Hi I am trying to set the INSTALLDIR property under General Information>Product Properties. I have currently set it like [ProgramFilesFolder][APPNAME].
APPNAME is a property that I set while build the installer using the "-z" option that ISsaBld.exe provides, something like IsSABld.exe -p %TEMP_DIR%\%PROJECT%.ism -r %RELEASE% -b %LOCAL_BUILD% -o %MERGEMODULELOC% -z "APPNAME=%APPNAME%" -z "COMPNAME=%COMPNAME%"
After the installer is built I see that the APPNAME gets set to whatever I pass but INSTALLDIR retains the value like [ProgramFilesFolder][APPNAME] and does not substitute [APPNAME] with the passed in value. Any ideas what is wrong here? Thx
Just an FYI for anyone who runs across something similar in future. What i described is not possible as IS does not honour it. The only workaround is to save you project in an XML format and modify it with a place holder before building it. Thx.
the capability is there. simply use a "Set a directory" custom action to initialize the [INSTALLDIR] value.
There are certain events when property/directory values are expanded. It is Msi logic that does the expansion. IS simply provides an interface into the Msi tables. When makers of an IDE start providing redundant means of doing the same thing, it becomes a maintenance issue and doesn't really provide any new functionality.
By creating a "Set a directory" CA, and setting the target, "[INSTALLDIR]", to "[ProgramFilesFolder][APPNAME]", the expansion happens during the assignment. Property names are NOT expanded during the build, only during runtime.
