"Michael Hoehne" <mhoehne@mhsw.de> wrote in message
news:uk%23FpK%23mEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Hi, hope this is the correct newsgroup for this question. If not, please
> point me to a better one.
>
> I have created a custom installer action that I use in my Visual Studio
> Setup and deployment project. When called, it checks for the existence of
> MSDE 2000. If MSDE is found, the user should be prompted if he wants to
> continue with the installation or not. When he chooses to continue, the
> application will be installed but some features will be disabled. If he
> chooses not to install, the installation should be canceled.
>
> The check for MSDE is done in the OnBeforeInstall method of the custom
> action. I expected that this method is called "before" any installation
> actions are done. I understand that in order to run my custom action, the
> installer needs to unpack the dependent files, but what really happens is
> the following:
>
> The installer displays the welcome screen, prompts for the installation
> folder and copies "all" files from the msi package to the installation
> folder. I'm not sure if it also registers components, but that would not
> be
> an issue, if I can hook into the installer, before the files are copied. I
> want to let the user decide if he wants to install before the installation
> starts. Is this possible?
>
> The second question is about signaling that the user wants to cancel the
> installation. Right now I'm throwing an InstallException. While this will
> lead to a rollback, I get two error messages that I would like to suppress
> or customize. The first displays the message "An exception occurred in the
> OnBeforeInstall event handler of <assemblyname>. -> <message>", where
> assemblyname is the name of my custom action and message is the message
> text
> I used when throwing the InstallException. After clicking Ok, a second
> message box is displayed, saying "An exception occurred during the
> Rollback
> phase of the installation. ... -> The savedState dictionary does not
> contain
> the expected values and might have been corrupted". After pressing Ok
> again,
> the installation is rolled back.
>
> Is there a better way to cancel the installation than throwing an
> InstallException?
>
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> Michael
>
>
>
>
>

thanks for your answer. I did some installations with ZeroG before and wrote

> Unfortunately "OnBeforeInstall" means before calling the Install method in
> the custom action, not before the entire install. I think it's actually
> called out of the Install method before it does anything. All Visual
Studio
> custom actions are called pretty much after everything has been copied to
> the system and installed so that your files, registration etc are in place
> for your code to work. The install is actually closer to the completion
than
> the start. (InstallShield, Wise, ActiveInstall, ZeroG etcare in the
business
> of tools that let you take advanatage of more of what MSI can do,
including
> custom actions and user-defined dialogs in the initial UI sequence. See
> http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/authoring.htm )
>
> You could think about doing a Search Target Machine for MSDE (because that
> takes place early in the install) and that would set a property, then you
> could add a VS checkboxes dialog, and use another property from that
> checkbox as a condition on the feature you want to install (I don't think
> you mean literally feature because there is only one feature in VS setups,
> DefaultFeature). The cancel would then take place in the UI before any
of
> your code even runs, and you wouldn't even need an Installer class. The
> Checkboxes dialog has a Cancel button on it already, that might be much
more
> convenient.
> --
> Phil Wilson
> [MVP Windows Installer]
> Definitive Guide to Windows Installer
>
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590592972/104-7044380-4696760
>
> "Michael Hoehne" <mhoehne@mhsw.de> wrote in message
> news:uk%23FpK%23mEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> > Hi, hope this is the correct newsgroup for this question. If not, please
> > point me to a better one.
> >
> > I have created a custom installer action that I use in my Visual Studio
> > Setup and deployment project. When called, it checks for the existence
of
> > MSDE 2000. If MSDE is found, the user should be prompted if he wants to
> > continue with the installation or not. When he chooses to continue, the
> > application will be installed but some features will be disabled. If he
> > chooses not to install, the installation should be canceled.
> >
> > The check for MSDE is done in the OnBeforeInstall method of the custom
> > action. I expected that this method is called "before" any installation
> > actions are done. I understand that in order to run my custom action,
the
> > installer needs to unpack the dependent files, but what really happens
is
> > the following:
> >
> > The installer displays the welcome screen, prompts for the installation
> > folder and copies "all" files from the msi package to the installation
> > folder. I'm not sure if it also registers components, but that would not
> > be
> > an issue, if I can hook into the installer, before the files are copied.
I
> > want to let the user decide if he wants to install before the
installation
> > starts. Is this possible?
> >
> > The second question is about signaling that the user wants to cancel the
> > installation. Right now I'm throwing an InstallException. While this
will
> > lead to a rollback, I get two error messages that I would like to
suppress
> > or customize. The first displays the message "An exception occurred in
the
> > OnBeforeInstall event handler of <assemblyname>. -> <message>", where
> > assemblyname is the name of my custom action and message is the message
> > text
> > I used when throwing the InstallException. After clicking Ok, a second
> > message box is displayed, saying "An exception occurred during the
> > Rollback
> > phase of the installation. ... -> The savedState dictionary does not
> > contain
> > the expected values and might have been corrupted". After pressing Ok
> > again,
> > the installation is rolled back.
> >
> > Is there a better way to cancel the installation than throwing an
> > InstallException?
> >
> >
> > Thanks for your help!
> >
> > Michael
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

> Phil,
>
> thanks for your answer. I did some installations with ZeroG before and
> wrote
> custom actions for it as well, so I expected the MSI custom actions to
> work
> the same.
> I will see if I can do a search for MSDE with the Search Target Machine
> approach. As far as I can see I will end up using a different installer in
> the future, but for now it may be sufficient to go with MSI again.
>
> Thanks
> Michael
>
> "Phil Wilson" <pdjwilson@nospam.cox.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:enrJpjAnEHA.2372@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> Unfortunately "OnBeforeInstall" means before calling the Install method
>> in
>> the custom action, not before the entire install. I think it's actually
>> called out of the Install method before it does anything. All Visual
> Studio
>> custom actions are called pretty much after everything has been copied to
>> the system and installed so that your files, registration etc are in
>> place
>> for your code to work. The install is actually closer to the completion
> than
>> the start. (InstallShield, Wise, ActiveInstall, ZeroG etcare in the
> business
>> of tools that let you take advanatage of more of what MSI can do,
> including
>> custom actions and user-defined dialogs in the initial UI sequence. See
>> http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/authoring.htm )
>>
>> You could think about doing a Search Target Machine for MSDE (because
>> that
>> takes place early in the install) and that would set a property, then you
>> could add a VS checkboxes dialog, and use another property from that
>> checkbox as a condition on the feature you want to install (I don't think
>> you mean literally feature because there is only one feature in VS
>> setups,
>> DefaultFeature). The cancel would then take place in the UI before any
> of
>> your code even runs, and you wouldn't even need an Installer class. The
>> Checkboxes dialog has a Cancel button on it already, that might be much
> more
>> convenient.
>> --
>> Phil Wilson
>> [MVP Windows Installer]
>> Definitive Guide to Windows Installer
>>
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590592972/104-7044380-4696760
>>
>> "Michael Hoehne" <mhoehne@mhsw.de> wrote in message
>> news:uk%23FpK%23mEHA.1296@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
>> > Hi, hope this is the correct newsgroup for this question. If not,
>> > please
>> > point me to a better one.
>> >
>> > I have created a custom installer action that I use in my Visual Studio
>> > Setup and deployment project. When called, it checks for the existence
> of
>> > MSDE 2000. If MSDE is found, the user should be prompted if he wants to
>> > continue with the installation or not. When he chooses to continue, the
>> > application will be installed but some features will be disabled. If he
>> > chooses not to install, the installation should be canceled.
>> >
>> > The check for MSDE is done in the OnBeforeInstall method of the custom
>> > action. I expected that this method is called "before" any installation
>> > actions are done. I understand that in order to run my custom action,
> the
>> > installer needs to unpack the dependent files, but what really happens
> is
>> > the following:
>> >
>> > The installer displays the welcome screen, prompts for the installation
>> > folder and copies "all" files from the msi package to the installation
>> > folder. I'm not sure if it also registers components, but that would
>> > not
>> > be
>> > an issue, if I can hook into the installer, before the files are
>> > copied.
> I
>> > want to let the user decide if he wants to install before the
> installation
>> > starts. Is this possible?
>> >
>> > The second question is about signaling that the user wants to cancel
>> > the
>> > installation. Right now I'm throwing an InstallException. While this
> will
>> > lead to a rollback, I get two error messages that I would like to
> suppress
>> > or customize. The first displays the message "An exception occurred in
> the
>> > OnBeforeInstall event handler of <assemblyname>. -> <message>", where
>> > assemblyname is the name of my custom action and message is the message
>> > text
>> > I used when throwing the InstallException. After clicking Ok, a second
>> > message box is displayed, saying "An exception occurred during the
>> > Rollback
>> > phase of the installation. ... -> The savedState dictionary does not
>> > contain
>> > the expected values and might have been corrupted". After pressing Ok
>> > again,
>> > the installation is rolled back.
>> >
>> > Is there a better way to cancel the installation than throwing an
>> > InstallException?
>> >
>> >
>> > Thanks for your help!
>> >
>> > Michael
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>