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SelectionTree in Admin Installation


9 replies to this topic

Neomatrics

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Posted 26 July 2004 - 15:33

Hi,

Is it possible to use SelectionTree during Administrative Installation Sequence ?

Actually I tried to use the SetupType->Custom Setup Dialog in the same way as it was in the Regular Installation. But unable to populate the feature tree. My goal is to provide, the administrator, choice to select the feature for creating the network image (installation).

Regards,
Neo

Zweitze

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Posted 27 July 2004 - 08:18

I never managed to do this. Presumably Selectiontrees depend on the costing process - but I never had a confirmation of that.

I wanted exactly the same thing. I ended up creating checkboxes, which works OK, as long as you don't have too many features (but if you want to offer Run from network or Install on demand you've got to come up with something else)


Stefan Krueger

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 27 July 2004 - 16:40

Quote from MSI help:
QUOTE
The CostFinalize action must be executed before starting any user interface sequence which allows the user to view or modify Feature table selections or directories.

So yes, I believe the FeatureTree dialogs depends on additional temporary columns of information that are added by the costing process.

Neomatrics

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Posted 03 August 2004 - 07:58

I'm performing nearly the same set of standard actions as they are in the regular installation including the CostInitialize and CostFinalize and then invoking the AdminWelcome but all in vain.


Glytzhkof

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Posted 03 August 2004 - 08:51

I'd go with Zweitze's check boxes if I were you. Maybe he can share the code with you?
Regards
-Stein Åsmul

Neomatrics

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Posted 04 August 2004 - 07:08

Checkboxes can be used if you have very limited features (4-5). But I've around 30-40 features with nearly 20 sub-features in couple of features. I can't dispose the idea of using the tree control sad.gif

Glytzhkof

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Posted 04 August 2004 - 08:06

Did you file a feature request at http://www.installshield.com/feedback/ ?

Any chance you can group features together for each check box?
Regards
-Stein Åsmul

Stefan Krueger

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 04 August 2004 - 08:13

Typically an admin install would simply extract all the files to the network location. I don't think the designers of MSI had such a fine granular control in mind for admin installs. Typically this fine selection would happen during the installation on the client machine, which can be controlled by the administrator using transforms.
So maybe you are not using the best approach (why do you need such a detailed selection in the admin install?). However if you do need this, you may have to use an external user interface.

Zweitze

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Posted 04 August 2004 - 10:50

I can explain only for the software I'm creating, but:
Most custmers do not own repackaging software to create transforms, or much knowledge about MSI for that matter. Still, they want something like the old 'answer files' to install silently.

This is the scheme I use right now (no code!):
I have a special dialog with about 8 checkboxes, all linked to a public property (name in ALL CAPS). The Next button checks consistency (eg. at least one checkbox is checked).
The checkbox properties are all mentioned in the AdminProperties property.
Every feature (that is set in admin setup) has two conditions:
0 in case of (IsAdminPackage AND NOT ADMINFEATURE)
1 in case of (IsAdminPackage AND ADMINFEATURE)
... where ADMINFEATURE is the public property.

This works really nice, it even works with Windows 2000 GPO deployment. The drawback is that it gets quite hard to add/change/remove features, a lot has to be done. Further, if you use build flags to exclude features in certain build, you need to hide the corresponding checkboxes as well.


Stefan Krueger

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 04 August 2004 - 11:23

Now I understand what you're doing smile.gif

BTW did you know that you can bundle an OEM version InstallShield Tuner with your software to enable your customer to create transforms? (I admit that I don't know the price of Tuner)