Applying a Transform to a Setup.exe installer

[slipitinterry]

If I create an installer which requires InstallScript -- whether it's a Basic MSI project or a Standard Project -- and I want to be able to apply transforms to this installer, how would I do that?

I'm thinking that if I create a setup.exe installer, which wraps the MSI, then this will prevent the installation from having transforms applied to it. Is this correct?

How can this setup.exe be used with a transform?

There are so many variations and there is so little documentation on how InstallShield Developer/DevStudio installs interact with Transforms. All the InstallShield Press books that I've read are pretty sparse when it comes to transforms, too. Is there any detailed explanations of using transforms, creating them, and what are the caveats to using them?

Thanks.
--Terry

[DavidLock]

A transform can only be applied to an MSI at installation time. If you have a setup.exe wrapping an MSI then you could pass a command line to the MSI to apply the transform. For example, "TRANSFORMS=mytramsform.mst"

You can either pass the command line from the releases view or by specifying it in the INI file created in the release folder.

[slipitinterry]

Thanks for the reply. That's all easy enough, but how about ths situation:

I didn't create the installer. I've purchased a product from a software vendor, and I want to add some of my own resources, by using a template.

I can't change anything with the way setup.exe calls msiexec and launches the installer at design time. Everything I do has to be at runtime.

If I'm using a setup.exe, along with an embedded MSI, can something be done to apply a transform to this package?

Do I need to ship an MSI that isn't wrapped into a single setup.exe? How will that work if the setup.exe is needed to install the InstallScript engine beforehand?

Thanks.
--Terry

[DavidLock]

Well a setup.exe wrapping an MSI generated by Installshield will let you pass in any arguments you want to the MSI with the /v switch.
So;
setup /v"TRANSFORMS=mygreattransform.mst"

Maybe try that out. If not what about extracting the MSI from the original setup.exe, by running the install and grabbing out of the temp folder. Then transform at will.

[slipitinterry]

Thanks again.

I'm just looking for the easiest way to tell our customers how they can add their own resources to our installer, so that they can be distributed across an enterprise network.

I was initially planning just a Basic MSI project that would create a single MSI file for the install. However, I've found a requirement that means I need to use some InstallScript, which means that I'll need to wrrap the MSI with a setup.exe, or at least provide the ISScript.msi.

Do you know if the new InstallShield Press book will be useful in helping me make the right decisions here?

Thanks.
--Terry

[DavidLock]

If you need to use installscript within a basic MSI as a custom action then I believe you can use the isscript merge module rather than first installing the runtime engine. Not something I have tried myself but I am told it works.

It is better to use a basic MSI rather than an installscript one.

[slipitinterry]

Aha! Excellent. I completely missed that option in the list of merge modules.

Thanks. The comments for the module actually refer to my specific problem, and that adding this merge module is the soution.

--Terry