Customizing Shortcuts with MSI

[meenapanchu]

Hi,
I am new to installsheild and am really enjoying working with it.
I am migrating an installscript installtion to basic msi.
I have to customize the shorcuts.
I have to read the name of the shortcut from an INI file and create it according in my Basic MSI.
These are the steps i followed

1. I have a name like "Remote" in the INI File for the shortcut.
I read the file and set a user property say SHORTCUT1 in a VB Script ,
2. Then I created an identifier in the String table say ID_STRING3 with
value [SHORTCUT1]
3. I created a shortcut with display name as {ID_STRING3}
But when I ran the application a shortcut is created like [SHORTCUT1] instead of "Remote.

Can you explain to me why this is happening

[GatorBadMan]

It just means your value is not being set to SHORTCUT1. Are you sure your VBScript syntax that you are using to set it is right?

Here's a thread that might help you -

VB Script Functions Params in run time?

[MichaelU]

Actually the problem is more fundamental than that. Windows Installer does not resolve properties in the shortcut Name column.

[meenapanchu]

Thanks Michael,

So there is no way that i can create customized shortcut using windows installer.
I have to write a seperate exe to create shortcut and call it in an Custom Action after create shortcut sequence
Am I right? Or
Is there any other way i can resolve this?

[saybo2]

I've got a similar project, and I'm using a perl script to compile other projects before it starts the InstallShield build, so I'm just letting the script edit the .ism file (I have it saved as .xml) doing a search & replace before kicking off the InstallShield build.

If you find a way to do it within InstallShield, I'd love to hear about it because I'd rather not do it with the script.

[RobertDickau]

Please search these forums for "shortcut formatted" for further discussion of the issue; one example is [thread=171394]this thread[/thread].

(If instead you want to modify a shortcut's properties at build time, and not run time, there's the Automation interface, about which see the InstallShield help library.)

[meenapanchu]

You can add CA of install script and do it
I will have it as a last solution, but i think i should be much simpler than what you do