InstallAware

Hello again. I have a new question regarding comparison with Wise for Windows Installer...hence the new thread.

In Wise, in the Setup Editor/Dialog view (where you add new dialogs or check/uncheck dialogs), you can see "Install Dialogs" as a top node in the treeview, "Maintenance Dialogs" as another top node, and "Admin Dialogs" as a third top node. Beneath each node you see the sequence of dialogs, with some subsequences - such as the "Maintenance Welcome Dialog Wizard".

However, in InstallAware, I see only one sequence of dialogs...that is the one that appears in the script and includes Welcome, Licensecheck, Readme, etc. up to StartInstallation. I do not see the same complex set of sequences as I do in Wise.

So my question is, does InstallAware automatically cover the same cases that Wise covers - i.e. the Maintenance sequence, as well as the Installation sequence? If so, where do these dialogs appear in the InstallAware script or visual interface?

As a second question, along similar lines, in Wise, I see an "Installation Types" section with Typical, Custom, and Complete options, using Wise's visual editor (in the "User Interface" group), where features corresponding to these different installation types are chosen. Is InstallAware capable of this functionality as well? (I can't find it anywhere in InstallAware.)

Thank you again,

Dan N

Great questions! Keep them coming.

The installation script in InstallAware controls the entire setup script flow, and therefore the complexity of the entire setup project is a lot less. For instance, as you observe below, Wise and most other MSI tools have three complex dialog sequences, whereas InstallAware has just one. If you just search for the Display Dialog commands in InstallAware script, you will see which dialogs are shown where in InstallAware - in particular, to answer your question about the maintenance vs. initial setup sequence. The visual interface simply lists each of these dialogs and lets you toggle them on/off, but the script view lets you change everything.

As for your second question, yes these setup types are of course available. See the script code that executes right after the custom setup dialog is shown, as that is the place where you can customize your install sets. Note that you are free to create your own installation types as well - and are not restricted to what the script (and dialogs) pre-define for you.