How do you persist user-defined variables?

[slang]

Is there a way to persist a set of user-defined variables (other than writing to registry or external file) at first time install and reference those variables at a maintenance install? I thought IA persisted variables automatically but it appears only to do so for certain variables that it knows about.

Steve Lang
JeVal Software Engineering

[MichaelNesmith]

Yes, this is true. Only known variables are persisted. If you think all variables should be persisted, this could be added as a feature request. In the past it was suggested that having all variables persisted at the end of the install might lead to strange situations when setup is started again (ex: if the reboot variable was true, setup would restart expecting to reboot again).

[slang]

Thanks Michael for the response.

Having all variables persisted would be a great help.

One can always initialize (or reinitialize) variables such as REBOOTNOW and REBOOTCOMPUTER so as to maintain proper program flow. Alternatively, the Set Variable command could have a persistance option that one would select on a per-variable basis.

When user-defined variables are not persisted, then it becomes very difficult to support new dialogs that solicit additional setup info. When setup is run in MAINTENANCE mode, user-defined variable context is lost, resulting in modify and repair installs not working properly. Presently, in order to maintain context, one has to write user-defined variables to an external file or a registry key at the end of a first-time install and then read them back in on a MAINTENANCE install. This is cumbersome and would be simplified if user-defined variables were persisted.

I cast my vote for adding user-defined variable persistance as a feature request.

Thanks for considering this issue.

Steve Lang
JeVal Software Engineering

[MichaelNesmith]

That's a good suggestion! I think we'll see some action on that item.

[MikeFieger]

slang wrote:
"Alternatively, the Set Variable command could have a persistance option that one would select on a per-variable basis."

I think this is a very good idea. I also wanted to have such a feature as I could remove some registry entries then, which I only made for the installer to remember...