InstallShield - How to Add a custom action from source control (TFS)

Question

I'm looking for a way to reference the path of a custom action (currently .vbs file) that is stored in source control so that any developer who opens the project can Build/Run the installation project.

Our setup is VS 2012, with the Free InstallShield 2012 LE that comes with it. The Custom Action runs during the "Before File Transfer" part of the MSI installation.

We are looking for something that

1. Uses source control so that we can monitor changes.
2. References source control paths, so that any developer can build the project locally without any "missing files"
3. Doesn't involve paying for an upgraded version of InstallShield LE

On my computer, the MSI can be built and run with no problems. When loaded by another developer, the build breaks with a valid "could not find file" exception. If we place the custom action script in the same location that I have it locally, it works fine, but not all developers are going to put their root source location in the same spot.

The (seemingly) obvious answer is to reference the source control path and let TFS dynamically find the file, but there doesnt seem to be a way to do this.

Using the designer, if I try and change the File Name of the Custom Action, it opens up a windows explorer dialog, which does not allow me to use Source Control Paths (starting with $//DeploymentFiles/File.vbs) or relative paths (../../DeploymentFiles/File.vbs). I've also looked into using path variables, but with no success.

We don't expect the Custom Action to change much once our first release is complete, so I could potentaily place the file onto a shared location and reference that file, but that doesn't take advantage of source control, and also means that the latest version would have to be copied there before each release. This is something we would like to avoid.

If anyone has any ideas, comments, suggestons, please let me know. I won't be able to comment due to being a noobie but I'll edit this post

Thanks,

Answer 1

We ended up editing the .isl file manually, doing a search for File.vbs and changing the path. When we re-opened the solution it seemed to take the changes.

The problem with this solution is that if changes are made to the Custom Actions page, these changes get overwritten. Not a great solution, but seems to be working for us.