The new suite project option looks great. I already see many issues this will solve and complex implementations which can be greatly simplified. However, I want to be sure certain expected functionality is still available. For example, I figure this must be in there somewhere, but I didn't see how to do this:
If I silently call one of the sub-packages I'm installing, I'd like the suite's overall progress dialog to reflect that the installation is still making progress with small movements (rather than sit still for several minutes and then take a big jump when we move to the next install package or exe in the suite).
MSI Packages will update progress directly. EXE packages do not have a way to tell the suite anything, so there can not be any useful information. Given that limitation, what would you prefer to see in the following scenario? Say you're installing the second of three packages. Would you want to see:[LIST=1]
I see the dilemma. I had planned to switch to using mainly MSI packages eventually, and have been initially testing out the suite with exe projects, so it's good to hear that this is already handled for the MSI case.
To answer your question though, how about an optional setting for exe packages such as "Expected Installation time" (in total seconds)? If this is left blank, keep the current behavior. If a value is entered, the progress bar would use it to increment progress under the assumption that portion of the install will take that amount of time. If it runs longer, progress should probably stop and wait at the max of the range allocated for that exe, and just jump to the next range if the package installs more quickly than expected.
Thanks; I've added a note to my list of enhancements about this. Times are a little squirrely, though, as different machines have different characteristics. Faster processors or faster storage can tremendously change the installation time of some common redistributables. (Of course in the extreme cases, it might go too fast to worry about a progress bar!)
I am running into this issue on IS 2013 and was wondering it there are any new suggestions/features that overcome this issue.
Specifically, I am using the Suite Installer to download and install one Installscript EXE package. I can use the ISParcelProgress to display the download progress and that works fine. However, I haven't found anything that will inform the users of the installation progress. At the least it would be nice have a full looping progress bar so at least there's some activity on the installation dialog.
