Import Options / Duplicate Package Tab

AdminStudio 2023 | 25.0 | Application Manager | Options Dialog Box

Edition:Application Manager is included with AdminStudio Professional and Enterprise Editions.

When you import a package into the Application Catalog, Application Manager checks specific identifiers that are selected on the Duplicate Package tab to determine if that package has already been imported.

If Application Manager determines that you are attempting to import a duplicate package (based upon the selected identifiers), the package is renamed using the specified Duplicate Package Naming Syntax.

The identifiers you can select on the Duplicate Package tab are as follows:

Import Options / Duplicate Package Tab Properties

Property

Description

Duplicate Package Identification Options

Select one or more of the following options to specify the identifiers that Application Manager will check to determine if a Windows Installer package has already been imported:

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Package Code property—Identifier of package product was installed from. No two non-identical .msi files should ever have the same package code.

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Product Code property—Unique identifier for the particular product release, represented as a string GUID, for example {12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012}.

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Product Language property—The language the installer should use for any strings in the user interface that are not authored into the database.

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Product Version property—Version of the product in string format. The format of the string is: major.minor.build.

•

List of Transform Files—A list of the transformations associated with this package import operation.

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[None Selected]—If you do not select any of these five identifiers, Application Manager checks the ProductName Property identifier to determine if a package is a duplicate.

Duplicate Virtual Package Identification Options

Select one or more of the following options to specify the identifiers that Application Manager will check to determine if an App-V package has already been imported:

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PackageGUID property—Unique identifier of App-V package.

•

VersionGUID property—Unique identifier of App-V package version.

•

[None Selected]—If you do not select either of these identifiers, Application Manager checks the Product Name identifier to determine if a package is a duplicate.

Duplicate Package Naming Syntax

When it identifies a duplicate package, Application Manager generates a new name for that package using the syntax specified in this field. The default syntax is:

[Manufacturer]_[ProductName]

This means that if Application Manager encountered a duplicate package, it would pre-pend the duplicate’s Product Name with the Manufacturer’s name and, if necessary, append the Product Name with numbers. For example, the second time that PowerPoint is imported, its name would be changed to:

Microsoft Corporation_PowerPoint

To change the default naming syntax, edit this field.

This generated name will be displayed in the Application Manager tree view.

Note:Changing this “display” name does not change the ProductName Property that appears in the title bar of the Home Deployment Type View.

Example of Importing a “Duplicate” Package

One common reason why you might want to import the same package into your Application Catalog database more than once would be if you wanted to use InstallShield Editor to create custom installation SKUs of a common MSI package to distribute to different departments in your organization, each installation including certain features that are appropriate for the department and excluding certain features that are not appropriate. For example, if you were distributing a copy of Microsoft Office, you could add transforms to the Microsoft Office MSI package so that:

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Accounting’s installation would include only Word and Excel

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Marketing’s installation would include only Word and PowerPoint, and

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Development’s installation would include only Word and Access.

Therefore, you might want to import the same package into your database more than once, each time with a different set of transformations. What happens when you import the package the second time depends upon the identifiers you selected on the Duplicate Package tab. In this example:

•

If you select the List of Transform Files and ProductCode identifiers on the Import Options / Duplicate Package tab of the Options dialog box, Application Manager will not identify these two packages as duplicate, even though they have the same ProductCode, because they have a different set of transformations. Therefore, the package will be imported with the same display name as the first package.

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If you only select the ProductCode identifier on the Import Options / Duplicate Package tab of the Application Manager Options dialog box, Application Manager will identify the second package as a duplicate because the two packages have the same ProductCode, and the package will be renamed.

Note:The options that you select on the Import Options / Duplicate Package tab of the Application Manager Options dialog box apply globally to all packages that you attempt to import; you cannot apply different identifiers to different packages. Also, since these options are saved in the AdminStudio Shared Directory, everyone using AdminStudio at your organization who shares the same directory will share the same Duplicate Package options.