CAB files

[psantaana]

Hello:

I'm testing the InstallAware Studio 8 version. We have large installations projects with lots of files and I can't find how to create small CAB files for distribution.

We are currently using InstallShield for our projects and we are creating CAB files of 10Mb each in 40 disk. Could you please tell me how can I accomplish it with this version of InstallAware?

Thanks in advance...

Pablo
Buenos Aires - Argentina

[loganlehman]

I would like to know this as well.... This would solve many problems

[giaviv]

Hi,

Unfortunately there is no way to control the size of the cab files that InstallAware generates. We apologize for the inconvenience.

[loganlehman]

Well is there any way to manually compress files into a .ZIP or .CAB file, and have InstallAware extract those as part of an install?

[giaviv]

Yes - you can create 7ZIP archives and then extract them using the Extract 7z Archive command.

Take into account though that I doubt the compression will be stronger.

[loganlehman]

Can I have a compressed executable call toward external zip files that are not contained within the build, but maybe custom support folder that is packaged along side the installer?

This goes back to the whole 32-bit address space issues in my other post.

[giaviv]

You can include support files or even use the File Bag plugin - are you familiar with those?

[loganlehman]

I am not, is it included in the F1 documentation?

[giaviv]

Definitely!

Support files:

InstallAware uses support files at several places throughout the installation. Support files are not actually installed onto the target system, but they are part of the installation package. They are available temporarily while the installation is executing and are cleaned up when the installer finishes execution. Some example support files are:

License agreement and readme files
Progress dialog content
Setup splash screen
You may add custom items to support files and access these files at runtime using the SUPPORTDIR pre-defined script variable. An example support file could be a small applet you need to run as part of your installation.

File Bag:

This plug-in provided command includes a collection of files (and folders) with setup. The included files are available only while setup is running and are not permanently installed on the target system. This command is typically used when a collection of files are temporarily required at (un)install time, but not by the installed application itself.

Files to include with setup

The full path, including wildcards, to the files to include with setup.

Include subfolders if wildcard specified

When checked, and wildcards specified in the previous field, subfolders will also be included with setup.

Exclude Wildcards

If you would like to exclude some of the files matching your source file pattern above, you may do so by specifying exclude wildcards. Exclude wildcards allow you to filter out some files at build time from inclusion in your setup. Leave this field empty if you do not wish to exclude any files. If you wish to exclude a particular file, folder, or a collection of files and/or folders, enter the name(s) of the items to exclude here. You may use wildcards. Seperate multiple items using semi-colons. Remember to enclose items that contain spaces in their names inside double quotes.

Variable to receive runtime location of files

Enter the name of the variable to receive the fully qualified path where the included files will be available at runtime. Not providing a variable in this field renders this command practically useless, as the actual runtime location of files included with setup will vary each time setup is run.

If specified, this variable must have been previously defined in the setup script using the Set Variable command.

Due to the way the IDE loads plug-ins while running setups internally, the return value of this variable will be incorrect during all in-IDE runs.

[loganlehman]

This is a great functionality, no doubt. But it still does not quite answer my question.

I need to have external support files that are not built into the installer (so it does not exceed 4.3GB). I have decided to make data packs to hold majority of the application data, and execute them in the backend of my main installation. But the problem still remains, the largest data pack still exceeds the size limit.

So, If I could have a smaller build that calls upon 7zip files, that would work.

[giaviv]

Actually, what you are looking for is build right into InstallAware! It is called Web Media Blocks and here is a white-paper on how to use it:
http://www.installaware.com/webaware_in ... nology.pdf

[loganlehman]

This application needs be handled offline. This didn't quite tell me how to create an offline block?


I removed the download URL and it returned an error. There is no way to host a compressed file locally that is uncompressed at runtime?

[giaviv]

There actually is - if you leave the URL as is and not enter your manual URL, you can just leave the 7zip file in the same folders as the EXE and InstallAware will extract them automatically when you run your setup.

[loganlehman]

Awesome... That is exactly what I needed. Thank you so much for the support.

[loganlehman]

So would this be a viable execution of a local web-media block?


[DEFINE WEB MEDIA TestSubject]
Get Component MyApp\Data Packs\TestSubject Selection State into Variable SELECTED
if Variable SELECTED Equals TRUE
Extract 7Zip Archive /data/TestSubject.7zip into folder $TARGETDIR$\data\foobar\, include subfolders
end


This is assuming that I have put the TestSubject.7zip into a directory "data" in the same folder as the installer.