Create Merge Modules - some newbies questions
Pelle
Hi there,
I'm just preparing to create a larger install for one of my companies
products that requires a few third-party support-installations. Some of
these are a bit old and all I have is the original setup. Most of
these, however, can be identified as some sort of installshield-setup
(if that helps), except for one which I haven't found out anything
about so far.
I intend to use Installshield X Professional for all this work.
As far as I understood, the best way to incorporate third-party
software in your own setup is to use merge-modules. If so, is there a
way to create those merge-modules from the original installations?
Since some of the third-party-products are out of use and out of
support, it will probably be impossible to request them from their
original manufacturer.
If I can't use merge-modules, I might want to try to execute the
original installations. However this seems a very difficult task, since
the original installations all require a reboot of the machine and I
don't know how to keep control of the setup after rebooting. Maybe
someone has some hints on this also.
Thanks to anyone bothering to explain...
regards,
Pelle.
RUS
The bad news is that no, you won't be able to use Merge Modules (or
InstallScript Objects) as those types of projects should be created
from scratch with source files, not from the final installation
packages (setup.exe) that you have. It doesn't matter if they were
created with InstallShield or not.
The good news is that you can use a silent installation option if it's
available from your setup executables. Try running your installations
with /s or /q and see if the product gets installed.
For IS (InstallShield) setups that do not use MSI (Windows Installer)
you can create a silent installer from a Setup.exe (assuming this is
the name of the product's installer) by running Setup.exe -r
-f1"c:\setup.iss". This operation would record all your mouse clicks
during installation to a response file "setup.iss". Then you can use
this file to launch a silent installation of that product from your
Installer by running Setup.exe -s -f1"c:\path\to\setup.iss".
Look up functions DoInstall() and LaunchAppAndWait() in InstallShield's
documentation for more information.
Good luck,
RUS
Pelle
Hi there,
thanks a lot for getting me started on this issue! Your help is highly
appreciated!
I'll check and see if I can make any use of it. Maybe I can get back to
you later if there are any more issues with this!
Thanks again,
regards,
Pelle.
RUS schrieb:
> The good news is that you can use a silent installation option if it's
> available from your setup executables.
[...]
Pelle
... oh well,
I didn't last long until I ran into the next set of problems.
I've been able to create a Setup.ISS from your description. However,
every time I call Setup /q, no matter whether I specify /f1Setup.ISS or
not, I get an error/msgBox telling me that the files _Setup.DLL and
_IsRes.DLL, which are located in _Setup.Lib are missing. Executing the
installer normally works fine with all the dialogs. The file _Setup.DLL
as well as _Setup.Lib are present, only the _IsRes.DLL is missing.
However, since the Setup executes normally in normal mode, it's
unlikely that it's resources (which I learned are included in
_IsRes.DLL) are missing.
Any clue?
Another thing that worries me slightly is, that the documentation of
DoInstall states, that the installation might fail if the (other) setup
has been created with a different version of Installshield. I'm pretty
sure that this is the case, since the setups concerned are a few years
older than the Installshield I currently use and since they are
third-party, I can't upgrade them.
Hope someone still reads this, it's been great help the first time.
Regards,
Pelle.
Pelle
Hi again,
sorry, I forgot an important detail...
If I run setup /s /f1MySetup.ISS instead of /q /f1______, I get a
Setup.Log with the following contents:
[InstallShield Silent]
Version=v3.00.000
File=Log File
[ResponseResult]
ResultCode=-1
... which doesn't give me much of a clue, actually.
Regards,
Pelle.
Pelle
For anyone running into similar problems getting started with complex
installations including third-party-software:
Many of my questions were answered on
http://support.installshield.com/kb/view.asp?pcode=ALL&articleid=Q105473
Regards,
Pelle.
RUS
Like this: setup.exe /s /f1"C:\mypath\MySetup.iss"
Here's the doc for command-line options:
http://support.installshield.com/kb/view.asp?pcode=ALL&articleid=Q105473