ETA for features...

[BourqueJ]

Hi,

I'm currently evaluating Advanced Installer as a replacement for InstallShield. We have some specific need which does not seem do be done with your product.

First, we need to be able to customize the UI (beside the banners) of the installer. We have some custom forms that we need to make and some modifications to the current forms offered by default. I read on another post that this feature is not yet available but it is high in your task list. Is there any beta tool that can do the job?

Secondly, we have the need to add some custom table to the MSI database to store information that will be later used by a custom C++ dll. Will this feature be available some day?

I'll appreciate if you could give me an ETA for those request. We are currently using InstallShield but I don't really like the interface (a lots of bugs ) and we are in the process of refacing our current installer.

Thanks in advance,

Jacques.

[gigi]

Hi,

I'm glad that you are interested in Advanced Installer. Regarding the UI customization it was implemented in 4.0 version of AI which is already available for download: http://www.advancedinstaller.com/download.html

Secondly, we have the need to add some custom table to the MSI database to store information that will be later used by a custom C++ dll. Will this feature be available some day?

We have added this on our TODO list and it will be available in a future version of Advanced Installer.

If you have any more questions we'll be glad to answer them.

Regards,
Gigi
_________________
Gheorghe Rada
Advanced Installer Team
http://www.advancedinstaller.com

[BourqueJ]

Thanks!

I did not see the new version.. I was using the version 3.9 that I downloaded last week.

As for the custom table, I guess the only way to add it will be to run a script modifying the msi file before signing it? (i was already doing something similar with installshield... I was running script on the msi file before signing it and before it gets embeded in the .exe file)

I just installed it and it seem very promising. Good job on the UI editor. (It seem better than the one of InstallShield!)

I have to do some design of our package (a lot of ressource that need side-by-side shared with different package) and I will definitly try Advanced Installed!

Thanks!

[gigi]

Hi,

As for the custom table, I guess the only way to add it will be to run a script modifying the msi file before signing it?

I suggest you to modify the template.msi file from Advanced Installer working directory which is used as template for all build packages. So add those custom tables in the template.msi file with orca and they will be available to all packages created after this modification.

Regards,
Gigi
__________________
Gheorghe Rada
Advanced Installer Team
http://www.advancedinstaller.com

[BourqueJ]

I suggest you to modify the template.msi file from Advanced Installer working directory which is used as template for all build packages. So add those custom tables in the template.msi file with orca and they will be available to all packages created after this modification.

I like the idea!

I've done some more testing last night and there are a couple of questions that came to me. When using Installshield, I ran across some issues with my installer and I want to be sure that I can avoid those issues with your product.

1. MSI caching. Installshield gave me the option, when embeding the msi in a setup.exe, to uncompress the package in "<WindowsVolume>\Windows\Downloaded Installations" folder so that if a repair requires the complete msi file, it was accessible. I did not see this option with Advanced Installer. Is it done automatically? And if so, where is the uncompressed install files located to?

2. I've noticed that there is a way to synchronize the content of a folder with the installer. Installshield offered this option but I was having some issues with it. The issue was that every time I was building the package, new sets of component were created with new GUID thus making the upgrade process to be longer. I was using for our samples that we ship with our assemblies. Since the installation folder was the same, minor upgrade was out of the question (since it will violate a fundamental rule of windows installer) so we had to do major upgrades all the time. How Advanced Installer manage those files/components?

3. I did not reproduce our actual package since it's a lot of work. We have more than 4000 files and more than 800 components. Navigating through the different views in Installshield was sometime taking 5 minutes before the UI was accessible again and the information available. What is the performance of AI regarding this?

I will continue evaluating your product! I have to say that the more I work with it, the more I like it! The experience is much better than with Installshield. (in my opinion)

Thanks again!

Jacques

[gigi]

Hi,

1. We have in plan to do this. In a future version of AI you will be able to decide if the extracted msi will be deleted after install or copied to a specific location.

2. AI does not have this behaviur. When using synchronize folder AI will generate new components/GUIDs only for new files not for files that already exists.

3. I haven't really tested with 4000 files. But I have test with about 2000 files and the time before the UI was accessible again is around 4-5 sec. Note that this depends on the computer performance. My test machine is P4 at 2600 MHz.

Regards,
Gigi
__________________
Gheorghe Rada
Advanced Installer Team
http://www.advancedinstaller.com

[BourqueJ]

Thanks gigi,

1. I will look forward to this feature

2. Excellent, you guys got it!

3. I can assume that with 4000 files the performance should be WAY better than InstallShield.

Thanks again for your time,

Jacques.