – which didn’t do what I wanted…

Microsoft install project helps when installing C++ version specific libraries or other libraries, such as OPC libraries. It should install and start the agent/adapter, and it “often does”. Likewise, it uninstalls the code, but stopping and uninstalling the service is iffy. I have run into many UAC headaches that should not happen since installs are elevated privileges.

Anyone is welcome to the code – to debug I suggest debugview.exe, as debugging is hard. I have 32 and 64 installs. Of note, I reset all the file permissions on Windows 7 during install, so agent can write to agent.log and users can change agent.cfg and actually save it.

I have a custom action which for agent queries the user for adapters(name,ip,port), http port, service name. It then uses the custom action to build the cfg and devices.xml file. It is not fancy and usually the devices.xml are geared to a specific limited device. The adapter was a simple all next install, but now I need a device name, which requires a custom action.

I should learn wix, or some tool, but I should learn Qt C++ etc.

Example of the code can be found at https://github.com/johnmichaloski/Adapter---fanuc-iSeries - 3 parts - adapter, custom action dll, and setup project.

From: William Sobel [mailto:notifications@github.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2014 1:21 PM
To: mtconnect/cppagent
Cc: Michaloski, John L.
Subject: Re: [cppagent] version numbering for adapter and agent (with build number) (#11)

By the way, what installer are you using? I was thinking of using NSIS and create an standard install, but didn't seem worth the trouble at the time. I'd be interested in what you're doing.

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