Multiproduct installation strategy

[gweihs]

I have Studio and I would like advice on how to proceed.

I have a set of related products (applications) which can be purchased together or separately. Lets call them Product A, B, C and D. They can be purchased in the following three packages:

1) A only
2) A, B and C
3) A and D

As you can see, product A is in all of the packages. Think of it as a runtime. It is the central application that works with all of our current and future offerings.

Ideally, I would like to create three separate installers because the different products are for vastly different audiences and a single-installer strategy would confuse my users.

What are my choices? What advice do you offer?

[CandiceJones]

This is a great question. If you use serial number validation in your application and can integrate that into the installer, I'd recommend you use the results of your validation to automatically define the features in question for your setup. So you'd always define feature A and define B, C, and D if they have been paid for.

I'd put A in an offline web media block (so its always inside the main setup) and put B, C, D in online web media blocks (so they are downloaded if they have been chosen for setup, and have been paid for).

This way you can build a single installer for all your products, dynamically validate serial numbers, and not confuse users because the features they haven't paid for won't even be visible with dynamic feature definitions (just use the Define Component command inside If blocks).

That would be just my idea - hopefully it gets you started!

[gweihs]

Great, how can I include the serial number mechanism inside the installer. Its a commercial product that involves a call to a Windows DLL for license validation? Is this possible?

[Gizm0]

Great, how can I include the serial number mechanism inside the installer. Its a commercial product that involves a call to a Windows DLL for license validation? Is this possible?

Yes, of course it is possible!

You can use one of the examples provided with IA, or otherwise you can create your own dialog and ask for the serial there.Afterwards you can use the Call DLL Function plugin to call a specific function from a dll that verifies the serial key.