Using command line parameters to select prerequisites to be installed (for silent install)

[SDutt]

Hello,

In my installer project, I have some prerequisites to be installed before the main package.
These prerequisites show up in the PrerequisitesDlg during installation, where they can be checked or unchecked.

But for a silent install, for example, if the command line is:
"MyApp.exe" /exenoui /qn /norestart MY_PROP1="false"

where MY_PROP1 represents some other property, how do I add parameters to select a particular prerequisite, say if the prerequisite name is PreReq1?

Thanks in advance,
SDutt

[Catalin]

Hello SDutt,

Normally, this should be achieved via the "/prereqs" argument, but we have a small bug here that we will fix in a future version of Advanced Installer.

Until a fix will be available, we can use the "Condition" field associated with your pre-install prerequisites (in the "Prerequisites" page, under the "Installation" tab).

Screenshot_88.png (2.99 KiB) Viewed 5585 times

And then, from the command line, you could launch the EXE as it follows:

Code: Select all

setup.exe /exenoui /qn MY_PROP="1"

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Catalin

[SDutt]

Hello Catalin,

If I have multiple such prerequisites, how do I associate a different property with each of them?

For example, if I have PreReq1 and PreReq2, and I want to install only PreReq2 and not PreReq1. In that case, I would need different properties to be associated with each such prerequisite.

Thanks again,
SDutt

[Catalin]

Hello SDutt,

We can set as many properties as we want, so this approach works for all prerequisites.

We can have, for example, PREREQ_1, PREREQ_2 and so on.

Do you want to only cover silent installations here? Because if not, we might have some issues during a full UI installation as these properties have to be set in order for the prerequisites to be installed.

What the above means is that, during a full UI installation, besides the selection dialog that is presented to the user, we would need to set these properties ourselves - via a "Set property" custom action.

Best regards,
Catalin

[SDutt]

Hello Catalin,

Yes, we need both options, a full UI as well as a silent install.

For the full UI, I believe just checking/ unchecking the prerequisites in the PrerequisitesDlg would handle this. Is a property required here too?

Thank you,
SDutt

[Catalin]

Hello SDutt,

For the full UI, I believe just checking/ unchecking the prerequisites in the PrerequisitesDlg would handle this. Is a property required here too?

Here, it is not enough to just check the prerequisite because the condition check is evaluated before the selection dialog is even displayed.

A possible solution would be to use a SetProperty custom action, added without sequence (so we can schedule it on a dialog) and then added as an "Init Event" on "PreparePrereqDlg" dialog.

Screenshot_90.png (110.24 KiB) Viewed 5542 times

This event will only be executed when the setup runs with full UI, otherwise it will be skipped during a silent installation since no dialogs are spawned at all.

Please note that this is a workaround only until we fix the boostrapper's "/prereqs" argument.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,
Catalin

[Catalin]

Hello SDutt,

This has been fixed in version 23.5.1 of Advanced Installer.

Best regards,
Catalin