Help with Advertised File Type

[FabSter]

Hello,

I have an Installaware installation and it works great. What I would like to do is use the Advertise feature so none of the files, services or registry gets installed until it is needed, I am hoping one shortcut would trigger basically a full installation. I am able to have a advertised shortcut install the one executable that is is referenced to but I don't see a way to have the entire installation install on some kind of event like a shortcut. Any suggestions, white paper eta would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[FrancescoT]

Dear FabSter,

an Advertised install is controlled through the "ADVERTISE" pre-defined variable typically set from the command line.
Just search for "advertised" with the IA documentation.

by the way, Advertised install was a fery popular feature some years ago ... currently, I don't recall of a single package that still use such feature

Regards

[FabSter]

The first list of the script I am setting ADVERTISE = TRUE I am assuming this would work the same as the command line and I have the shortcut working as expected but not the file advertise feature.

Set Variable ADVERTISE to TRUE

I have looked through the documentation and only found the one article "Advertised File Type / Create File Type" but I am unable to understand it enough to make it work with file types, do you have anything else like examples etc about controlling the files to better understand the ADVERTISE feature?

[FrancescoT]

Dear FabSter,

Unfortunately it's not available a sample or a white paper about the argument.
At this purpose I suggest to you to have a look at the Microsoft Windows Installer documentation for more details about this installation type.

The advertised type is recommended only if you are already familiar with Windows Installer and know that you require advertising support, a technology specific to Windows Installer (and burdened with its own restrictions and limitations).

For what concerns the InstallAware documentation, Advertise mode references are available with the following command;

- Advertised Shortcut / Create Shortcut
- Advertised File Type / Create File Type
- Apply Changes (Apply Advertised)

The above list is returned with searching for "advertised" with the IA documentation

To install the entire package in Advertised mode, it's necessary to set to TRUE the "ADVERTISE" pre-defined variable.
This can be either set from command line or with forcing the variable value via script.
It's Always preferable to set its value from the command line, because not all users might be happy to be forced to install a package in Advertised mode ( ... and I am the first of them).

That said, an advertised product creates only the registry entries, file types and shortcuts associated with the product. An advertised product therefore appears to be fully installed to users, but advertising does not actually copy any files. The first time an advertised shortcut or file type is invoked, the product will be fully installed and necessary files copied automatically. After a product has been advertised further maintenance operations may be run on the product, or it may be uninstalled.

Hope this helps you.

Regards

[FabSter]

Thanks, I found a lot good information on Microsoft site https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 85%29.aspx and https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 85%29.aspx, but I still have the same problem that my installaware installation is not working i was expecting. I have made sample installations and tried different combinations, I have tried to set the variable ADVERTISE with very little success, the only thing I am able to get working is one shortcut installing one linked exe but all the other files and features do not get installed. My simple example has 2 files one is linked to an advertise shortcut and the other one is just a regular install, I would like to see when the shortcut is click both files appear in the directory. I cannot seem to find a way to make the shortcut trigger the installation of the second file. Can you please post a simple example, I must be missing a step.

[FrancescoT]

if you have patience, ... I can try to release a sample.


Reagrds

[FabSter]

ok thanks