InstallAware

Not sure where to post suggestions, but here's mine:

Instead of importing .reg files, I'd like to be able to specify which .reg files should be included in the installation, what feature they belong to, and what order they should be applied. During the install (or compile), the registry entries are determined from the files and applied to the target system.

Under the current method, it's a maintenance headache to manage the registry entries for projects with a lot of registry entries (from lots of COM components or other...).

Thanks.

Hi there,
I have also some question about com components. We use many Com/.NET Components in our solution and I am new in InstallAware.
I havn't found anything about how to insert a COM Component correctly. I addes a register/unregister line in the MSI-Code for each DLL. But is this the right way?
We uses WISE Installer before, so I guess WISE handled a lot of registering automatically!?

Nearly the same procedure I used for .NET components. I added in Designmode the Assembly-Entry. We dont want to install our Assemblies in GAC, so we used $TARGETDIR$\MyNET.dll instead. After that i went to MSI-Code to change the Register Assembly Line for each Assembly to set the "set code base" option.
Otherwhise I guess the registry entry with the exact path would not be written when installing!?

So whats the right way to register a .NET.DLL ans what for COM.DLL?
Whats the difference betweeen them? And is there a way that the Installer would check automatically witch file is how to register?

Thanks in advance,
Martin

Dear Martin,

COM objects aren't DLL files. Are your COM object contained inside your assembly files?

What is it exactly that you are trying to do with your assemblies? Do you want to register them? Or just place them in the TARGETDIR?

Hi there,
for example redemption.dll(3d party component for access to Outlook) have to be registered in the targetpath.
It is no .NET assembly, because it doesnt have assembly informations. So what to do with files like this?
Should I write a Un/Register sentence for each of these files I want to be registered or is there a better way to do this?
Its not the problem to add the file to the targetdir. We add all files from a special folder per wildcard (*.*), so we dont have to care about changes here.
But what if I have to handle each new/deleted file that have to be registered in the MSI-Script?

Greetings
Martin

Dear Martin,

Files that are not assemblies simply need to be copied to you TARGETDIR (or whichever other location that they should reside in).
If you have assemblies that need to be registered for COM interop, use the Register Assembly command (or the Install Assembly command to install and register together). Does that make sense?

It makes sense...and its exactly what i do...but my question is...do i have to do this for all the Components manually? Isnt there a better way to do this? I wonder the benefit of adding the files per wildcard will be gone if i write 100 lines in MSI-Code manually!?

Dear Martin,

You don't need to write a 100 lines - you could simply place all your files in a directory called dlls (or any other name) and then do Install Files C:\........\dlls\*.* (or *.dll) to TARGETDIR.