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[Juicy]

The IS website claims that you can run arbitrary DLL, EXE and VBS but since the trial version of Express expired on my machine, I've had to do research on the web to try and figure it all out.

What I need to do is to be able to call a DLL and have returned values be essentially any datatype possible.

For example, my DLL could have a getXPath() function which returns a string (namely the path that the DLL searches for).

Then ISE should take that path and utilise it throughout the rest of the installation.... Is this even possible?

I've seen code in ISpro that allows you to call any DLL and have it return information by reference variables. And I'm aware of the Get/Set property methods as part of the MSI framework. Is this the best way to pass information back?

Thankyou in advance for your answers.

[Stefan Krueger]

The "normal" way of returning values is through properties.
In Developer there's an option to use a wrapper custom action that will capture the return code from a DLL function and store it in a property for you. I'm not sure from the top of my head if this is possible in Express 4 as well. In general I'd prefer the direct way of storing the information in a property using MsiSetProporty.

Depending on where you got the evaluation version from, you could call their sales person. They should be able to extend your evaluation period.