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Are you still using your full InstallShield license for nightly builds? Did you know you could make modifications to the project without a full InstallShield interface and license? In the world of agile and DevOps, are you still relying on one engineer/machine to build your project? If that’s the case, you are missing out on a core piece of InstallShield – Standalone Build (SAB).

What is Standalone Build in InstallShield?

If you are reading this article, you are familiar with the full GUI designer interface that InstallShield comes with. While full IDE interface is very helpful and gets things done in a more intuitive fashion, it helps you out as you begin creating the installation.  Once you are done authoring your project, the next stage is “builds” on a regular basis. Why should you open your project in the designer to do a build? That’s where SAB comes handy. SAB is a very simple command line build utility, which will help you build your projects on a machine without a full designer interface.

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Things You Can Do with SAB

SAB brings flexibility into your development process.  Here’s how.

  • Parallel builds. With a single license of SAB, you can build 5 projects in parallel. You can also take advantage of systems that have multiple processors to simultaneously build faster.
  • It enables you to easily integrate your build process into your CI system (Jenkins, etc.) and automate your end-to-end flow of development to testing to deployment.
  • SAB includes InstallShield’s automation layer. That means you can leverage APIs and have a distributed team make changes to your project.
  • SAB saves costs on licenses. Instead of buying full licenses of InstallShield for your nightly builds, you can use SAB and save costs. With a premier license, you get 5 standalone build licenses. With a professional license, you get 1 standalone build license.

As the pressure continues to deliver faster and stay agile, SAB fits right in with your distributed build and development environment.  If you’re already using SAB, it would be great to hear how it’s going in the comments below.

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