Application Installer

[evilvoice]

Ok, im working on creating an AMS5.0 based Application installer...it will be a lot like xplode but with some differences...mainly I am doing this for myself, but I have no problem uploading a completed version for other people to edit. The ways it will differ from xplode is that xplode can be run at any time, this will only run from runonceex; it will not include a config file, everything is coded within the executable.

THIS IS NOT TO BE IN DIRECT COMPETITION WITH XPLODE...please dont write back to me or Wraith saying one or the other is better...in my opinion, xplode is far more superior than this will ever be. So please dont compare this to that...or any others for that matter.

This is in its infancy stage as right now I have only tested it installing applications. I will be working on it to include installing from both hard drive and cdrom/2nd cdrom. I am also looking into having some text display that tells what you are installing and changes as the installer finishes.

I have only begun to use AMS and dont know a whole lot about how to code things in it. I understand some stuff like the if...then and the actions. Mainly what I need help with is how to get it to find the cdrom drive. I see a whole bunch of ideas on how to get all the drives, or that type of thing, but nothing on how to tell it to look for a file on all drives and return with the correct drive letter. I can probably figure out how to get the text to first display and also to change when programs finish installing. Hopefully I can bust this into a single executable, but we will see. So if someone could help me out that knows some stuff about AMS, it would be greatly appreciated...and I will continue to update within this topic about progress on it and post some screenies when I get something more than just a background image...(this isnt going to include any buttons since its supposed to be unattended, but it looks pretty bland without the text on it )

Edited August 11, 2005 by evilvoice

[evilvoice]

Well, noone in the world wants to help me (AMS Support forums keeps either not letting me register or deleting my username...oh well, I found some things that they are either doing wrong in their scripts or dont know how to do, and I was gonna post my findings but my user was deleted by the webmaster, so thats fine...just makes me not want to help people), thats fine...I figured out most things on my own.

1. This has commands to first look on hard drive for file. If not found, then it searches cdrom (cdrom variable is read from HKLM\S\M\WNT\CV\SourcePath and then only the first 2 chars are read [string.Left]) for the moment, this will have to do *since im not getting any help* I may even include for downloading from a predefined website, which then all the code will change and itlll be replaced by getting the file from the download site and manipulating it.

2. I have found a way to resize the application windows to any screensize and the background autosizes with it. The text object is on top now(uses Paragraph object and some windows/paragraph set manipulation on both project and page actions).

3. The text box has nothing in it initially, but before the program finds the file, the textbox changes to installing whatever program its trying to find. I use what I think is a pretty font, though kind of hard to read...also, it is in upper left hand corner...not sure if this is its final place or not.

4. Found a function to killprocess, so I use that when I need to kill a process, not quite sure on if it will work the way I hope it does as there are some things about the instructions i didnt understand completely or things that were never explained...like when setting file.run to wait until program finishes, that means the script does not continue to the killprocess command until after the "install process" is no longer running, right? Oh well, after testing a few things im going to test in vmware and see what that does.

Can I at least get a suggestion on what folder, from cdroot to folder of app, I should place the files on cdrom...right now im using $OEM$\Applications\appname as an arbitrary place.

Now that I fixed the text issue, im going to work on adding my cleanup to this...see if I can get it to all run without the need for multiple files. Also, not 100% sure if this can run at anytime or not, but the original idea was to just have it run at runocneex.cmd...Will have to test that once everything else is done.

Edited August 12, 2005 by evilvoice

[evilvoice]

OK. This is finally nearing it final stage (as far as on my end)...I see nobody has any suggestions, thats fine. I decided to go with OEM folder with one level directories...meaning all apps are in OEM\Applications\Appname\App.exe...and so forth and so on. I am leaving the text where it is on the page and with the font I chose. I have included audio support (ogg only, no mp3, but allows for 14 ogg files all titled 01..14) so there is something to listen to while its installing. I should have a prototype and instructions tomorrow for anyone wanting to test for me...the more pc's it finds itself tested on, the more I will know about how it will act on all pc's.

More info coming later, right now, Im going back to finish up everything I want it to do...any suggestions are welcome.