A few suggestions

[orkos]

Hello,

SF5 is the best installation tool I know, but
there are a few things I still miss or we liked more in SF4 :

1) SF5 is faster in removing files from an installation than SF4, but in many other parts it is much slower especially if you have many files. So the display of every file in the status bar is nice, but it slows
the whole procedure really down. (It would be nice to choose if you want to have that display or not in a default screen)

2) The thing I'm missing most is a possibilty
to use wildcards for files or to add not files but folders to an installation project.
The file properties could be handled like multiple file properties.

3) Your red marking of missing files is nice, but you can't sort the files that way and so if you have more than 1000 files and you have to search through your whole project for missing files it's a lot of work (especially if it's ok that files are
missing and you have to delete every file from the project). We prefered the automatic deletion from SF4.
But a possibility to sort the files that way would be also ok.

4) What I also miss since SF4, is the possibility to lock the installation directory, so that the user only can choose the installation drive.
Our software needs a fixed directory.
It would be okay if I could change a variable just before installation (For Example : %AppDir%=%AppDrv%\ORKOS).
Yes, I could use %AppDrv%\ORKOS instead %AppDir% for every file in the installation, but if you have over 1000 files with many different directories, it would be hard work, to change the destination directory for every file you add to the installation.

5) It would be nice to be able to change a few defaults :

- The file already exists option. We want as default the 'Always overwrite option' and so we have to set that option for every file you add (yes I know the multiple file option, but you have to set that also every time)

6) OK, that's not easy to explain :
If you select the first file of an installation project you set the behaviour of SF regarding the destination directory.
If you choose a file in d:\Indigo, this sets this directory as the default destination directory for %AppDir%. If you select than a file in that directory tree, it uses the former default directory to build the destination directory for that file.
The difference between SF4 and SF5 is, that SF4 used the first file you've selected, as you've started a project, for the
destination directory logic. SF5 uses the first file you choose every time you load a project.
In SF4 you have a problem with that behaviour if you want to add files from a totally different directory tree. SF4 sets the destination for all files that aren't in the directory tree of the first file to %Appdir%.
With SF5 you can change the default directory from session to session. That's great, if you want to add files from a totally different directory tree, but is a pain if you don't want to change the original default directory, because you have to insert a file from the original directory (d:\Indigo) or all other files that
you add from that tree will have the wrong destination directory.
A solution would be that SF5 uses the default directory from the last session, but there is an option that you can reset that directory, so that you can add than files from a whole other directory tree
with a working default directory for that tree.

OK, that's all.

[OTSER]

orkos wrote:

"Our software needs a fixed directory."

May I ask why? No offense, but isn't this a bad programming practice?

Regards, Otser.

[orkos]

Originally posted by OTSER:
orkos wrote:

"Our software needs a fixed directory."

May I ask why? No offense, but isn't this a bad programming practice?

Regards, Otser.

Yes, you are right, but it isn't easy for us to change that problem with the fixed directory.We are only a very small company and there are more important issues we have to solve day for day. And because none of our customers seems to be annoyed by that restriction, we haven't changed it till today.