6 replies to this topic

[Matthias1967]

Hello,

My setup needs a special "remote" mode where application files are not installed locally but kept on a file server where the application is supposed to have been installed before.

However, it must be possible to run the application on the file server, so I cannot do an administrative installation on the file server.

Does Windows Installer allow such a mode?
I thought about strictly separating the application files from non-file resources (registry, shortcuts etc.), which would also imply I cannot use built-in self-registration (because the file component does not get installed) nor InstallShield's "COM extract at build" mechanism.

As an alternative, I would set the features or components to run from source and set SourceDir to the installation directory on the file server at the beginning of the execute sequence. Would this work, or does this cause the installer to lose track of the MSI package?
What makes the issue a bit more complicated is that there are some (few) files I will have to install locally even in remote mode, e.g. some files for the Windows\System directory.

Regards,

Matthias

[Stefan Krueger]

Sounds like you want to set the features to "run from source" instead of "install local". For this to work you must set the components' local install attribute to "optional" (if set to "local" or "source" this would override the feature's setting).

[Matthias1967]

Yes, that's what I am planning. However, I was not sure whether this works if the "source" I am going to run from is not the install source (it actually does not contain an msi file) but just an application directory installed on a server.

[Matthias1967]

In addition, do I have to set the property SourceDir to the file server directory, or does "run from Source" work without me taking care of that?

[Stefan Krueger]

You need to create an administrative install first, and install from there. The source location must be stored in the msi file, and of course you need an msi file for installation (without MSI it's not a Windows Installer setup...)

[Matthias1967]

I thought about the following workflow (without administrative installation):

1) Install the product on the server (not administrative)

2) Start the installation on the client (from CD or network, not from an administrative installation)

3) The client installation (InstallUISequence) checks whether "remote" mode is required (e.g. by checking whether the selected target directory is on a remote drive and then checking whether it is a valid installation)

4) If "remote" mode is required, the features are set to run from source.

Is this worth a try, or are there reasons this cannot work?

[Stefan Krueger]

You would need to tell the msi on the client somehow that the "source" is on the server, although the setup isn't really running from the server. Not sure if that's possible. As far as I know the msi file must be at the root of the source.