Using the repackager to convert setup.exe to an msi

[pg2190]

I am trying to repackage an application that uses a setup.exe. What method can I use to provide automatic answers to 3 dialog boxes such as accepting the license agreement, typical install, and default install path, etc? I need to deploy the msi through the active directory using a group policy object. The repackaged application msi installs sucessfully when I provide answers, but does not install automatically through the active directory. I tried using a transform, but that does not work. I just need someone to point me in the right direction, the help files don't appear to have the answer.

Thanks,

Paul

[Inabus]

What you will need to do is either remove the Dialogs all together or provide the answer as default in the MSI itself.

Unfortunatly both of these options are outside of my knowledge I just know it is possible to do 🙂

If I find out how ill post here but your best bet is to wait for someone with far more knowledge than me about Adminstudio to post hehe.

Paul

[Inabus]

I have found out how you can remove the License Agreement stuff.

You basically can set the dialogs to jump over the license agreement screen when you click on next. So in my case I set the InstallWelcome dialog to jump straight to CustomerInformation when you click on Next rather than to the LicenseAgreement. Also dont forget to ensure that the back button on the CustomerInformation dialog jumps back to InstallWelcome and not the LicenseAgreement!

Anyway hope this helps and who knows if this is how your meant to do it, I bet some qualified Installshield boffin will come on and tell me that it is wrong to do that hehe

Paul

[1Gunn1]

Any update on doing this? I have an install package built with Developer 8.1 with a setup.exe that I need to convert to .msi as our network guy is wanting to install it via Active Directory blah, blah so he can push it to all the relevant machines and do less work. 😉

I'm wondering if you solved your problem, or anyone else has advice?

[Inabus]

Take a clean machine with your companies standard build.

Install Adminstudio, or run the Repackager from the network (which is best)

Take a snapshot and then install your software

Take another snapshot and the files will be listed that have been captured

Exclude anything that isnt related to your application

Build your msi

As default it will only come up with 2 dialogs when you install this package and neither of them are require ones so if you then add this msi to AD etc it will install silently with no issues.

Obviously ensure that you test your application and also if possible check your entire msi app using installshield x.

Take particular note of any dlls and ensure that you have no conflicts with your base O/S build.

Any question then feel free to post.

Paul

[vrajan]

I converted a Installshield 12 setup.exe to a .msi package using Admin studion repackager tool. The conversion worked fine and the installation also worked fine.

But i have a big problem:

None of the custom dialogs which were present in the original installation (setup.exe) is not coming. The installation of .msi now shows only License agreement, Installtion status bar..

I used the command line option \qf for full User Interface while conversion. Even that did not work. I opened the converted .irp and then opened the .msi in edtor and the dialogs which were available in the original setup.exe is now not available in the dialog editor of .msi ? How to get these custom dialogs while converting .exe to .msi ?

[Cary_R]

Custom dialogs are lost in repackaging. No aspect of any user interface can be preserved--instead, the repackaged output will use a default set of dialogs in its default editor template.

To add extra dialogs, you'll have to open the *.ism in Editor, and then add the dialogs. The easiest way to handle this in editor is to use the Project Assistant under the 'Installation Interview' section.

Also, in repackaging, you'll want to be very careful that an installshield setup is not already in MSI format--check the list of running processes to see if Msiexec.exe starts up when the original package is launched.

[vrajan]

Thanks Cary fro your reply.

The msiexec.exe is not in taskmanager when I ran the original setup.exe of installshield 12 before repackaging.

I first migrated the setup.exe from Install shield 6.5 to 12. After Migrating all the installscript logic and custom dialogs were available in 12. Then I repackaged the installshield 12 setup.exe to .msi package.

I am not able to find any of the custom installshield script logic also that were found in the original setup.exe in installshield 12.
Is the custom installshield script logic of the origininal setup is also lost after repackaging?

[Cary_R]

Yes, the script logic would be lost as well. At its core, the normal repackaging process is agnostic to the installation technology the original setup was built with:

Installation Monitoring simply hooks the running process to see what changes it makes to the OS (Think RegMon and FileMon)

Snapshot looks at the base state of the OS, and then the changes made afterward, and builds a package off of the differences between the two.

There's also the 'InstallShield Professional Logging' method, which reads the *.ilg file to preserve things like path variables and feature trees:

http://helpnet.macrovision.com/robo/projects/adminstudio80/ISRConceptRepackagingMethodsProEngine.htm

And then the InstallScript Scan (which you might be prompted for sometimes) is designed for converting an InstallScript MSI project to a Basic MSI project without changing any of the Component Codes, Upgrade Code, Product Code, etc. This process specifically removes the custom InstallScript dialogs.

So in short, none of these things preserve the installscript code you started with. If you'd like to include this in the repackaged output, you'll need to drop this into the resultant editor project.