Application Packaging using InstallShield

Santhosh J
Aug 2010

Agenda
 Introduction  Application packaging concepts  Types of installers
Legacy installers Basic MSI installers Installscript MSI installers

 InstallShield - Overview  InstallScript - Basics  Custom Dialogs  Extending InstallShield functionalities with external DLLs  Upgrade installer using InstallShield  Patch installer using InstallShield

Agenda (Continued)
 Silent install  Merge modules & Transforms - Overview  InstallShield best practices  Debugging  Support tools  Summary

Introduction
 Application packaging is the process of creating installation kits for applications.  Most programs are supplied in the form of a condensed file. In order to use, they must be unpacked and the information are furnished into the system accordingly.  Common operations performed by an installer:
Files and folders Windows registry entries Configuration files Environment variables Links or shortcuts

Introduction (Continued)
 Why we need an installer?
Simple for end-users Easy file management Fewer manual steps to be performed Better administration Can be used with distribution mechanisms like Tivoli, SMS, Marimba etc.

Application packaging concepts

 The term application packaging may be referred to many contexts
Setup installers
When application is set up in the machine for the first time, from the scratch

Upgrade installers
When an installed application is upgraded to a newer version

Patch installers/Hot fixes

When certain files in the application is updated, without updating the version of the product

Types of installation packages

 Legacy Setup.exe installer
Traditional installer, which is a self extracting exe Depends upon the tool (look and feel are changed according to the creating tool, like InstallShield, Wise installer etc.) Uses the runtime engine provided by respective products

 Windows MSI installer (aka Basic MSI installer)

MSI files are not executable files MSI files are binary databases in a compressed format Windows installer service msiexec.exe is the runtime engine Stringent guidelines Widely used as industrial standard

 InstallScript MSI installer

Provided by InstallShield Hybrid type which has the capability of both InstallShield engine and Windows installer engine Liberal guidelines Widely used as industrial standard, though next to Basic MSI installer

What is different in them?

Legacy

Basic MSI Windows Installer Yes Low Yes Yes

Runtime engine Self healing Flexibility Windows Logo certification Portability

InstallShield No Very high No No

InstallScript MSI Windows installer supported by InstallScript Yes High Yes Limited

InstallShield-Overview

Why InstallShield?
 Powerful IDE  MSI Direct editor  Setup debugger  Easy configurations  Simple and easily understandable scripting language  Supplies enough templates to create basic setups Saves time  Efficient support systems  Wider community groups

Editions of InstallShield

InstallShield Project types

 InstallShield supports a wide range of project types according to various scenarios faced by day to day application packaging process.
Basic MSI Installers Setup Installers Universal Installers Web Installers Merge Modules Quick Patches Smart Device Setups Transforms

InstallShield Project Types

 InstallScript project
The run-time user interface is rendered and its flow controlled by InstallScript The changes that are made to the target operating system are done through InstallScript engine This does not have any reliance on Windows Installer. Using InstallScript as the installation driver has many benefits.
Simpler event model. Custom functionalities can be created by writing separate functions. InstallScript projects have literally no limitations. It offers a wide range of standard controls along with the ability to add custom dialog controls. Dialog messaging in the script enables you to have complete control over how your end-user dialogs behave.

 Basic MSI Project

A Basic MSI project uses Windows Installer as its engine Basic MSI projects have the ability to run InstallScript code in the form of custom actions, though the type of InstallScript code and the number of functions that can be run are limited.

InstallShield Project Types

 InstallScript MSI
InstallScript MSI project uses both InstallScript and Windows Installer tables. The InstallScript MSI project type uses InstallScript to control the installation and Windows Installer to handle core functions. It is designed for installations requiring a highly customized user interface. User interface is rendered and its flow controlled by InstallScript, while the changes that are made to the target operating system are done through Microsoft's Windows Installer service. The model that this project type follows is sometimes referred to as an External User Interface (UI) model, because it does not use the Windows Installer's native UI rendering capabilities. This type of setup is also known as the script-driven model, because InstallScript acts as a driver to the Windows Installer setup.

InstallShield Project Types

 Merge modules
Merge modules are pluggable modules. It is not executable

 Quick Patch
Recommended for installation authors who want updates to their end users. QuickPatch authoring provides an alternative to creating a patch configuration in the Patch Design view even though it provides less customization.

 Transforms
A transform (.mst file) is a simplified Windows Installer database that contains the differences between two MSI databases. Transforms enable an administrator to apply modified settings to a database when deploying an installation package.

InstallShield event flow

Installation Maintenance

How to display dialogs?

 InstallShield provides a variety of built-in dialogs which are commonly used in installers  This includes:
Welcome dialog Customer information Setup type Destination directory Finish dialog Ask Yes or No Message box etc

 Let us see how these functions are used

System variables in InstallShield

 InstallShield provides many ready-to-use variables which may be needed by an installer developer
How to find current operating system? How to find current screen resolution? How to find the location of program files? What service pack of windows is currently installed?

 Apart from the kind of question seen above, there are situations where we need some of the InstallShield specific information
Support folder Install directory Source disk Source directory Uninstall string

(See more on next slide

More system variables

         

FOLDER_DESKTOP FOLDER_PROGRAMS FOLDER_STARTMENU FOLDER_STARTUP MEDIA MODE PRODUCT_GUID PROGRAMFILES SELECTED_LANGUAGE SHELL_OBJECT_FOLDER

 SRCDIR  SRCDISK  SUPPORTDIR  TARGETDIR  TARGETDISK  UNINSTALL_STRING  WINDIR  WINDISK  WINSYSDIR

String manipulation functions

             GetDir GetDisk NumToStr StrToNum ParsePath StrCompare StrFind StrGetTokens StrLength StrLengthChars StrRemoveLastSlash StrSub StrToLower, StrToUpper