7 replies to this topic

[mordrax]

Hi,

i put this up on the official macoivision site for a day and didn't even get one view, let alone reply...

Looking for a bit of advice on whether these are legitimate reasons to move.

My current install project is a 'Basic MSI' project and i'm thinking of moving to installscript for the following major reasons.
1. The install currently runs a few other MSI packages and since their exec seq cannot coincide, they're being installed in the UI seq.

2. There are around 15 mergemodules all detailing different subsystems and these take more than 1 hour to compile each time. (build only tables, -q1, -q2, -q3, -UNCOMP) do not work as intended. Want to convert these into standalone 'Basic MSI's which would mean problem 1.

3. I've heard the dialogs are more powerful in installscript. the selection tree functionality is not flexible enough to use checkboxes instead of feature states.

4. Reduce invisible code that's being called from within the dialog's events tab and custom actions. It takes WAY too much time to flick through ui to understand sequence of calls. much easier in code.

5. Hopefully get rid of random dialog tab order corruption


My worries are:
What happens to the UI and Exe sequence in the installscript project.
Since this is script driven, does it mean the UI and Exe seq do not apply?
what about rollback?


Thanks,
Joe.

[Stefan Krueger]

Your assumptions are correct. However there#s no conversion, instead you need to start over. (Use "pure" InstallScript, not "InstallScript MSI").
There are no UI and Execute sequences. Instead there's a script with events which do something similar, like OnFirstUIBefore() etc. There's no real Rollback like in MSI. Instead if you cancel the InstallScript it will perform a silent uninstall. However this will not revert overwritten files back to their previous version as in MSI setups.

[mordrax]

I've looked around inside the IDE and on google and haven't been able to find very much in the way of doco or tutorial on how to start up a InstallScript project and also on how these events u are talking about work.
The only kind of tutorial describes in detail how to use the install wizard which is next to useless for a highly customised installation process.
Could you point me to some installscript doco/tutorial?

Thx,
Joe.

[Glytzhkof]

Hi mordrax, please do not under any circumstance use Installscript MSI. Please use either Basic MSI or old style non-MSI Installscript (as Stefan has already written above). To flesh this out a bit, please read this whole discussion - it will be worth your time: http://forum.install...?showtopic=8734

[mordrax]

hum.... interesting
thanks alot for that hehe, i didn't even know there was a difference between InstallScript MSI and InstallScript

but i still have issues finding tutorials on InstallScript that would give me an idea of how the whole events thing work.. even just a template would help get me started.

[Stefan Krueger]

Start by building a simple test prject using the assistant. Then add the default script code using the combo boxes in the script view. Examine this code, e.g. using the debugger. This should give you a better understanding.
Looking at the "Event Map for InstallShield 6" at http://www.installsi...en/ispt_doc.htm may also help.
The reference for all InstalLScript command is in the online help.

[phood]

Hello,

This discussion seems to suggest that the bigger a project gets, the more problems you will have with Basic MSI. I'm converting a large project over to Basic MSI, but I'm starting to regret the decision.

Do you have any suggestion on the best way to deploy large, complex projects?

Pat

[Stefan Krueger]

This old thread was incorrectly posted under Basic MSI - the user was using InstallScript. In general, simplifying things by starting with a simple test project sometimes helps isolating the problem.

In general, large projects should work. But indeed, the bigger and complex a project is, the more problems you can expect. Especially if you start to hit the default limits in number of components etc. in Windows Installer. Also, with a large number of files, the InstallShield IDE tends to get very slow.