Alexey Popkov
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2021 3:41 pm

Suggestion for improvement: logic of CAB archive configuration options

Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:31 am

I have discovered that, contrary to the names and hierarchy of options, Advanced Installer is able to create MSI installers containing several CAB files inside. By default, if a user chooses the option “Archive installation files into CAB files” ▶ “Advanced CAB layout” in the “Archive” section of the “Configuration” tab on the “Builds” page (see screenshot), the installer type ("Package Type") automatically switches to “MSI with resources next to it,” reverse switching to “Single MSI (resources inside)” switches the archive type to “One CAB archive containing all installation files,” from what it logically follows that Advanced Installer supports embedding of only one CAB archive per MSI installer.
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However, this is obviously just a flaw in the logic of the Advanced Installer interface: when you select "Advanced CAB layout," a tab with the same name appears, which has a hidden option, which becomes available when you click on the item "Cab1.c" located on the panel "Volumes and CABs": "Volumes" ▶ "Disk1" ▶ "Cab1.c" (the last two items are available only if the project already contains some files). After highlighting "Cab1.c," the Advanced Installer interface completely hangs (in the case of our project containing more than 170000 files) for more than 10 minutes (!!!), and then the option with the non-obvious name "Include CAB into the MSI database" becomes available (see the screenshot below). This option overrides all the logic of the parent options, and causes Advanced Installer to embed all the generated CAB files in the MSI installer!
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Thus, the conclusion: at present, Advanced Installer hides from the user a part of its functionality, which is of great value. I suggest redesigning the logic of CAB archive configuration options in order to make it more consistent and to eliminate the interface hangings.

Catalin
Posts: 6542
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:49 am

Re: Suggestion for improvement: logic of CAB archive configuration options

Tue Apr 13, 2021 11:26 am

Hello Alexey,

I have included an answer to this thread in the other thread you have created:

Re: A limitation on the project size when creating MSI package with multiple CABs inside?

I will update this thread as soon as me and the development team will reach a conclusion.

Best regards,
Catalin
Catalin Gheorghe - Advanced Installer Team
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