Display Multiple Instance Name to User

[acvien]

Hi,

I am new to InstallAware. I have InstallAware version 9 downloaded. I am trying to evaluate if InstallAware can do the following task for my work.

What I want to achive is ability for InstallAware to list out all the instances name to the user. For example, if an enduser tries to install our product, we would like the installer first to check if the core product is installed. If there are multiple instances of same core product installed, we would like to list out all the core product instances name. The user then could select 1 instance of the core product to install our product on.

From what I am reading on the Multiple instance example from InstallAware, it can only list the default instance. It cannot loop into other instances and list out all the names. Is this correct? If that's the case, can I build an external dll to detect all the instance names and display it to the user and let the user pick? Is there an sample project to call out to an external dll I could look at?

Thanks for the advice.

Alan Vien.

[giaviv]

Dear Alan,

Thank you for your interest in InstallAware!

What you are saying is indeed correct. Note that you have a few options for using external code:
1) Writing an InstallAware plug-in that does what you need
2) Writing a DLL and using the command "Call DLL Function". You could write a function that displays a dialog to the user and returns the selected instance

Good luck!

[acvien]

Thanks for the quick response. What is the data type the pick list or tree list use? Is there an sample code to call external dll?

[giaviv]

Dear Alan,

I am not sure I understand your first question - the TreeList dialog control in InstallAware can write a text value of the selection to a variable.
As for a sample code, all you need to do is call Call DLL Function. To do so, go to the MSIcode of you installation project and either drag and drop a Call DLL Function command from the menu on the left hand side, or manually type Call DLL Function. When you do that, a dialog will appear and allow you to input which DLL you want to call, which function in it, which parameter and where to return the result to.

Please let me know if you have any more questions!