Re: Customize user prompts in Setup project?

Could someone please tell me how exactly how to do this, i.e. read values
from the .ini file with the .msi file, for use in the custom action?  I
don't need user prompts.  Would those values be in Setup.ini, or a
seperate Settings.ini?

Stephen


On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 15:06:43 -0400, Philip Sayers
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I suspect that the easiest & quickest for you would be to use .ini files
>and have the admins at each site change the files before they run the
>install.  Your custom action then can not even prompt for the values,
>but just read them form the .ini file.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms to build apps
>and controls [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
>Gray, Lee P.
>Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 2:59 PM
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in Setup project?
>
>Valid points, and may be worthwhile down the road, but that's starting
>to
>get into overkill for the size of this project.
>
>It's not a matter of trusting the user, it's a matter of inconveniencing
>the
>local admins who'll be installing the apps (myself included).
>
>For one of these apps, there are three dialogs of textboxes to fill out
>for
>the install with various server and database names that get written to
>the
>app.config.  This information will rarely change at a given site, but is
>different for each site.  So one admin will use this installer multiple
>times now and down the road, and shouldn't need to reenter all that info
>over and over (this is ignoring automated package pushing for the
>moment).
>
>What I may end up doing is simply saving multiple app.config files for
>each
>site and creating a custom action that *copies* the appropriate
>pre-generated app.config file rather than writing it on the fly at Setup
>time.  Then I can prompt the installer guy for his site name which will
>be
>associated with his particular .config file.  Then at least if a site's
>information changes, they can just edit their local app.config file and
>not
>be bothered with many more prompts during install.
>
>Dang... And I thought it was so cool that I finally figured out how to
>write
>the file during setup!
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms to
>> build apps and controls
>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
>> Philip Sayers
>> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 1:49 PM
>> To: [email protected]
>> Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in
>> Setup project?
>>
>>
>> If you know this info ahead of time, you could make your
>> custominstall action go out to a database or webservice to
>> discover the values for the install based on a user specified
>> location from a dropdown list...
>>
>> At some point you have to trust the user to know where their
>> office is, what their job title is...etc....i'm fully aware
>> that we run into people who don't know this stuff, so maybe
>> put a utility in your app where the user can change their
>> location that will re-write the config file settings...or is
>> there a way to validate the users' settings before you write
>> the config file...e.g try to ping a server name,  or connect
>> to a specified database with the given username/password?
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms to
>> build apps and controls
>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gray, Lee P.
>> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 2:39 PM
>> To: [email protected]
>> Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in
>> Setup project?
>>
>> I've got the setup project working great.  It asks for values
>> and populates app.config with no problem.
>>
>> What I want to do now is have default values show up in those
>> textboxes, but the default values are different for multiple
>> sites where I will distribute the app, therefore I don't want
>> to compile those defaults into the MSI.
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms to build
>> > apps and controls [mailto:[email protected]] On
>> > Behalf Of Philip Sayers
>> > Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 1:35 PM
>> > To: [email protected]
>> > Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in
>> > Setup project?
>> >
>> >
>> > You mean things like customactions for the SetupProject
>> > Where you add a UI item with say 2 textboxes, then use the user
>> > specified values in a .config file?
>> >
>> > Or do you mean how to set those same values using the MST files?
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms to build
>> > apps and controls [mailto:[email protected]] On
>> > Behalf Of Greg Robinson
>> > Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 2:33 PM
>> > To: [email protected]
>> > Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in
>> > Setup project?
>> >
>> > Can anyone point me to a site that shows me how to do what
>> he is doing
>> > with his set up, prompt the user for input, using the VS Setup
>> > project?
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms to build
>> > apps and controls [mailto:[email protected]]On
>> > Behalf Of Philip Sayers
>> > Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 2:30 PM
>> > To: [email protected]
>> > Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in Setup
>> > project?
>> >
>> >
>> > I suspect that you specify the MST file in the parameters
>> for the MSI
>> > file.
>> >
>> > Start here [1]
>> > Somewhere there is a tool to enable you to 'view' the MSI package's
>> > internal installation database & tables.  A good keyword to
>> search on
>> > is 'Orca'.  Essentially you create a main package that has
>> everything
>> > in it, then the transforms allow/disallow certain features.
>> >
>> > I think [2] should cover most of what you need.
>> >
>> > [1]
>> > http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-
>> > us/msi/set
>> > up/about_transforms.asp
>> >
>> > [2]
>> > http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-
>> > us/msi/set
>> > up/windows_installer_reference.asp
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms to build
>> > apps and controls [mailto:[email protected]] On
>> > Behalf Of Gray, Lee P.
>> > Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 1:48 PM
>> > To: [email protected]
>> > Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in Setup
>> > project?
>> >
>> > I can't figure out how to get the MSI to accept my custom
>> parameters.
>> >
>> > Transform files sound like exactly what I'm looking for.
>> Is it just a
>> > text file?  We don't have Office 2003; can you point me to some
>> > examples?
>> >
>> > (I just did a bunch of Googling and found a ton of info,
>> but no actual
>> > examples.)
>> >
>> > Thanks!
>> > Lee
>> >
>> > > -----Original Message-----
>> > > From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms
>> to build
>> > > apps and controls [mailto:[email protected]] On
>> > > Behalf Of Philip Sayers
>> > > Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 12:16 PM
>> > > To: [email protected]
>> > > Subject: Re: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in Setup
>> > > project?
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > I'm pretty sure you can do it with command line switches
>> if you run
>> > > the msi file from a command prompt or batch file.
>> > >
>> > > Also, you should look into .MST files.  They are transform
>> > files that
>> > > work with a MSI file.  If I remember correctly, you can
>> use them to
>> > > store installation options. For example.
>> > >
>> > > If you have MS Office 2003 source files on your network, you can
>> > > create several MST files that will install different sets
>> > of options
>> > > for different groups of people..
>> > >
>> > > e.g
>> > > an MST for our finance dept indicates that the user get
>> > Word, Excel,
>> > > Outlook and Access installed. For your IT dept it
>> indicates a full
>> > > install For our receptionists/secretaries it indicates MS
>> Word, and
>> > > outlook.
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > -----Original Message-----
>> > > From: Discussion forum for developers using Windows Forms
>> to build
>> > > apps and controls [mailto:[email protected]] On
>> > > Behalf Of Gray, Lee P.
>> > > Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 2:11 PM
>> > > To: [email protected]
>> > > Subject: [DOTNET-WINFORMS] Customize user prompts in
>> Setup project?
>> > >
>> > > I've got a Windows Forms app that's going to be installed
>> > at multiple
>> > > company sites.  I've created a Setup project with Visual
>> > Studio.  One
>> > > of the Setup dialog boxes prompts for site-specific info
>> > (server name,
>> > > database name, etc.), which my Installer class then writes to
>> > > app.config.
>> > >
>> > > Without creating multiple .MSI files, is there any way to
>> > populate the
>> > > dialog box's text fields with default values?  I know I
>> can specify
>> > > default values within the Setup project, but I don't want
>> > to compile a
>> > > separate .MSI for each site.  I was hoping there was a way
>> > to have the
>> > > .MSI file read a pre-configured .INI file or something similar.
>> > >
>> > > Thanks,
>> > > Lee
>> > >
>> >
>>