Learning MSI projects with InstallShield

This 4-day course will teach you how to create Basic MSI projects — which use the Windows Installer service (MSI) for the installation's behavior and appearance — with InstallShield and not InstallScript MSI projects. 

Objective:
This course will provide you with a solid understanding of installation and MSI terminology, the typical tasks an installation program needs to perform, and the InstallShield development environment and associated tools. You will learn how to customize your installation with custom actions, to make any required changes to your end users' systems. Furthermore, you'll see how to correctly identify, install, and configure special types of files, such as COM servers, Windows services, and .NET assemblies. Finally, you will receive a thorough understanding of how to perform simple to sophisticated changes to your installation user interface.

It's more than a training class
In addition to classroom teaching, each attendee will receive a comprehensive training manual, labs, exercises, samples, and a course completion certificate. InstallShield Training courses provide a mixture of lecture and hands-on activities, with ample time for specific question and answer sessions with our expert instructors. We offer high-qu/ ]\4ality hardware, software, and presentation equipment. Training facilities have a comfortable learning environment allowing interaction between students and instructors.

Course Prerequisites
Previous InstallShield experience is not required. However, you should be comfortable with the following: Using Windows Explorer and the command prompt to create and manage files, and run executables. Basic Windows terminology, such as DLL, Control Panel, and so forth.

Later sections of the course assume familiarity with one of the following programming or scripting languages: VBScript, Visual Basic, C/C++.

Introduction: You'll begin by learning about the background and motivation for using the Windows Installer service, and how InstallShield fits in to the installation-development process. You'll also learn about the resources available as you work with InstallShield.

• About the Windows Installer service
• About Windows Installer Installation Package
• About Windows Installer Installation Mechanism
• About InstallShield
• Getting help

About Projects: The foundation of your installation program is an InstallShield project. In this section, you'll learn about general installation terminology and design issues, and how to create a project that reflects the design of your product.

• Installation terminology
• Using the Project Assistant
• Using the IDE
• Working with features and components
• Global product and project data
• Static file linking
• Dynamic file linking
• Working with destination folders
• Creating shortcuts
• Using merge modules

• Registry data
• INI files
• Environment variables
• File associations

Installing Special Files: For most types of files, the installer's only responsibility is to transfer the files. Some types of files, however, require additional registration or configuration information to be written to the target system. In this section, you'll learn how to install and configure the following types of files:

• COM servers
• Windows services
• Fonts
• NET Assemblies
• Creating merge modules
• Creating Configurable Merge Modules
• Condition syntax and examples
• Installation sequences
• Custom actions: action types and guidelines
• Editing MSI tables directly

• How MSI determines dialog order and conditions
• Working with control events
• Working with control conditions
• Creating new dialog boxes

Installing Files: The primary job of your installation program is to transfer files to the user's system. In this section, you'll learn about the different methods for adding files and folders to your installation project.

Building Releases: Before you can test your installation, you must build a set of disk images. In this section, you'll learn how to use the InstallShield graphical tools and command-line tools for building release images for CD-ROM, a network location, or for the web.

• Using the Release Wizard
• Media types
• Web installations
• Command-line builds
• Using the Automation interface
• Using the Standalone build system

• Running an installation
• Maintenance and uninstallation
• Using msiexec.exe
• Silent and reduced-UI installations
• Passing properties from the command line

Deploying an Installation: Windows Installer-based installations support several different installation modes. In this chapter, you will learn how to run an installation from Windows Explorer or from the command prompt, how to perform silent and limited-user interface installations, and how to pass information to the running installation from the command line.

• Subscription
• Required Dialog Boxes
• Localization
• Types of updates
• Creating minor upgrades
• Creating major upgrades
• QuickPatch(tm) projects
• General patch projects
• How to create transforms
• Direct MSI editing
• Using MSI Automation to modify a project