Adding dll from command line into the Installer project

gagandeep.sharma · Postby **gagandeep.sharma** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 12:12 am

Hi

I was playing with the evaluation version of Installaware(studio admin), using first time. Its a really nice way to create installer, i liked

.

My Issue is related to the adding dll files from command line during building my project (using miabuild).

Basically my requirement is to create custom installer on the selection of modules dynamically. people don't buy all module at once. So we need to create a installer project in which i can addon my module(dll) files dynamically and the after building i could get my desired customized setup.

As a solution to my requirement, I will be creating an IA project and will be building from command line with passing dll files names dynamically to addon into the installer.

Can anyone suggest me the way to accomplish this. It is a urgent requirement from client so quick help will be appreciable. If you can provide some example or sample link then it would be good as i'm new user of IA. Thanks in advance

Postby **FrancescoT** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:11 am

Dear User,

Very probably you should consider the possibility to use the InstallAware Automation Interface.
With the IA command line build tool you can only compile an already defined project, while with the Automation interface you can create an entire project dynamically.

"InstallAware ships with an automation interface that can be used to programmatically emit and build complete setup projects. The automation interface is available as both a standard Win32 DLL, callable from any Windows application, and as a COM object, for use in ASP scripts on a web server. Use the interface that is most convenient for your project requirements. Starting with InstallAware NX, the automation interface is also available as a .NET assembly, suitable for use within the entire .NET eco-system."

You can find more details about IA Automation interface with the IA documerntation.

Hope this helps you.

Regards.

gagandeep.sharma · Postby **gagandeep.sharma** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 12:18 am

thanks for your help Francesco, but I need some more specific solution. Can you please send any link showing IA Automation working. Any working video would be nice.

gagandeep.sharma · Postby **gagandeep.sharma** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:02 am

Hi there, I got the solution. Thanks for it. Now i'm further looking on the msi scripting coding. I will really appreciate If anybody can provide some good tutorial to learn msi coding ...although I'm already searching on it :twisted:

bokkie · Postby **bokkie** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:45 am

In a sense there's nothing to "learn" as you can't "freely" edit the MSIcode. What I mean is that when you drag a statement onto the MSIcode window you get a dialog where you enter the runtime parameters. It's very difficult to get it wrong. When you accept the statement it creates the MSIcode for you so in a sense, you can then copy that for your own purposes. It's been a long time since I last needed to use the IA automation. I do recall there was a sample project or a document somewhere that showed how to use it. Most of what you do in the automation is to emit MSIcode statements. If you take sample statements from your MSIcode you should be able run them in the automation as you are really, replicating the same actions.