Pre-Requisite to be checked but not included

[vijay_rb]

Hi,


I am building a InstallScript project for installing an .NET Desktop application.
The pre-requisite for this application is the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

I selected the pre-requisite "Application Data > Pre-requisites" screen in IS.
It was showing as 'Needs to be downloaded', so I downloaded and selected the checkbox corresponding to it.

This works fine, but the problem is we need a network image, so if I include the .Net Framework in the package (Single image exe) then the size is about 200+ Mb.

So now we want the below approach:
1. We do not want the pre-requisite to be bundled in the single image exe
1. But we want the installer to only detect the pre-requisite status.
that is if .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is installed on the target machine or not.
a) if it is not installed, then the installation will provide a web page url to download the pre-requisite, and will abort the installation .
b) if pre-requisite is installed, it will continue with the installation process.

Currently, when I click on 'properties' of the 'installed locally' .NET framework 3.5 SP1 pre-requisite, it shows a drop down with two options,
1. Download from the web
2. Include with media
selecting the first one does not exclude the .net framework file,
the size of the package is still 200+ Mb.

if I remove the pre-requisite checkbox itself, then the pre-requisite file is not included in the package.

How do I achieve this?


Thanks

[Lurean]

In addition to setting the property of the pre-requisite you also need to set the value correctly for "Installshield prerequisites location" on the setup.exe tab of the releases to indicate you want it to Download from the web or you can choose the Follow individual selections if you have other prerequisites that need to be included. I believe the default is to have this set to extract from setup.exe or copy from source media.

[vijay_rb]

Hi Lurean,

Thanks for the reply, but I am unable to find the settings you mention.
I am using the Installshield 2010 professional version 16.

as mentioned in my earlier post, I see a location column in the pre-requisite screen. which can be set in the properties of the pre-requisite.
The values are:
currently shows 'Installed Locally'
other two opitons from the drop down are
download from web
include in media.

both seem to not work.

EDIT:
I am using the installation designer tab mode.


Thanks

[Lurean]

The properties I am talking about are under the "Releases" view not the "Redistributables" view.

I use Basic MSI projects for the work I do, if you are using a different type then it may be located somewhere else.

[schmoli]

Here is a picture of the area:


You would want download or "follow individual selectors"... that will greatly shrink the size of your installer.

[vijay_rb]

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies,
but I couldn't get to any of them.

I looked at both the 'Releases' and 'Re-distributables' view, but could not find the options you mentioned.

I don't have access to the image from my office network, so did not have a look at it yet.


Regards

[MichaelU]

As a general comment towards the initial request: if you want to require but not provide a redistributable, you're better off using System Search and Launch Conditions or Error custom actions (or equivalent logic in an InstallScript installer). InstallShield Prerequisites are strongly geared towards actually installing the technology in question. However if you really want to handle things that way, you could write an executable that displays a message (for example "Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1 must be installed for Setup to continue. Setup will now exit.") and launch this instead of the redistributable. Then configure the prerequisite to exit without additional prompts on failure.

However I suspect the route Lurean has suggested will be better for your users, as they won't have to figure out where and how to acquire and install the .NET framework.