cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
BobVilla
Level 6

Suite Project Prereqs

What I would like to do is create a prereq dialog for each of my features in my suite project. Is their any way to achieve something like this?
Labels (1)
0 Kudos
(3) Replies
MichaelU
Level 12 Flexeran
Level 12 Flexeran

What are you looking to do on the page for each prerequisite? Here's the possibilities that come to my mind:

  • Select (or unselect) them individually - possible using FEATURE[name].actionState
  • Configure them if selected - I think this is possible, by using page's Visible setting similarly
  • Show a different progress page during the installation of each prerequisite - not currently feasible
0 Kudos
BobVilla
Level 6

Here is what I am trying to do. Currently, I have 12 individual Basic MSI projects that install individual components of our product. Some of the components have to be installed on a server and some on a client. Each component has individual prereqs and customs dialogs. What I would like to do is have a single .exe that would allow the user to select which parts of the product to install, one by one checking for prereqs of each feature (some of which are other features) , gather user information for each feature, and install selected features. I am trying to accomplish this with a suite project but it appears that the dialogs and prereqs in my individual Basic MSI project are ignored when I try to install each of my features. So, I am rebuilding each of my custom dialogs inside of the suite project to pass the values through the command line to the Basic MSI .exe files but I don’t know how to build individual prereq pages for each of my suite features. The Basic MSI projects dynamically build the prereq pages but I can’t seem to find any information about setting prereqs inside of a suite project. Here is what I am looking for, for each feature:

Feature A – Framework 3.5 spk1 , Windows server 2003 or later

“” B – Framework 3.5 spk1

“” C – Framework 3.5 spk1

“” D – Feature H installed

“” E – Feature H installed

“” F – “”

“” G - none

“” H – Framework 3.5 spk1, XP pack 3 or later, Micro Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable

“” I – Feature H installed

“” J – “”

“” K – Feature H installed , Office 2010 or 2007 spk2 – Primary Interop Assemblies(Office 2007 PIA), Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System (version 3.0 Runtime), Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System (version 3.0 Runtime) Service Pack 1, Feature D installed if Outlook is installed

“” L – Feature H installed

Another thing I am having a bit of a problem with is that some of my Basic MSI projects have custom dialogs that are repeated for different features and some that are unique to the individual feature. Since the suite project doesn’t like to play with the dialogs with any other project type, I am rebuilding the custom dialogs in the suite project. Is there another way to pass the gathered user input, from the custom dialogs, to the Basic MSI projects other than through the command line? Since the Suite project type was created to run multiple exe/msi/msp files, I thought a streamline process to transfer data to those file types would be apparent. How do I go about setting up the Basic MSI projects to receive this data and use it in place of the existing Basic MSI custom dialogs? Is there a way to get the "Property Manager" to look for the "Value" from the command line? These variables that I am passing through the command line are just passed to a .dll file in the end. Can I just bypass the Basic MSI project all together? It’s too bad that you can’t use the suite project to point at other IS project types and have it pull in all the data and help integrate all the individual projects into one “suite” install.
0 Kudos
BobVilla
Level 6

Since the Basic MSI project type allows you to output the package as msi or exe , it doesn't matter to me which one I use. Which would be a preferred package type? Is the Suite project type what would suit me better to accomplish my single install or would another project type be better?

Thanks
0 Kudos