Summary
This article talks about one of the scenarios where install location specified via a response file is not applied to the Silent Install.Synopsis
This article talks about one of the scenarios where install location specified via a response file is not applied to the Silent Install.Discussion
User can specify an installation directory for a silent install using the USER_INSTALL_DIR variable in the response file as shown below:USER_INSTALL_DIR=C:\\Program Files\\MyInstallDir
However, if the installer project has an action that sets USER_INSTALL_DIR to some other directory, the action in the project will overwrite $USER_INSTALL_DIR$ to the value specified in the action. For instance, if the project consists of the Set InstallAnywhere Variable action in the Pre-Install sequence that sets the USER_INSTALL_DIR variable, when the installer is run in silent mode, the Set InstallAnywhere Variable action will overwrite the USER_INSTALL_DIR value specified in the response file.
Installer Desginer should place a Compare InstallAnywhere Variables rule on the Set InstallAnywhere Variable action with the following condition check:
$INSTALLER_UI$
'does not equal'
SILENT
Placing the above rule will ensure the action is not executed in Silent install. In this case, the value of USER_INSTALL_DIR specified in the response file will be applied to the silent install.
Additional Information
For more information on silent Install and response file, please refer to the Knowledge Base articles:How to Create Response File to Be Used as Silent Install
Running an Installer Silently