Adding InstallShield Prerequisites, Merge Modules, and Objects to Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, and Web Projects

Two types of redistributables—merge modules and objects—must be associated with a feature in order to be installed. You can associate a single merge module or object with as many features or subfeatures as needed. If no features exist in your installation project when you attempt to add a merge module or object, the Create a New Feature dialog box opens, enabling you to create a feature. If you do not create a feature, these two types of redistributables cannot be added to your installation project.

When you add an InstallShield prerequisite to an InstallScript MSI project, you cannot associate it with one or more features.

When you add an InstallShield prerequisite to a Basic MSI or Web project, it is not associated with any feature by default, and it is called a setup prerequisite, since it is run before your main installation runs. If appropriate, you can associate an InstallShield prerequisite with one more features that are currently in your project.

To add an InstallShield prerequisite, merge module, or object to a Basic MSI, InstallScript MSI, or Web project:

In the View List under Application Data, click Redistributables.

To specify which types of redistributables should be displayed, select the appropriate option in the Object types to display list.

If you want merge modules that have been published to a repository to be displayed, right-click a redistributable and ensure that Show Merge Modules in Repository is enabled.

Select the check box in front of the redistributable that you want to add. If you select an object, the associated wizard opens to guide you through the customization process.

For a merge module or an object: In the Conditional Installation pane, select the check box for each feature that should contain this redistributable.

If you are working with a Basic MSI or Web project and you want to associate a prerequisite with a feature: In the Conditional Installation pane, select the check box for each feature that should contain this prerequisite. If you do not want to associate the prerequisite with a feature, leave the Install before feature selection check box selected. This check box is selected by default when you add an InstallShield prerequisite to a Basic MSI or Web project.

The right pane in the Redistributables view shows details about the merge module, object, or InstallShield prerequisite that is selected in the list of available redistributables. Review this details pane to find out information such as which files a redistributable installs. You can hide or show the details pane by clicking the Show Details or Hide Details link in the upper-right corner of this view.

If Needs to be downloaded is specified in the Location column for an InstallShield prerequisite that you added to your project, that InstallShield prerequisite is not installed on your computer. You can download the InstallShield prerequisite from the Internet to your computer if you would like to include it in your project. If you build a release without first downloading one or more required InstallShield prerequisites, and if you specify that the InstallShield prerequisites should be extracted from Setup.exe or copied from the source media (instead of being downloaded from the Web to the end user’s computer), one or more build errors may be generated. To eliminate the build errors, remove the InstallShield prerequisite from your project, download it to your computer, or change the InstallShield prerequisite location for the release to the download option; then rebuild the release.

Obtaining InstallShield Prerequisites and Objects

Note that some of the InstallShield prerequisites and objects are not installed with InstallShield. You may need to download them. For more information, see Obtaining Updates for InstallShield.

Also note that if you have an installation (for example, a Setup.exe file or an .msi package) that you want to launch during your installation, you can create your own custom InstallShield prerequisite, and then add that InstallShield prerequisite to your Basic MSI, ClickOnce, InstallScript MSI, and Web projects as needed. To learn how to create your own InstallShield prerequisite, see Defining InstallShield Prerequisites.