Step 1: Creating, Building, and Testing Your Project
InstallShield 2009 » Basic MSI Tutorial » Step 1
This step demonstrates how to create an installation project, build a release image, and test the installation program. After completing this step, you will know how to:
- Use the Project Assistant to create a new project.
- Specify global properties of your installation project.
- Define features, components, and file links.
- Build a release image for duplication and distribution.
- Run your installation program from within InstallShield.
Basic MSI Installation Building Blocks
A Basic MSI installation program is made up of two levels:
Levels Within a Basic MSI Installation
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Level
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Description
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Components
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A component is the smallest separately installable piece of your product from the developer’s viewpoint. A component contains files, shortcuts, registry data, and other data to be installed on the target system. The end user never directly interacts with components.
A component can be placed in more than one feature, and the component’s data will be installed if the user selects at least one feature associated with the component.
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Features
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A feature is the smallest separately installable piece of your product, from the end user’s viewpoint. If the end user selects the Custom setup type during the installation, a dialog with which the user can choose which features to install is displayed.
Each feature contains components.
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Tutorial Files
The installation program you will create in this tutorial installs and configures an application called Tutorial App. The source files for Tutorial App are located in one of the Samples subfolders within the InstallShield Program Files folder. The default installation location is C:\Program Files\InstallShield\2009\Samples\WindowsInstaller\Tutorial Project.
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