Two questions about SF7

[Tarantoga]

Hi everybody,

I'm trying out SF7 currently and have tow questions about it:

1. How can I detect if a program ist already installed? I see in some other setup tools that a message is displayed "Do you want to remove or repair?" Or something like that.
Can I do this with SF7 also?

2. I like my setup to check automatically if a newer version exists on my web server but found no settings to do this. Is this possible, and if yes how can I do this?

Thanks in advance for your help.

T.

[bnkrazy]

1) Yes, you will have to write the script that searches for a previous install (via registry keys, etc.) and then takes action to prompt the user (via normally hidden screens before the main install screens) to do whatever they want. The modify piece will probably be the hardest to script, as there is no automated way like with a MSI to make changes. The uninstall would be simple enough to call the uninstaller via a command line and then exit the setup.

2)Again, you can create a script to connect to your site and get the current version of the installer and compare it to the executing installer version and prompt the user to get the latest..yadda, yadda. The scripting capabilities in SF allow you to do pretty much anything you want. There are plenty of examples around here of talking to a web server.

The easiest way would be to have a constant in the setup package that tells what version of the installer is running and have a siimple text file on the server with a value of the most current installer version. Just download that text file (ini files are great for this too as SF can natively read these) and compare the versions...you can even automatically download the latest installer and run that if you want...it's all up to you.

[Tarantoga]

Hi Chris,

thanks for your reply.

I hoped it would be possible in an easier way. The way you described is nearly the same as I've done it with Wise Install Builder. My experiences are that one can make a lot of "human errors" with all these scriptings, so I hoped there would be a way to do this a little more automatically.

T.