PRB: Package Will Not Install: Error 2235. Database:... (197687)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows Installer 1.0

This article was previously published under Q197687

SYMPTOMS

During the installation of a package, the following error appears:
Error 2235. Database: . Column 'Action' not present or ambiguous in SQL query: SELECT ...

CAUSE

Here are three reasons why this error may occur:
  • The table definitions are incorrect because the package schema does not match the schema version in the summary information.
  • The package being installed may not have a feature, a component, or may not have either. The Windows installer requires that every package have at least one feature AND one component.
  • An action might have been called out of order. When this happens, the action is usually expecting some temporary columns to have been created on certain tables by a previous action, usually costing, and because the order was not correct, these columns are not present.

RESOLUTION

The Skemadif.exe tool should catch the database schema issue and report an error.

The workaround for the package not having a feature and/or a component is to add a fake feature and/or a fake component with only the minimal required fields filled with properly formatted data.

If validation is run on a package where the action ordering is incorrect, it should catch this error and report the error to the package author.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

This problem was corrected in Windows 2000.

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:3/2/2005
Keywords:kbAppSetup kbDSupport kbprb KB197687