htmlviewer/richedit contents?

[Nick]

It looks like both of these controls are pretty limited in what can be shown.

html viewer can only show the installation billboard, ie: index.htm. It can't show else.

richedit can only show the readme or license agreement.

Is it possible to use them to show more than just the above?

[jimo]

The index.htm file can have links to other pages that you include in your support files (Creatives), with a little scripting you can even rename files on the fly in your script so that when a dialog changes you rename another file to index.htm.

You can use this same logic with the rtf files.

[Nick]

I tried that but that didn't seem to work. Trying to replace the index.htm which is a support file doesn't seem to work. I tried using the Copy/Move Local Files built-in command and even "Call DLL function" to call CopyFile function.

I even tried to modify the index.html with write to text file.

Why are these controls so limited? If they are a html viewer and an rtf viewer then shouldn't they be allowed to display any html and rtf files that are support files?

I have multiple rtfs and html files that I would like to show during the installer but can't. For now I have to force a browser to come up and point to our website, not ideal. I would really like to see these controls have more flexiblity in what they can show.

[jimo]

In your index.html can you not put something like
<meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html">
Where you can change 0 to the number of seconds, and of course change the url.


Just a thought.

[MichaelNesmith]

Yes, this is the recommended approach. The index.htm file is simply the entry point. You are free to do whatever else you want. As long as you call direct API functions (Windows Installer commands do not take effect until Apply Install executes), you should also be able to rename files in $SUPPORTDIR$.