Adding Files to Components

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Summary

Steps on how to add files to a Component in a Basic MSI Project.

Synopsis

You can add a group of files to a component only if they satisfy all of the following criteria:
? All files have the same destination folder.
? All files should be installed with the same conditions (including operating system and language).
Create new components organized around your files? installation needs and component properties. You should also be aware of Setup Best Practices when adding files to a component. Setup Best Practices helps you to write clean installations and distribute reusable components effectively.

**All of the files in a component must share the same component settings.

Discussion

Methods for Adding Files to Components
The way in which you add files to a component varies slightly depending on how you create your component. The sections below discuss how to associate files with components based on the way in which the component was created.

Creating a New Component in InstallShield
When you create a component by right-clicking in the Setup Design view (for installation projects) or the Components view, first select the component?s Files item to view its file list.

Use one of the following methods to associate files with this component:
? Drag and drop files from Windows Explorer onto the file list.
? Right-click in the file list and click Add. In the resulting dialog box, browse to select as many files as you want to add from that folder. Click Open.

Creating a New Component Using the Component Wizard
If you use the Component Wizard to create a component, you can add files to the component in the Files panel.

Use one of the following methods to associate files with this component:
? Drag and drop files from Windows Explorer onto the file list.
? Right-click in the file list and click Add. In the resulting dialog box, browse to select as many files as you want to add from that folder. Click Open.

InstallShield creates links to your application?s files. These links are used to locate the files when you build a release of your installation. If any of these links becomes invalid, File Not Found appears next to the file.
All of the above methods for adding files link the files statically, which means that the file links do not change if new files are added to or removed from the source folder. For an alternative to static linking, see Adding Dynamic File Links to Components.

Additional Information

See Also
Setup Best Practices