Installing the application


The first thing Inno Setup does when the setup executable is run is present a dialog asking the user if they want to install the application ( Figure 9 ). Some developers like this because it gives the user a chance to bail out if they mistakenly ran SETUP.EXE when they meant to run something else. Other people find this dialog redundant or even annoying. If you don ‚ t want your users to see this dialog you can turn it off by adding DisableStartupPrompt=Yes to the Setup section of the install script. (This is now the default value in Inno Setup version 4.0.) There is really no penalty for omitting this dialog because user can always cancel the setup from any of the other steps in the installation process anyway.


Figure 9. This dialog can be turned off by adding DisableStartupPrompt=Yes to the Setup section of the script.

Welcome screen

The first screen the user sees at installation time is the Welcome page ( Figure 10 ), which identifies the application being installed and gives the standard recommendation that the user close all other applications before proceeding. This page of the setup wizard is always shown.


Figure 10. The Welcome page identifies the application being installed. The image shown is the bitmap specified as the WizardImageFile in Listing 3.

What follows the Welcome page depends in part on the entries in the setup script. Some of the pages the user sees next are always displayed, while others are optional and are displayed only if you included certain things in the script.

License agreement

The License Agreement page shown in Figure 11 is displayed only if you specified a license file in your script. If a license agreement is included in the script, the user cannot install the application without accepting the agreement because the ‚Next ‚ button in the setup wizard is disabled until the user selects the ‚I accept the agreement ‚ radio button.


Figure 11. If a license agreement is included, the user cannot install the application without accepting it.

Information before install

If your script specifies an InfoBeforeFile, that file is shown next ( Figure 12 ). This is where you remind users of anything they need to do or verify before proceeding with the installation. An example would be reminding the user to be sure nobody else is running the application, in the case of a file server install.


Figure 12. Use the InfoBeforeFile to tell the user anything you want them to know before installing the application.

Destination directory

The Select Destination Directory page illustrated in Figure 13 is where the user specifies the directory where they want to install the application. The default directory name shown on this page is the directory you specified with the DefaultDirName directive in the Setup section of the script. If you do not want the user to have a choice about where to install the application, you can add DisableDirPage=Yes to the Setup section and the default directory name will always be used.


Figure 13. The user can select the destination directory for the application.

Start menu folder

The Select Start Menu Folder page of the Setup Wizard, illustrated in Figure 14 , allows the user to specify where they want the application ‚ s shortcuts to be located. This page displays only if there is an entry in the Icons section of the setup script. The default value displayed on this page is the DefaultGroupName value specified in the Setup section of the script, which is ‚“DeployFox\AppendixD ‚½ in our example.


Figure 14. Shortcuts are created in the Start Menu folder specified on this page of the Setup Wizard.

Additional tasks

If any additional tasks were specified in the Tasks section of the setup script, the Setup Wizard displays the Select Additional Tasks page as shown in Figure 15 . Among the uses for this page are to give the user the option to create a desktop shortcut for the application.

The creation of a desktop icon, which is specified in the Icons section of the sc


Figure 15. The user can choose whether or not to create a desktop icon.
ript, is made optional by tying it to a task specified in the Tasks section of the script. You can see this in the script we first looked at in Figure 1: note that the entry for the desktop icon in the Icons section contains the string ‚“Tasks: desktopicon, ‚½ which ties it to the task named ‚“desktopicon ‚½ in the Tasks section.

Ready to install

The final step in the Setup Wizard prior to actually installing the application is the Ready To Install page ( Figure 16 ). This page gives the user the chance to confirm the choices they made in the preceding steps before actually installing the application. This page is always displayed by default, but can be suppressed by adding DisableReadyPage=Yes to the Setup section of the script.


Figure 16. The ‚Ready To Install ‚ page displays the choices made in the preceding steps and gives the user the chance to confirm them before actually installing the application.

The Ready To Install page is the user ‚ s last chance to cancel the installation. Clicking the Install button from this page starts the actual installation process.

During the installation process, Inno Setup displays a progress indicator along with a description for each step in the install process as it is happening.

Information after install

If you specified an InfoAfterFile in your script, that file is shown as soon as the actual installation process is finished ( Figure 17 ). There are many ways to use this page of the installer. For example, this is good place to tell the user anything else you want them to know before using your application, to thank them for choosing your product, to mention other products you think they might be interested in, and to encourage them to visit your website for more information.


Figure 17. Use the InfoAfterFile to tell the user anything else you want them know after installation but before the setup wizard terminates.

Setup completed

The Inno Setup Wizard displays a progress indicator as the installation proceeds. When the actual installation is complete, it presents the Setup Completed page. As you can see from Figure 18 , this page can be constructed to enable the user to launch the application and/or to view the ReadMe file after installation is finished. The Setup Completed page can be disabled by including DisableFinishedPage=Yes to the Setup section of the script.


Figure 18. The last page can be configured to allow the user to view the ReadMe file and/or to automatically launch the application when setup is finished.

Silent installs

The Inno Setup executable accepts command line parameters you can use to perform a silent install and to control other aspects of the installation. The ability to use command line parameters is particularly valuable to network administrators, who can use them to override default values in the setup script and customize how an installation is performed.

Among the command line parameters available are those to perform a silent install or even a very silent install. A silent install is performed by specifying the /SILENT parameter on the SETUP.EXE command line. A silent install suppresses the display of the Setup Wizard pages (and the background, if one was specified), but still shows the installation progress indicator.

A very silent install is like a silent install except it also suppresses display of the installation progress indicator. A very silent install is performed by specifying the /VERYSILENT parameter on the SETUP.EXE command line.

During a silent or a very silent install, it may be necessary to change certain information that could normally be changed on one of the Setup Wizard pages. For example, you might want to do a silent install, but override the default destination directory and/or the start menu folder. Inno Setup provides command line parameters for these purposes too. The /DIR="x:\ dirname " command line parameter tells the installer to install the application to a specific drive and path rather than to the one specified by DefaultDirName in the script. Similarly, the /GROUP="folder name" command line parameter tells the installer to create the application ‚ s shortcuts in the folder specified by the parameter.

There are other command line parameters available as well. A complete list and description for each one can be found in the Inno Setup Help file.




Deploying Visual FoxPro Solutions
Deploying Visual FoxPro Solutions
ISBN: 1930919328
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 232

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