What type of project? I tried three type of project and the only one I managed to obtain the results I wanted was this one. It is more flexible and much easier to tune than installscripts (except if you feel you want to learn this special scripting language)

First view: The Project assistant

Pay attention that the the default directory of installation will be decide as: C:\Program Files\ A \ B \ A B

From what I understood you can specify software requirements if they are of some MSI package type. Concerning the operating system I think it is only for information as the installer will still work under any windows version.

At the very beginning your project contains only one “Feature”. You can create as much sub-features and sub-sub … features as you want. The interest for the installation is it enables a good structure for using installshield and also enables to ask the user for the Features he wants to install.

At The beginning this is the only folder present. You can either create a folder in the tree hierarchy and add files in it. or adding an existing folder (and its content by the same way)

For each shortcut you can specify standard locations and the icon to use. (N.B. It is not necessary to add the icon in the files to install.) InstallShield will automatically create one shortcut for each.exe file he will find. (Which in our case is quite annoying). It is easier to specify the shortcuts from the installation designer as you will see later

Enables to set up registry values just as if you were in regedit. Useful if you need to do some file associations (see notes).

The License text has to be under rtf format! It is not compulsory to include the file in the files to be installed Different options that you can choose to make appear as dialogs with the user in the interface during the installation. If you don’t find the one you want you can create one of your own as you will see later

This page enables to provides different languages both for the installer and the files to be installed. Each features you defined in the architecture will be displayed and you can specify languages available for each.

Will generate a single “setup.exe” file.Will generate cab file, web pages and their design to download the program (see next slide) Generate a set of files and folder to be copied on a CD, included the autorun when the CD will be put in the CD reader

Second view: The Installation Designer I will not go through all point but only through the most important ones in my opinion

You can create shortcuts and program group as you like in this frame For each shortcut you can specify its Display name (how it will appear) The target: you can see [INSTALLDIR], it is a “public” property defined in the project. It means that it can be modified and accessed by any action or dialog. The brackets are there to indicate that is the value of the property we are interested it. Otherwise it will be considered as the string “INSTALLDIR” The Icon : as I said previously you can choose the icon from anywhere on your computer or anywhere else as Installshield will include it anyway without copying the file explicitely The KeyName is only the way installshield refers to the shortcut definition internally

What to do with the environment variable at installation. It is more secure to let “set” in this field as it means it will create it if not existing and set its value otherwise What to do with the environment variable if it already exists. Most of the time it is replacing it. What to do when uninstalling. Do not be frightened by remove, as it will only remove what you did. Restoring the previous value if it existed before and deleting it otherwise. Enables you to choose if the environment variable should be set for the system or only for the user installing the program For the path, I have chosen the following properties On Install : Set Placement: Append (not replace!!!) In this way it will add the values at the end of the path and withdraw them if uninstalling. Restoring the old path.

There are three types of custom actions I used to create the installation of CCP4. -Launch Executable -Set Property -SetDirectory When Creating a launch executable action I suggest you to use the wizard which enables you to select the files you want to execute more easily. For example for the Tcl installer I indicated that the executable will be in the binary table (one table in which installshield store executable which are not necessarily installed) and then pointed the installer situated on the ftp server of ccp4. The action is then ready to execute the executable when you will ask for it This enables you to tell when to execute it in the sequence of the installation. It is not necessary to set it when creating actions A setProperty actions set a value to a property of your choice. There are other ways to set the variables but doing it with these actions is much clearer and cleaner. For example this one sets the value of the property TCLPATH to the default value of C:\ (N.B when stating it there not need to use [] as you are not accessing its value) A setDirectory enables you to give to a directory specified in the “Application Files” page a specific value. For example this will give the value chosen by the user (stored in the property SCRATCH) to the folder scratchfolder defined previously. The installation will then create the folder will the value specified.

The Installation sequence is divided into two. The user interface in which you can put any sequence of dialog with the user to be able to retrieve the information you need. For example does he/she wants to install TclTk if so install it otherwise asking him where it is installed etc… The Execute sequence will do the standard operations of copying files writing registery, environment variable and any custom action you want to be done after the dialogs.

Dialogs are separated into two parts. The first one contains every configuration to behaviour. Reaction to clicks on some parts, pressing buttons and so on. The second part is mainly setting up the display, putting buttons, texts, Directory search tools, etc… For each thing you add in the dialog you will be able to configure the behaviour. The behaviour of the button next for example is to Do some action (custom actions defined or predefined) and to open a new dialog. Each event has a condition, put 1 when it should always happen, but you can also rely on the value of some property. For example the installation of Tcl will be launched only if the user has selected the corresponding radio button. Its value is stored in a property called _TclInstall. (N.B. when specifying condition no need to use the []) Each “widget” has its configuration window in which you design its name, enable it or not, settings of postion and size but the most important is that each widget has its property associated. For example the three tools DirectoryList, pathEdit, DirectoryCombo are related to the same variable TCLPATH which is logic as their contents are indeed related. (NB the three always has to be all present on the page to make the directory selection works even if you set one or two of them invisible)

Advice - When setting up a dialog, always check that both next and back button are linked to something coherent to avoid crash when using them during installation.

Advice (2) - When using properties and environment variables be careful about typing mistakes as the error messages of installer when it crashes give no information at all. - When using a property whose value come from choosing directory no need to add \ to specify subdirectory (ex. [PATH]subpath)

That’s all Folks Hope it can help