Pre-requisites as components?

[[MS]Mark]

Another question

Is it possible to have pre-requisites (like MDAC 2.8 refresh) as components? Or is there some way of showing how much space will be used by the whole install and not just the target files...?

I see there is code in the script when doing the pre-requisites for insufficient diskspace but it'd be nice if the installer could show before it starts how much space will be taken by everything and/or give the user a chance to skip the installation of the pre-requisites...

(also applies to any merge modules installed - one installer I've setup for testing says it needs 9MB but it actually needs ~55MB with the merge modules)

If it's not easy to that's fine - it's just to offer the best service with the installer that I can

[sinan]

Sure, you can define them as features of your setup, and install the runtimes if the corresponding features are selected...in this case their space requirements should also be shown properly. Remember, nothing is hard-coded in InstallAWARE

However, I'm not sure if this makes sense - because by definition, pre-requisities _must_ be installed...otherwise, your app won't run, so they really aren't meant to be represented as features properly speaking, IMHO.

About merge modules though, I'm afraid those will be out of the space calculations...because they fall outside IA's scripting logic/engine. Sorry about that

[[MS]Mark]

Thought that might be the case but thought I'd ask...

Won't be an issue for 95% of the installers I'll be looking to do but there is the odd few that the size required is a lot more than the size stated...and it would've been nice to have that shown through the installer - as quite a few of the end-clients pass on the installer to their IT dept but omit any extra information...

Thinking about it - would it be possible to develop a plugin that would just show a message listing (or just return a list of) the pre-requisites / merge modules and their size before anything ran? That way a dialogue box could pop up before the install starts listing the extra space requirements and allowing the user to cancel and free up space? It could even read a text file which details the pre-requisites / merge modules to avoid any hard coding...

[sinan]

Sure, that would be possible.

Or, you could even make it easier. Say you're using the Pre-Reqs dialog, where it normally lists just the name of the prereq, you could also list the space required right next to it.

Many ways to get creative with InstallAWARE

[[MS]Mark]

forgot about that dialogue (and the prereqprogress)...

How would the sizes be listed? Would it require hard coding or is there an InstallAware function that could add the size to the $PRELIST$ variable...?

Also, that wouldn't help with the merge module sizes...but it's a starting point (I suppose I could add in the script the merge modules to the $PRELIST$ variable - although they wouldn't show if the pre-requisites are already installed but the merge modules aren't)

[sinan]

You'd just add the sizes in the script, say in parenthesis after the prereq name. For example, Windows Installer (2MB), and so on - just update the script line that updates the PRELIST variable, and tag the approximate sizes to the end.