5 replies to this topic

[shrishankaraan]

Dear All
I'm brand new to windows Installer file development and like any other software engineer I need to finish my task in a jiffy. i did get a few basics right about this from SDK. but htere are a few important things which evades me:
will anyone please help me understand these things?

1.  How can I create a selection tree control ? I tried to execute the UISample.msi - but it doesn't proceed further after asking the registration Key - it just pops up a message box "Please Wait while the installer finishes determining your disk space requirements" and just hangs there. Pl. explain how can i create a dialog box which helps me to display all the features & components in a selection tree control format.

( 2 ) I have many dll's & exe's & i have added them in the Componeet Table . these componets are all self registering , Now, Do I need to fill in the SelfReg table or should I fill in teh CLass & Type Lib table individually?? Also, each dll has say 25 classes. is it required for me to put all the classes in teh dll in the Class Table??

( 2 ) SDK says that I cna validate my msi file by merging the mergemod.cub file in to the dtaabase file. but how can I merge this?? i tried to copy all the tables of my .cub file in to the msi file & it gives an eror - "Fatal Conflict between .cub file & taabse file"

Lastly ,  My project has a few ll's & one exe hich are being shared by the few features so, Iunderstand that these shared dll's should be put in a individual merge module & the shared exeshould be put in a merge modul individually. Am i right?

Please help me out.

Thanks
regards
Sankar

[Irina]

Hi,
1. You can find some control in the IDE or Dialog Editor if you will use Windows Installer.
2. Create a component for each .dll and set property "Extract at Build". The Windows Installer will extract all COM information during the build. You can use Advanced Setting to set these cCOM components manually (use Component Wizard frot he creating components).
3.You can create yours merge module and insert it in a project..

[shrishankaraan]

Hi Irina
Thanks for replying.
1.  I use Orca - for develpoing this MSI database & it doesn't have any controls which I can drag or drop. what IDE do u mean - Please specify the IDE name.
I use WI 1.1
2. Again, Orca has just tables - so, there's a property table where I can set this "Extract At Build" but for which proprty should I set this??? Is there any property "Extarct At Build" - I will look in to it.
3.  I am creating merge module but getting stuck up in "how to register the component" .

I have a doubt - do u think I use IPWI ??
if so, NO. I use the tool provided by SDK - ORCA.
so, please suggest me how can I achieve my requirements.

Thanks
Sankar

[Stefan Krueger]

1. Create a dialog with a SelectionTree control
2. The suggested method is to fill in CalssId, AppId, TypeLib etc. tables instead of using self registration.
3. Not sure what you mean. If you are talking about self regsitration, see answer 2.

[Stefan Krueger]

uisample.msi is not a complete msi package and cannot run as is. The dialog you see is displayed until the installer has finished to calculate disk space requirements. uisample.msi doesn't include file, component and feature tables, so costing can never be completed. uisample.msi is intended as starting point so you have an msi with a user interface and all sequence tables populated. You need to add your file, features and components before using it.

To preview the dialogs in uisample.msi (or any other msi) open it in Orca and select Tools -> Dialog Preview.

To see how the dialogs in uisample.msi work, open it in Orca and look at the Dialog, Control, ControlCondition and ControlEvent tables and the tables for the various control types (ComboBox table, RadioButton table etc.)