possible to use 'answer file"?

[cduke]

I have a customer who would like to use an "answer file" similar to the feature within windows installer. Is this possible to do?

[Darryl]

Re: possible to use 'answer file"?

I'm not very familiar with "answer files" in general as Setup Factory doesn't use them, however if your intention is to make the install automated to a certain extent, then I believe it is possible to a certain extent, however may depend upon what exactly you are needing to pass.

For example, you could create an INI file that is read at the beginning of the installation that reads a bunch of values into variables that are used throughout the install.

With a little more information, I may be able to provide more information on the design.

[cduke]

Re: possible to use 'answer file"?

Yes, similar to an answer file. Each installation has several prompts. In addition to the standard where to install, etc, one prompt is "what is the email address of the help desk", another is "what server to connect to". One customer expects to install the software 500 times, which means that somebody has to type in this SAME information 500 times. Rather than compiling a special installer for them, is it possible for them to have an "answer file" type of implementation?

[Darryl]

Re: possible to use 'answer file"?

No, I'm sorry, the answer file feature is not available, therefore it would be required to compile a special install for them in that case. The framework would need to be setup in order to accomplish those results.

[csd214]

Re: possible to use 'answer file"?

I have maybe not understood the issue? But I can’t see why it should be impossible to put all the prompt answers in an INI file. The INI file has to be installed manually. You can then have one single Setup.exe: At startup check for the existence of the INI file, or you can use a command line argument like “ INI” to perform the test. If the INI file has all the answers, you can skip the prompt screens. I have used this method with success. (I prefer to use the hyphen as a command line argument prefix to distinguish the arguments from the standard SUF arguments with the slash.)