Vital Product Data (VPD) Registry

InstallShield 11 Universal

To enable product life-cycle management, InstallShield Universal creates a powerful Vital Product Data (VPD) registry that is stored in an HSQL database on the end user's machine. It stores information about the product that has been installed by Universal, and also contains its uninstaller. With Universal Premier, target machines can have multiple VPDs, which facilitates the ability for you to specify your own, unique location for your products on your customers' machines.

The VPD Registry is used for the following:

• Maintains a listing of installed software objects.
• Maintains a listing of all "persisted" variables.
• Facilitates software object and assembly reuse between products.
• Determines whether an original installation exists during the installation of a patch or update installation.
• Prevents "broken" installations by managing and enforcing software product dependencies.
• Determines whether and when a shared file should be uninstalled.

Contents

A software object is defined to be a suite, product, assembly, feature, or component, and each is registered separately in the VPD. In addition, each file associated with the installation is registered. The Product Uninstaller engine and platform pack JAR files for each installed product are stored in the VPD Registry directory structure.

A software object is uniquely defined on a given system by its software object key and instance number. The software object key is the set of properties that are configured in the Universal interface for the software object in its Advanced/Key properties, and consists of a universal unique identifier string (UUID) along with version information. A file is uniquely identified by its file name and installation location. Since software objects and files can be installed multiple times to different locations on a target system, information about each software object and file is stored in the VPD along with its installation location and a unique instance number.

All requirements between files, assemblies, and products are maintained in the VPD. A file, assembly, or product is not uninstalled until all of the software objects and/or products that require them have been uninstalled.

Changes are made to the information about the software objects and files contained in the VPD when a product or an "update" or "patch" to a product is installed on and/or uninstalled from the target machine.

For instructions to create a custom bean that finds the installation location of a product, feature, or component that is registered in the VPD, see Knowledge Base article #Q105543.

Manual editing of the VPD Registry is not supported by Macrovision Corporation.

Help Library Topics

The following topics are available to assist you in understanding the VPD Registry:

VPD Registry
	Locations A list of the platform-specific locations to where the VPD Registry is stored on the target machine, along with how to change this location in the General Information view (Premier Only).
	Uninstaller Engine Location A description of the Product Uninstaller engine and where they are stored in the VPD Registry directory structure. Also includes a workaround for uninstalling an assembly that was installed with Universal 10.5 and was subsequently updated by a product built with Universal 10.5 SP2+.
	Tables A list of each of the HSQL tables that the VPD Registry is composed of, along with their contents.
	VPD Exporter A description of and instructions for using the VPD Exporter command line utility.