MSI AND EXE CREATION for WINDOWS98?

hi all ,
1) is it possible to create an exe in windows98 with isntmsi.exe ?
2) the isntmsi.exe download the Dolphin library page what is it for?

if the answer of my first question is yes,  what  must  i do?
tia


                Marcelo Diaz Cortez

Marcelo,

> 1) is it possible to create an exe in windows98 with isntmsi.exe ?
> 2) the isntmsi.exe download the Dolphin library page what is it for?
>
> if the answer of my first question is yes,  what  must  i do?

The instmsi program only installs an application on a client machine, it
does not allow you to create distributables yourself.

The following was posted by Andy Bower and explains it far better than I
can...

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Posted by Andy Bower on 17 November 2000

The Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI) is a package that you install on you
client computers. Win2000/ME come with it pre-installed and there ae updates
for Win95/98. Once enables the MSI handles all the intricacies of installing
applications that make use of it.

Obviously, one needs to tell it what to install. This is done by creating a
database file (with .MSI extension) that contains all of the information
(and the DLLs etc) required by the installer to set up your app on the
target computer. The database includes registry settings and other stuff
too.

So with MSI it is no longer necessary to create a setup program per se (e.g.
SETUP.EXE). Instead, the process is data driven and what you, as software
developer provide, is the database file (SETUP.MSI).

So, the question then is, "How do I create this MSI database thingy?". Well,
there are a number of proprietary solutions by the big setup program
sellers, InstallShield and Wise. However, they tend to be very expensive
(personally, I baulk at paying $999 for my install builder when my
development tool costs arounf a quarter of that). Another is available as
part of Visual Studio (Visual Studio Installer). But of course you have to
be a paid up Visual Studio user to make use of it. The latter is the route
we've taken for the Dolphoin 4.0 installs, BTW.

An alternative would be to use the Microsoft supplied API to build te MSI
database. This is quite a complex beasty (all install stuff seems to need
myriads of options) but using Dolphin to to call this API would mean that
you could write an Install *Builder* for Dolphin (or any other Dolphin based
app) in Dolphin.

If you're interested, see the "Reference" section on the following page:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/psdk/msi/wiport_6gf9.htm

Best regards,

Andy Bower
Dolphin Support

Just out of the curiosity, how many people would be interested in purchasing
simplistic installer (with functionality similar for instance to the
ClickTeam installer (used by Ian for the goodies)), that would be able to
create MSI files, for some small amount of money (like 15-25$)?


Davorin Rusevljan

Davorin,

> Just out of the curiosity, how many people would be interested in
purchasing
> simplistic installer (with functionality similar for instance to the
> ClickTeam installer (used by Ian for the goodies)), that would be able to
> create MSI files, for some small amount of money (like 15-25$)?

At that price I'd probably have a dabble. I've actually got a prototype
package working to replace the goodies installer you mention above (using
Dolphin STB technology) but I'd prefer a simple and cheap MSI package.

Ian

Davorin Rusevljan <[hidden email]> wrote in message
news:99kn0a$aorp$[hidden email]...
> Just out of the curiosity, how many people would be interested in
purchasing
> simplistic installer (with functionality similar for instance to the
> ClickTeam installer (used by Ian for the goodies)), that would be able to
> create MSI files, for some small amount of money (like 15-25$)?

Yes, I think that would be very tempting at that price.  The ClickTeam
installer fell just slightly short of my needs though, no way to specify an
external program icon.  I think there is a need for a good inexpensive
installation program.  I had a nice little installation program called PC
Install that was reasonably priced and did most of what I wanted.  The only
problem was that Symantec bought the company and killed the product.  It
worked well except for some strange quirks that will now never be fixed
thanks to Symantec.

Chris

Davorin,

> Just out of the curiosity, how many people would be interested in
purchasing
> simplistic installer (with functionality similar for instance to the
> ClickTeam installer (used by Ian for the goodies)), that would be able to
> create MSI files, for some small amount of money (like 15-25$)?

First, some comments assuming you haven't "done it yet".  This has a
slightly rough tone to it - please understand that it's not directed at you.

The price sounds great, but, is there such a thing as a cheap MSI tool?  I
didn't understand the high price tags on the existing products until I
started creating some MSI files; it leaves one wanting to be compenstated
(well) for the injustice done by the documentation and general complexity of
the process.

A good tool should probably be able to do at least the following (this might
be more than what you have in mind for a $25 tool; if you have all of this,
then you probably should charge more like $250):

(1) merge msm files
(2) generate msm and msi files.
(3) allow compressed or uncompressed sources
(4) for compressed sources, build the cab file
(5) transparently handle sequence numbers
(6) self-register components (even though MS doesn't like it)
(7) create registry entries
(8) create shortcuts
(9) protect the user from versioning mistakes (product/package IDs)
(10) make sense of upgrades, OR give assurance that a "reinstall" always
works
(11) support always/conditional/never overwrite files on a per-file basis.

IMHO, the problem is that the Windows Installer is too complicated -
needlessly so, and to the point of being dangerous.  It was, among other
things, answers to questions related to (11) that lead to my running in the
other direction.

My approach to installers has been to keep them safe at the cost of their
maybe being a little annoying.  I have one runtimes installer and a
catch-all app that pretty much everything else uses.  The runtimes installer
gets updated for each version of Dolphin, the app installer usually works as
is with simply being rebuilt with the latest build of the app.  Other
installers build on that, so one ends up running usually three executables
(VM, generic tools, the real app).

Building all of that stuff into one installer for each of the "real" apps
would be a big hassle, and no doubt lead to problems, so I subject users to
the layered installers.  I saw MSM/MSI files as a way to get a single
installer for each app, but, quickly got the impression that it would not be
reliable.  If I'm going to create separate MSI files, then I see no reason
to part company with my copy of Wise 5.0.

With that said, if you have something that meets your needs and are
considering cleaning it up for release, then I'd encourage you to do so as
it would probably serve others too.  Depending on the feature set and/or
workarounds that you can support, I might buy it myself.

Have a good one,

Bill

--
Wilhelm K. Schwab, Ph.D.
[hidden email]