Microsoft Report Viewer

[kkim]

Hello,

My application needs MS Report Viewer in order to run. I know how to install this as a pre-requisite, but if the user
already has this on their server, I don't want to install it again if the user upgrades to new versions.

Is there a way for me to detect if Report Viewer is already installed so it can bypass this process?

Microsoft's website doesn't seem to provide much info, I was hoping there is a registry value somewhere that
I can check to see if Report Viewer is installed....

Kim

[gigi]

Hi Kim,

This can be done by using a prerequisite with following install condition:
Criteria: Product Version (identify by Upgrade Code)
Upgrade Code: {75249CB4-6EBE-4919-9E1C-2B399C1BD4C0} (I obtain the "Upgrade Code" from ReportViewer.msi extracted from ReportViewer.exe archive)

Read more about prerequisites and how to use them here:
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-g ... tware.html
http://www.advancedinstaller.com/user-g ... tions.html

Regards,
Gigi

[kkim]

So I guess my package would have to be a .exe file and not a .msi because of the bootstrapper?

[Ionut]

Hi Kim,

So I guess my package would have to be a .exe file and not a .msi because of the bootstrapper?

Yes, the EXE bootstrapper handles the detection and installation of software Prerequisites and subsequently launches the MSI package containing your application.

Regards,
Ionut

[kkim]

Hi,

I've got AI checking for the existence of Report Viewer and also made it a "force pre-requisite" so that my software doesn't get installed unless the user
installs Report Viewer.

The only issue is that I want Report Viewer to be a silent install. I chose "Silent Install(no ui)" option and I still get the pop up box asking to install
MS Report Viewer....

Is there a way to just have it install without any user interaction?

Thanks.

[dms]

Kim

For a completely Silent install in addition to setting the bootstrapper ui to Silent Install you'll need to pass the relevant parrameter to the report viewer exe. Typically you'd do this by adding something like /s in the command line box on the properties box of the Edit Prerequisite dialog.

Now the caveat here is that the file in question accepts such arguements in the first place and that you know exactly what they are and whether or not they are case sensitive. If you don't know the answer to these questions then you could always try an experiment with variations of the following:

/s
/S
/s /qn
/S /qn

I can't vouch for any of these nd report viewer but you never know one might just do the trick. Hopefully though someone else reading this might just know exactly what you need to add.

Dom

[kkim]

Kim

For a completely Silent install in addition to setting the bootstrapper ui to Silent Install you'll need to pass the relevant parrameter to the report viewer exe. Typically you'd do this by adding something like /s in the command line box on the properties box of the Edit Prerequisite dialog.

Now the caveat here is that the file in question accepts such arguements in the first place and that you know exactly what they are and whether or not they are case sensitive. If you don't know the answer to these questions then you could always try an experiment with variations of the following:

/s
/S
/s /qn
/S /qn

I can't vouch for any of these nd report viewer but you never know one might just do the trick. Hopefully though someone else reading this might just know exactly what you need to add.

Dom

Thanks Dom, you were very close. Here's what worked for me:

/q:a /c:"install.exe /q"


The only issue I "kinda" have is the fact that it takes about 10 seconds to install report viewer. Which isn't THAT LONG,
but there's no visual indication that anything is happening when someone clicks on my setup file.
(so you kinda have to hope the customer just sits back and waits to see what happens)

I've seen with other programs where you get your typical dialogue questions and right before it installs the software,
it will install the pre-requisite if need be....is this possible with Advanced Installer? Or do prequisites always have to
come first before any dialogue?

[dms]

Kim

You now have the dilemma that I faced when going for a completely silent install for all prerequisites. My decission eventually was to implement a five second rule. If during testing it becomes apparent that a silent install is going to take longer than five seconds then having nothing at all is to my mind unacceptable.
I still prefer to have the prerequsites themselves install silently but I havethe basic ui come up so that the end user at least knows that something is happening. To this I usually add my own custom message but that's all.

What I would really like to add to this is a progress bar that indicates how the installation of the pre-requisites is going, but I have no idea at present how to implement that, so if Cosmin of Denis are reading this I'd welcome any suggestions!

Dom

[Cosmin]

Hi Dom,

Usually we recommend using a basic UI for the prerequisites so they show a progress bar when they are installed. However, for completely silent prerequisites you can try using a basic UI for the bootstrapper (in the Software Prerequisites tab of the "Prerequisites" page). This should show a progress bar based on the prerequisites installation.

Currently Advanced Installer cannot install prerequisites while showing the main installation dialogs. However, this feature will be available in the future.

Regards,
Cosmin

[kkim]

Kim

You now have the dilemma that I faced when going for a completely silent install for all prerequisites. My decission eventually was to implement a five second rule. If during testing it becomes apparent that a silent install is going to take longer than five seconds then having nothing at all is to my mind unacceptable.
I still prefer to have the prerequsites themselves install silently but I havethe basic ui come up so that the end user at least knows that something is happening. To this I usually add my own custom message but that's all.

What I would really like to add to this is a progress bar that indicates how the installation of the pre-requisites is going, but I have no idea at present how to implement that, so if Cosmin of Denis are reading this I'd welcome any suggestions!

Dom

Sounds like we have the exact same dilemma. I will go ahead and try out the basic UI, see if that helps a little bit.

So according to Cosmin, what we are looking for should be available in a new AI release, let's hope that is soon!!!

[kkim]

Well the good news is that on Vista 64bit, my setup file installed Report Viewer LIGHTNING FAST.

It's as fast as if it detected RV already on the system and just went straight to the setup process. I had to check control panel
to see if it was installed and there it was.

However on XP, it is still about a 5 second delay or so, even on XP 64bit.

Please AI, please give us the option down the road to BEGIN the installation and include the pre-requisites during the install, not before...


Thanks!

[Cosmin]

Hi,

Please AI, please give us the option down the road to BEGIN the installation and include the pre-requisites during the install, not before...

This feature is on our TODO list and we will to make it available next year (I'm afraid we cannot offer an ETA for now).

Regards,
Cosmin