7 replies to this topic

[csellers]

I am porting an existing InstallShield 5.5 install to an InstallShield 10.5 Basic MSI install. In our install, we need to allow the user to select one or more items from a list of items that are not known until run time.

In our InstallShield 5.5 install, we accomplish this using SdAskOptionsList (which displays a list of items with a checkbox next to each), but I cannot find a similar method in the Basic MSI dialogs.

Does anyone have any ideas how I might accomplish this?

[Stefan Krueger]

There si no such control in MSI. You would have to use an external user interface if you really need it to work this way, or sue the InstallScript MSI project type (not recommended).
Maybe you can use some static check boxes instead? Or the Feature tree dialog? Or, with some additional work, you could have a dialog with two list boxes sideby side, and Add >> and << Remove buttons to move items between the two lists. This will require some installser SQL and a twin dialog, but it can be done.

[towergee]

[DenMori]

Hopefully, the creation of such a dialog won't be a huge pain. Stefan, is there a code sample of the dual list box out there that I can grab and customize for my needs (multiple database selection for running of SQL scripts)?

Dennis Morisseau
WebMD Practice Services
dmorisseau@webmd.net

[Glytzhkof]

My experience with MSI dialogs is somewhat limited, but the experience I did have taught me that it is almost impossible to create good, custom MSI dialogs. The whole deal is that the dialogs are defined in table format in the MSI, and you don't get the tools you need to work with to properly maintain the state of the dialog. For example when one control changes you will not always receive an event that you can handle in response to user action.

As far as I recall it is possible to spawn a real Win32 dialog directly from an MSI dialog by hooking it up to a button click event. It should then be possible to pump whatever value you generate in this dialog back to a windows installer property. This should give you a lot of flexibility, but is probably more effort than you want to put into it.

[Stefan Krueger]

[Stefan Krueger]

The sample is now available at http://www.installsi...stBox/index.htm

[DenMori]

Thanks so much for posting the sample..With a couple of tweaks here and there, I got it up and running within my setup in a few hours.

Dennis