FirstBorn
9th July 2003 00:30 UTC

NSIS for VB6 Application
Hi Everyone,

Please be patient, I am a complete newbie to NSIS, and am looking to learn more about it... :)

Here's my question:

Visual Basic 6 has a Package and Deployment Wizard that I've been using exclusively since VB 6 came out. In the PDW, it collects all of the dependency files, etc., and then creates a setup package that will install all detected .dll's, .ocx's, the .exe file, etc... All of this is done by using the .vbp (visual basic project) file in the beginning of the wizard to compile the set up package.
The problem with the PDW is that I've had MAJOR ISSUES attempting to add a(n) EULA to the project to have the EU agree to the terms, or cancel before installing. That is how I found NSIS.

k, now, I've read the documentation to NSIS, and I've opened up NSIS and played around with it, and it seems to be a pretty powerful tool. Only one problem, I've never created a setup package with NSIS and don't know exactly how to create the specific script for what I need it to do. I guess you can say that I've grown quite used to PDW's "do it for you" type scripting. I definately would like to break out of this habit quite fast... :)

Are there any resources that I may use in giving me step by step instructions on how to create the script(s) for the install package to my VB Application using NSIS?

I'm hoping that I can get this setup package completed ASAP so that I may test it out. This NSIS tool seems quite promising and hope that it isn't too good to be true...

Thanks In Advance...

:)

FirstBorn

Joel
9th July 2003 00:37 UTC

First, Welcome to the Forums :D
Now:
1. See the examples that come with Nsis installation.
2. Visit the Nsis Web. There you'll find a lot of examples and scriptlets.

FirstBorn
9th July 2003 01:15 UTC

Hi Lobo Lunar,

Thanks for welcoming me... :)

I did open some of the example files (the .nsi scripts, if I'm not mistaken,) and got a little lost in the interpretation... I've been scrubbing through the documentation yesterday and today, as well, looking for anything that may help me understand what I need to do...

Since the PDW extracts all of the necessary files needed for the project, I'm assuming that I will have to use the PDW along with NSIS in order to collect the dependencies and then script it somewhere in the .nsi script, am I correct?

I guess my main confusion is where do I set the dependency files in the script, where do I call the EULA file, among a few other questions that I have (don't recall them currently, but I have them written down somewhere... just not in front of me right now... :) )

As I said previously, I'm completely new to NSIS, so please be patient... once I get it, there's no stopping me... :)
(If this does what I am hoping it can accomplish, I plan on converting my other projects' packaging scripts (from the PDW) to NSIS)

Thanks again...

:)

FirstBorn

Joost Verburg
9th July 2003 14:59 UTC

First of all, read the basic tutorial: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs/Chapter2.html#

For information about installing the VB6 runtime, see http://nsis.sourceforge.net/archive/....php?pageid=47

kichik
10th July 2003 13:28 UTC

There is no easy way to get NSIS to automatically add all of the files your project depends on. Unless PDW can export a nice list that you can somehow parse, even manually, you'd have to do it totally manually. Unfortunately, I have not seen any other that does this.

After you get the list, you should add them to your installer script just as the VB6 files have been added in the example Joost has linked to above.

As for the EULA, have a look at the LicenseData command. If you're using the MUI you should also insert a license page. Take a look at the MUI examples for that, they all have a license.

iceman_k
11th July 2003 21:37 UTC

Cube posted a script which is supposed to be able to convert VB Package Deployment Wizard generated setup.lst files to nsi files.
I have never tried it so I don't know if it works, however it can probably get you started. You can find the script here.
Good luck.

FirstBorn
15th July 2003 13:09 UTC

Thank you Everyone. I'm in the process of testing things out with the NSIS scripts and it seems to be working well... This NSIS Installation Program should be on Every VB Developer's PC... :)

Again, Thank You Everyone for your help!

:)

FirstBorn