InstallAware

Hi folks,

I'm learning how to use InstallAware and so far it looks great.

Our software has a lot of prerequisites, so my first step is to make my installer app make all those checks. I'm glad to see that for the most part, these checkers are already part of InstallAware and that I just need to select them.

Now there's one custom prerequisite that I need to make; it's called CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack). I have read about how to create new Runtimes, how to create the .RTM file and the .MIA scripts for check and setup.

However, looking at the existing scripts, I see that they are referring to compiled plug-in DLLs in order to make those checks. I have looked everywhere I could think of, and can't find a place where there would be just a simple example of a Checker plug-in - so I can start from that to make my own checker plug-in. I see here in this forum there are many plug-ins available, but not much are checkers AND provide the source. Maybe I'm searching at the wrong places or looking for the wrong things.

Can you please direct me to where I'd be able to find such examples? Or maybe a how-to on checker plug-ins?

Your help is very appreciated,

Mathieu

Dear Mathieu,

I am emailing you a tutorial I wrote about detecting software. It hasn't been reviewed yet which is why I am not posting it here yet, but please read it and share your experience

Aviv,

That is VERY appreciated, thank you. I'm going through it right now and I'll keep you posted about it.

Thanks!
Mathieu

Aviv,

I was able to check for/initiate install of Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP) with your advice from this tutorial. Thank you!

It was clear and well-written overall. I haven't tested the other methods of detecting software, but the registry check is what worked for me. It's awesome to know about the other strategies, though.

Actually, I found this little detail I'd like a hint on: The versioning of this software (CCCP) is done with the build date. Hence, the latest release is version "2010-10-10".
http://www.cccp-project.net/

Therefore it seems that the "greater than" comparison in MSICode won't work to compare date formats. Would you have any ideas how to write an equivalent efficiently?
Also, in usual versioning formats, will "greater than" mean "equal or greater", or "exclusively greater"?

Again thanks a lot!

Mathieu

Hey,

In that case you might want to consider using the Parse string command to break down the string and get the day month and year and compare them separately.

Greater than means, well, greater! 5 is not greater than 5, so its not greater or equals, just greater

Thanks for the tip!

(Greater than) Yea that's what I thought, but in your document you were suggesting to use only "greater than" to validate that the current version is equal or greater, which put a doubt in my head. Maybe you could clarify that part in your document?

Thanks again,

Mathieu

Done. Thanks again!

Hi,

I am in the same situation in that I want to write my own pre-requisite 'checker' and it seems the draft article Aviv has written looks like just the tutorial I'm looking for.

Is there a chance of me either getting a copy please or has it now been officially published?

Thanks.

Here it is!