Windows installation package Authoring Guide--advanced Installer use

1. Preface

The installation package for Windows was recently created, and it is said that the advanced installer is more powerful, and it is then taken to make the installation package. In the online small amount of information and the official website simple document groping forward, finally is the production of available installation package, in this record, for reference only.

Advanced Installer Version: Installer 11.0, the current version is 13.1, but very similar.

2. installation package Production

2.1 New Project

Because I want to be able to customize some of the installation interface, we choose Professinal version, language select Chinese, and then create the project:

2.2 Product Details

Fill in the basic information of the product, including name, version, company, etc.:

2.3 Installation Parameters

After filling out the product details, select the installation parameters on the left. We mainly look at the contents of the "Installation folder", "Application Folder" in the right panel: "[Programfilesfolder][manufacturer]\[productname]", which indicates the default installation path at installation:

[ProgramFilesFolder] represents C:\Program Files (x86)

[Manufacturer] represents the company name, which is the testcompany that is filled out in 2.2

[ProductName] denotes the product name, which is the testapp that is filled in 2.2

The installation path that is displayed by default is "C:\Program Files (x86) \testcompany\testapp".

2.4 Operating Environment

The digital signatures, updates, upgrades, and authorizations on the left are not the focus of the moment, skip first. Advanced Installer provides very good support for the operating environment and we can choose any environment we need. When the package is ready to be installed, the dependent environment is run automatically when you run the installation package:

2.5 Files and folders

The start condition and merge module on the left are not the focus for the moment, just skip it. Files and folders are our project files, you can choose to create new or add:

After the file is added, it might be like this:

2.6 dialog box

Since we want to be able to make dialog boxes ourselves, we need to switch to the development version. Click "Project", "Options", in the popup screen, select "Project Type", "Development version"

Suppose we want to add a new dialog after selecting the installation path, then right-click on the right-hand side of the Folderdlg and choose New dialog box:

Let's add two input controls to the dialog box, one of which is required, and the other to be optional. Note The property name on the right, which is the variable that must be followed to implement the required function:

So when does the input box have input to judge? It should be when the user clicks on "next". So select "Next" and follow the "Publish event" below:

We need to create a new event that has the function of: if the required field has no content, a dialog box pops up to prompt the user for input. To do this, click "New". In the new popup screen, select "Show specific sub-dialog", tick "show entire condition" and then fill "not Edit_1_drop" in the condition. Edit_1_drop This variable is the previously required input control, and the previous plus not means that if the input control is not filled in, the Child dialog box pops up.

Click "OK" to do so.

2.7 Registration Form

We have limited the required fields and optional items, but there are questions, the user fill in the content of where to save? Where can we read these variables?

This is where the registry comes in handy, and associating the user input to the corresponding variable in the registry is not done? This mechanism is precisely provided by advanced installer.

By selecting "Registry" on the left, we can see that the registry on the right has two variables, path and version, which are the installation paths and versions.

Then on the right side of the "[ProductName]" right click on the popup menu, click "New Value",

In the pop-up window, "name" fills in a name that you want to see in the registry, such as "Requiredvalue". Then click on "Properties" to select the name of the control in the previously customized dialog box (just us).

Create the following:

2.8 Custom Actions

　　Comb the next process, the user entered the input box content, click Next, the content is saved to the appropriate location in the registry. And then these variables have to be used, and one possible scenario is that, at the end of the installation, I want to execute a custom script that reads the variables from the registry and initializes the project files based on those variables.

Then executing the custom script requires the Advanced installer "custom action" to help, select the custom action on the left, and then click the New Custom Action Wizard on the menu bar:

Click "Next" in the pop-up panel and choose a different type depending on the script or file you want to execute:

Then click Next and choose according to the situation:

Then click the button to select the source file:

Then next, choose as needed, then next, complete. When you're done, you can select the necessary options in the right-hand interface, such as hiding a window, or running as an administrator.

2.9 Build and run

, click 1 to build the installation package, the directory is built by default in My Documents \advanced installer\projects\testapp\setup-setupfiles, where TestApp is the project name.

Click 2 to build and run the installation package, which is used to test whether this installation package is available.

3 Summary

Now we have a Windows 32-bit package that has a custom interface and can invoke a specific script. Advanced installer also provides a variety of powerful features, such as the ability to play x86\x64 hybrid package, etc., to be further explored.

Windows installation package Authoring Guide--advanced Installer use