I'm new at the InstallShield 2009 package and i have started my first project last week. Now I have some problems and I do not know what to do.
Before my program is installed another program should be installed with a silent installation. These files are in the supportdir folder. I have an configuration file for the silent setup but i do not know how to start the setup file in my project?
It should happen when the user clicks on the Install button but my files should be copied when the installation of the other programm has finished.
Is it possible to convert a basic msi project to an installscript project or can I write an installscript in the basic msi project to wait for the third party setup finished installing?
I have seen a possibility to launch a exe file in custom actions. Is that a way to solve my problem?
We don't use msi projects for our applications, so I am not familiar with it. However when I looked in the help for Launch an Executable, you will need to create a custom action. Check out the help file, it would seem to be fairly straight forward.
Does the other installation use Windows Installer? If so, you will be somewhat limited in how you can do that, because you can't run two MSI executable sequences at the same time.
Some options you might want to look at: 1. Install the other program as a prerequisite.
2. Chain the two installations (I don't use this, but I believe it only works with Windows Installer 4.5.)
3. If you don't have to support silent installations for your product, you can install the other product with a custom action at the very end of the UI sequence (just before ExecuteAction), although this is against Best Practices. (Silent installations skip the UI sequence, so this won't work for you if you have to support silent installations for your product.)
If the other installation does not use Windows Installer, you can install it with a custom action in the execute sequence of your MSI.
