9 replies to this topic

[Matthias1967]

Hello,

I am getting confused about where (and when) InstallShield Basic MSI copies the files I added in the "Support Files" view.

Background:
My setup (which I am trying to migrate from InstallScript to BasicMSI) needs several files temporarily, which should be accessed from InstallScript custom actions. These files include some exes and some DLLs needed by those exes.

InstallScript calls them by

[felltier-a]

Hey Matthias,

the system variable "SUPPORTDIR" and the property "SUPPORTDIR" are different. Try to read the information from the "SUPPORTDIR" property via "MsiGetProperty".


regards,
Udo

[Matthias1967]

Right. But all I need to access here is the InstallShield system variable SUPPORTDIR, as I am looking for files listed in the "Support Files" view of the IDE. My question was where InstallShield copies those files and how I can access them from script.

[vijayakumar]

Hi,

You can use the [SourceDir] variable. The files that you added in Support files will be accessible with this property.

-Vijay

[Matthias1967]

This confuses me.
As far as I see, [SourceDir] is an MSI property, not an InstallScript variable.

[vijayakumar]

See if this helps you.

[Matthias1967]

Thank you for the link. However, it is not very helpful for me.

I have been assuming that the Support Files are copied to some temporary location when the InstallScript engine starts (or even earlier). To investigate this a bit further, I entered a MessageBox into the first InstallScript Custom Action of the InstallExecuteSequence, assuming that I could find the files somewhere on my disk at this point. However, I could not find any files from "Support Files -> Language Independent"!

As an additional notice, I am still using InstallShield DevStudio 9. I understand that the handling of the SUPPORTDIR has changed from InstallShield 9 to 12 (and later versions), however, the files must be copied to some location on the disk in any case. So I am still wondering what has gone wrong.

Edited by Matthias1967, 27 November 2008 - 09:43.

[Matthias1967]

Meanwhile, I could solve my main problem:

For some reason I have not yet fully understood, the custom action ISSetupFilesExtract was missing from all of my sequences. By deleting my Support files and re-adding them, I could make InstallShield enter this action into both the UI and the execute sequences.
Now the support files are copied, and SUPPORTDIR is initialized correctly.

[amol]

By re adding the files in supported file resolved the SUPPORTDIR path issue.
Thank you !

[vPanchumarthi]

generally the support files will go to TEMP folder of the user who logged in the system. also a property needs to be created to map TEMP folder to SUPPORTDIR