Setup pre-requisites

[juergen.haigis]

Hi,

I also look for something like InstallShilds prerequisites. We developed some base products delivered with our main products like a License Manager or DB setup. This setups my exist out of a single exe or of several files including sub folders.
Up to know we copied these files onto our CD and created a setup prerequisite included in our setups. How can I do such things in IA ?
I tried some time with the application runtimes and tried to create a own runtime to be included in the setup. But I stumbled while I tried to add the files to run. I selected the 'run' script and recognized that there can be only files selected that are included in the setup as support files or included as distributed files. But I don't want that base products included full in the main setup. I just want a call into the SETUPEXEDIR to start the sub-setup. After the sub setup is run I want to check if the setup succeeded and abort the main setup if necessary.
Please give me some assistance to this question .

[CandiceJones]

Our Application Runtimes view is fully extensible. For the full official "briefing" on that, please read:

www.installaware.com/installaware_exten ... s_view.pdf

Now from what I understand, what you are really trying to do though is just run a third party file, is that correct? For this, you use the Run Program or Run Program As command. If the third party file is an MSI file, you can also use the (Un)Install MSI Setup command, which will even capture and display native installation progress for you.

You also want to look at the list of pre-defined variables in InstallAware. Please look up the topic titled:

Pre-Defined Variables

in the help file. In particular, you will find these variables of interest:

EXEDIR: The folder containing the setup executable itself.
SFXPATH: If an uncompressed directory layout is used, this variable is empty. Otherwise set to the full path of the folder containing the self extracting executable which bootstrapped the installer.
SUPPORTDIR: Points to the full path of the temporary folder that support files are extracted to before installation beings.

To add a file to your setup as a support file, use either the Creatives visual view, or the Support Files node in the Project Manager.

If you need to add multiple files and/or (sub)folders, and take advantage of Web Media Blocks for your temporary setup files, use the File Bag command instead.

That should get you going in the right path! Ask if you need more guidance with any of the above steps.[/code]

[candrade]

I don't think I understand this answer. I want to run (as a prerequisite) another installer (maybe windows installer, may be installshield) but include the reference in IA Express. If I add it under Creative, I get an error.

Is this what the "Run Programs" view is for ??

[CandiceJones]

If you want to extend the application runtimes view, you will need to use Developer. Express won't cut the job, as you will need access to scripting. This is clearly explained in the whitepaper.

If you don't want to make a "formal" application runtime, you can definitely use the Run Programs view. Indeed then the process is to first add the child setups using the Creatives view, and then run them using the Run Programs view. But the drawback of this approach is that because you do not control the MSIcode script (and instead just run programs), users might not know exactly what is going on.

Using the MSIcode script lets you update the progress text message, and even capture the native progress of the setup you are running, or display a generic marquee progress bar - so the end-user experience is much improved.

About the error, unless you let me know what the error is, when it happens, and so on, I really have no clue what you're talking about. Simply adding a file to the Creatives view would not be likely to cause an error.