Alstom
6th February 2007 03:09 UTC

Recording of actions taken in installation
Hi,

I heard there is a way of recording all the actions taken in a installation in a file and use the file to do a silent installation.

How do we do that??

Example:

We change the installation directory in the installation and click some button in the installation, the file would be able to record down all the actions done in the installation.

We would be able to use the file to do a same installation again without the user performing the same tasks again.

This was possible with other installer, is it possible with NSIS???

Million Thanks if anyone could help!!!

Urgent!!!

Red Wine
6th February 2007 05:40 UTC

There is a NSIS special build that enables logging although I guess this is not what you're looking for,

http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Special_Builds

Alstom
6th February 2007 05:54 UTC

Dear Red Wine,

Thanks for ur help but how do i use the files?

I had downloaded the zip file. How do i use it to make a log of all the actions taken?

I'm using NSIS to install a few installation programs. I would wish to do a silent installation by skipping all the next button and setting the directory into the installation automatically. The installation is done by using other installer, therefore I am not able to edit the installation using NSIS.

The log file could be a great use to record all the action taken in the installation for NSIS installshield but could I do a log file for the other installation done by other install shield?

Million Thanks if anyone could offer some help!!

Red Wine
6th February 2007 06:17 UTC

I had downloaded the zip file. How do i use it to make a log of all the actions taken?

I'm using NSIS to install a few installation programs. I would wish to do a silent installation by skipping all the next button and setting the directory into the installation automatically. The installation is done by using other installer, therefore I am not able to edit the installation using NSIS.

Alstom
6th February 2007 09:29 UTC

I do not know of the coding of the other installation, therefore was not sure of the section name.

So I was not able to disable the button or skip the page.
Therfore, is there a way to record a log file for all the actions done in the other installation?

Backland
7th February 2007 14:23 UTC

You can most likely create your own custom system to dynamically configure your compiled NSIS setup using an external configuration file.

NSIS does not have support for creating such logs to run unattended installs, so you will need to log your actions yourself and create your configuration system accordingly so that it can determine what actions to perform based on values in the external config file.

Red Wine
7th February 2007 20:55 UTC

Originally posted by Backland
You can most likely create your own custom system to dynamically configure your compiled NSIS setup using an external configuration file.

NSIS does not have support for creating such logs to run unattended installs, so you will need to log your actions yourself and create your configuration system accordingly so that it can determine what actions to perform based on values in the external config file.

Backland
7th February 2007 21:54 UTC

I haven't needed to create an unattended silent install, but it would be a matter of setting up an external config INI file with sections for each installer page and other general settings... for example:

[InstFiles]
Dir=%PROGRAMFILES%\Test\
InstallVB=True
InstallDirectX=False

So if you code your installer to check these values and interpret them accordingly, you can configure your compiled installer like Alstom requested ;)

Red Wine
7th February 2007 22:01 UTC

Still I can't get it, do you mind to post a detailed example please?

CancerFace
7th February 2007 23:06 UTC

@Alstom
If I read you correctly, you are using NSIS to drive some 3rd party installers (some of which may be NSIS) that install several applications. What you are trying to do is get these 3rd party installers to run in an unattended mode so that you do not need to have any user interaction.

If yes, then you can find some useful information on the AppDeploy page. There are also several forums that have information for different software packages (such as the MSFN board with its Application Installs section).

It would be good to know what kind of installer you are dealing with every time. There is a nice tool called Universal Silent Switch Finder which parses an executable wrapper and will (most of the time) give you the type of installer that it drives, along with possible switches.

If however you have no information whatsoever on the type of the installer, you can try to use a scripting tool like AutoIt, which will push buttons, fill in values etc. and will generally deal with any GUI.

Hope this helps,
CF