Self-registering Dlls questions

[Tony Ye]

I am currently using InstallShield3 and have following questions about the
self-registering process:

1). How does IS3 register dlls? Does it use register server regsvr32.exe?

2). For the batch method Do(SELFREGISTRATIONPROCESS), are dlls registered
in the same order as they are transfered? Some of the dlls in my install
must be registered before others. The registration sequence matters to my
install.

Your help on these questions is very much appreciated.

Tony

[sahana]

Hi Tony ,

1) IS3 uses the register server to register self-registering files .

A self-registering .DLL must contain at least two functions:
DllRegisterServer and DllUnregisterServer. The first time the .DLL
is called, DllRegisterServer adds or updates registry information for
all the classes implemented by the .DLL, allowing OLE applications
to see the .DLL. When the .DLL's DllUnregisterServer function is
called, the .DLL's information is removed from the registry.
When you install self-registering .DLLs, InstallShield3 automatically
calls DllRegisterServer to register the .DLL, and unInstallShield
automatically calls DllUnregisterServer during uninstallation.

.OCX files and .EXE files can also be self-registering. In order for an

.EXE to be an "automation server," it must support the command line
argument /REGSERVER for registration purposes and /UNREGSERVER
for unregistration. InstallShield3 automatically calls an .EXE with a
SELFREGISTER flag by passing it /REGSERVER to register it and
/UNREGSERVER to unregister it.

2) The dlls are registered in the order in which they are transferred ,
because
they are put in an internal queue for registration.

In the batch method, any files that are installed with the SELFREGISTER
constant are placed in an internal queue and installed when
Do(SELFREGISTRATIONPROCESS) is called.
When using the batch method, you must first call
Enable(SELFREGISTERBATCH) before you transfer any files with the
SELFREGISTER constant. This call to Enable tells InstallShield3 to begin
recording the files that are to be self-registered.
Transfer the self-registering files using one of the file transfer
functions that
take the SELFREGISTER constant: CompressGet, VerUpdateFile, or XCopyFile.
The files are transferred when you call the function or when the file set
performs,
but the actual self-registration does not take place until you call Do.

--
Best Regards,

Sahana
Aditi Corp.

InstallShield Corp. Authorized Solution Provider.

Tony Ye <t...@pivotal.com> wrote in article
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