Hi Bob et al, Sorry, I'm not clear on this at all. I'm struggling with network install concepts in general here, and perhaps I should outline what I am trying to achieve a bit more clearly.
The installation package for our product is currently created using InstallShield, for a traditional, non-MSI install. Using the Wix toolset, I am creating a Windows Installer version in order to facilitate automatic network installs from Windows a domain server, using Group Policy Objects. The Windows Installer version will supercede the InstallShield version for all clients. So far I have created an install package that a user would manually invoke to install the product on their machine. It goes through a typical set of dialogs, from accepting a licence agreement, then offering an installation choice of Typical, Custom or Complete. For the Custom option, it then offers the user various additional options. Ok, if an individual user wants to install our product on their computer, no problem. What I don't understand is how to set things up for a network install, whereby an administrator specifies a bunch of install options, which are then propagated to each client install. Given that no dialogs appear for a client install, how do you control what gets installed? Is there some default value for each button/checkbox that the user is not seeing!? Under the traditional InstallShield system, the administrator goes through the install process and it records the options that have been chosen in some kind of config file. This file is then invoked by individual users on their own machines to install the product according to the options chosen by the administrator. Does the Windows Installer system have something similar, whereby administrator-defined options can be propagated to all clients at install time? A important issue here is that we have a network version of our product which, if installed, means that client machines need to know certain central items of data, ie. IP addresses. How can such data be set up by an administrator such that it is available to a client machine when the product is installed. Regardin Bob's mention of the ADDLOCAL property, how does an adminstrator 'supply properties like ADDLOCAL to install particular (or all) features of a product'? I'm fumbling around in the dark here on this whole area of network installs, and would be most grateful for some clear guidance. Like I say, it's concepts I need to know about here, rather than technical specifics. Many, many thanks. Andrew Kendall ________________________________ From: Bob Arnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: Tuesday, 9 December, 2008 22:46:11 Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Network Install: How To Control What User Sees? Andrew Kendall wrote: > How does the Network Administrator control what gets installed on a client > machine, in terms of whether the user should see the dialogs or not? For a > network install, how is even something as simple as acceptance of a Licence > Agreement handled, when no dialog appears for the user? They generally don't: The admin accepts the EULA on the user's behalf, and supplies properties like ADDLOCAL to install particular (or all) features of a product. -- sig://boB http://joyofsetup.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SF.Net email is Sponsored by MIX09, March 18-20, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The future of the web can't happen without you. Join us at MIX09 to help pave the way to the Next Web now. Learn more and register at http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;208669438;13503038;i?http://2009.visitmix.com/ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SF.Net email is Sponsored by MIX09, March 18-20, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The future of the web can't happen without you. Join us at MIX09 to help pave the way to the Next Web now. Learn more and register at http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;208669438;13503038;i?http://2009.visitmix.com/ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
