Help Needed building installer for multiple MSI files

[bambam]

Hello,

I just installed Advanced Installer trail and it looks great, the first thing i thought, I never knew so many options where possible for an installer

But i want to create an installer which shows several checkboxes for Product A, B and C for example.

When Product A is checked, the next screen will show all the msi files which are related to product A and installs them. Silently or not, this doesn't matter because i have all the command switches.

Showing a tree of MSI files direct under Product A is also an option, this will reduce the total amount of dialogs and make it easier to understand for the user.

Could you please help me on this? i couldn't find anything like it in the tutorials / howto's.

Is there an Advanced Installed book which goes indepth on these topics?

Many thanks in advance.

[Dan]

Hello and welcome to Advanced Installer forums,

Thank you for your interest in Advanced Installer.

I want to create an installer which shows several checkboxes for Product A, B and C for example.

In order to achieve that you can go in the Organization page where you can add a feature for the product A (e.g you can name it ProductA) another feature for product B and so on.
In each feature you can add the related components that will be installed when the option was selected. You can enable the “Install based on condition” option from the “Installation Behavior” of each feature. In the condition field you can set a public property that will be assigned to the checkbox used:
PRODUCT_A_SELECTED for ProductA
PRODUCT_B_SELECTED for FroductB

You can go now in the “Dialogs” page and add checkBoxes using the “Control”>> “Check Box” toolbar button.
Please do not forget to edit the “Property Name” of each checkBox to the one you have used( in our example was PRODUCT_A_SELECTED for the first checkBox and so on).

When Product A is checked, the next screen will show all the msi files which are related to product A and installs them.

In order to display the files that will be installed for the selected option you can add a new dialog using the “New Dialog” toolbar button. On the new added dialog, from the right-click option select the “Show only if...” option. In the “Condition” field you can type the check box property name corresponding to the selected option. On this dialog you can add a listBox containing the all the components that will be installed if this option has been selected. You can add a dialog for every checkbox that you have used and edit to its corresponding user selection.

Showing a tree of MSI files direct under Product A is also an option, this will reduce the total amount of dialogs and make it easier to understand for the user.

For this you can add under each of your check boxes controls an UI control (e.g. static text control) which will contain the description of the related feature containing files.

Let us know if this helped, otherwise give us more details about your scenario.

Best regards,
Dan

[bambam]

Thank you for your help Dan. Ik really gave me some more information on how to do such things in Advanced Installer.

In the meantime i have talked with my manager about the final design.

I need to build an installer for 3 products. All products contain multiple msi's. After starting the installer will show a dialog like the WelcomeDlg, the next dialog should contain a checkbox for productA with a "+" in front of it to expand productA to see all the components which can be unchecked. The same for productB and C on the same dialog screen. Something like the Microsoft Office installer but then with checkboxes.

All the components of a feature should be installed when the feature is checked but also uninstalled when the feature is unchecked.

I want to do this step by step because i know my manager will have more request during building this

Many thanks in advance Dan.

[Dan]

Hi,

You can add your .msi's as a “Featured-based” prerequisites. You can also take a look on our "Add Prerequisites" tutorial.
Please notice that when you added a prerequisite in the “Organization” page a new feature has been added for the related package.

You can use the drag-and-drop operation and add the specific features for the FeatureA, FeatureB and so on.

You can go in the “Dialogs” page and on the new added dialog you can use “ New Control” >> “Quick Selection Tree” toolbar button in order to obtain a drop-down menu for each feature where the user can select whether that feature will or will not be installed.

Also, in order to disable the possibility for the user to remove the program from “Add or Remove Programs” applet in the Control Panel and not going through the maintenance process, you can go in the “Product Details” page and enable the “Disable Remove” option.

Best regards,
Dan

[bambam]

Hi Dan, i have email my aip file because i ran in a problem with the condition usage. Could you please check it and help me configuring it correctly?

Many thanks in advance.