It seems that the only way to go from one version to another (wether its going from Express to Professional, or from 3.5.X to 3.6.X) is to completely uninstall the one version, and then install the new version.  Is this really the only way?  Is not there some sort of Update mechanism like most other software out there?

 

I ask because i've tried out DevForce Express 3.6.2.2, and i decided to invest in the Professional version.  Now, i have to uninstall everthing (which i'm sure you know is a total pain, because i have to go to so many places and root out all remains of the old version manually in some places).  There should be a "Activate Prossional" mechansim and enter the Professiona licence key or some such where i can just unlock the Professional features, instead of going through all this.  I hope i am wrong.

 

Can you cofirm this please?

 

Any comments or news of fixing this in the future? 

 

There are really two parts to your question?

(1) Is it possible for DevForce to build a setup.exe for a new version that could be  installed without having to uninstall the old verson?

 

(2) Does moving from one version of DevForce to another version of DevForce have to be painful?

 

With respect to the first question, it is definitely possible.  In fact, at one point last year, we had such a version.  Unfortunately, we  couldn't guarantee that we could upgrade all "old" versions,  In addition, on an installation failure, it is more difficult to recover when you are doing an upgrade as opposed to doing a straight  install.  As a result, we decided to give up on the "upgrade" feature for DevForce 3.x.

 

With respect to the second question,  moving to a newer version of DevForce does not have to be painful.  The pain that often accompanies moving to a new version of DevForce has little to do with uninstalling the old version.  Uninstalling DevForce is not a lengthy process and typically takes only a couple of minutes at most on a fast machine.  The usual cause of pain is due to the fact that that developers often add references to DevForce DLL's with the "Specific Version" property of the Reference set to "True" instead of "False".  If you avoid this mistake, moving an application from one version of DevForce to another is simple, typically taking only the time to regenerate all of the entities in the Model project.

 

There is a good writeup on migrating to newer versions of DevForce in the Installation Guide.

 

David

 

I like your idea of a "Modify Installation Key" utility in our product.  This is a good idea and definitely possible.  You are correct that it would defnitely be painless for the customer.  I will file a Feature Enhancment Request.

 

Daaavid