1 reply to this topic

[balaji4u]

Hi ,

Overview:
We already have a product1 which we have packaged using Basic MSI now we have another product2 which is pacakged using the "Wise installer".

Problem Statment/Requirement:
We need to enhance our Basic MSI project to incorporate the product2 which is packed using wise installer. i.e the product2 has to be exposed as a feature to the end user and when the user selects this feature for installation , it should launch the wise installer and install the product2 and continue with the installation of product 1 or vice versa.

Now can we accomplish this using the basic MSI ?.... and can the MSI run other installers within its process , i should be able to switch between the installers i.e if the user aborts the installation of product2 also product1 needs to be installed based on the selection.

Please suggest, i am absolutely cluelessly here, any help is highly appreciated.

Regards.
Balaji

[Glytzhkof]

I find that the clean way to do this is to write yourself a tiny setup.exe that will invoke the setups in sequence. I believe the latests versions of Installshield has features to help you with this, but I haven't used it in a while. Trying to install the second setup from the first is very error prone and is plain and simply a mess to deal with for corporate deployment for example.

What is your target market? Home users or corporate users? For home use it's "anything goes" it seems, but corporate users are likely to reject your whole product if the deployment solution is bad and there is a suitable alternative. Trust me, I have worked in large banks and they really need reliable deployment more than anything.

If I were to deal with your product in a large scale deployment scenario I would like a simple README.TXT which explains the relationship between the setups and which should go down first and if the dependency is required or optional.