1. Mastering Installation Management: The Ultimate Guide to Effective Installer Control

Table of Contents

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Installer Controls

A list of controls that can be used on a installer dialog.

Static Text

Displays static text.

Edit Box

Regular edit field for string or integer. If you use the Password flag you will create an edit control for entering passwords. If the “Default Value” field is empty, the default edit control’s value will be set to the value of the property defined in the “Property Name” field.

Push Button

Displays a basic push button. For a push button you can set the “Elevation Shield” flag which will add the UAC icon on the button on Windows Vista or above. This is recommended for buttons that trigger actions which need administrative privileges (for example the “Install” button).

Image Button

Displays a push button that uses images to display its state.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

Command Link Button

Command links have a clean, transparent appearance making them suitable in many situations. These buttons can be used when you have to provide a long explanatory description of the action it does. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface page.

Check Box

A two-state check box. The check box is used to establish one of two possible states (checked and unchecked). The check box’s property will be empty until the check box is checked (the property’s value is set to the value specified in the “Value” field). Use the “Selected” attribute to set the checkbox’s initial state.

For a check box control you can set the “Push Like” flag which will transform it into a button with two states: pressed and unpressed.

Image Check-Box

Displays a check box that uses images to display its state.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

Radio Button Group

Host for a group of radio buttons. This control has the “Push Like” flag which allows you to transform the radio buttons it contains into push buttons with two states (pressed and unpressed). Also, you can set the “Has Border” flag which removes the radio button group’s grey background and shows its border and the “Text” field’s value (by default “RadioButtonGroup”).

The value of the radio button group’s property will be set to the selected radio button’s value.

Radio Button

Displays a basic radio button. A group of radio buttons enables the user to select a string or integer value for a property from a predetermined list of values.

This control cannot be placed outside a Radio Button Group

Group Box

The control displays a rectangle, possibly with caption text, that serves to group other controls together on the dialog box.

Path Edit

This control displays an edit field that enables a user to select the end section of a path. It supports entering the selected folder name or the entire path in the edit field. A user can also enter a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to a drive that has no drive letter. If the user enters an invalid end segment for the present volume, Path Edit control cannot transfer the focus to the next control.

Masked Edit

An edit field with a mask in the text field. The masked edit can receive only a digit where “#” is used and a digit or a character where “?” is used. In the “Text” field from the “Properties” pane, you can set your own custom format for the data entered in the masked edit box.

Scrollable Edit Box

Displays an RTF text. A common use for this control is displaying the license agreement.

Icon

Displays a static picture of an icon.

Image

The control displays a static .JPEG, .JPG or .BMP picture file.

By enabling the Enhanced User Interface you can also display animated .GIF or transparent .PNG files. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

Horizontal Line

Displays a horizontal line.

Vertical Line

Displays a vertical line.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

Combo Box

The control displays a drop-down list of predefined values and an edit field into which the user can enter a value. In order to set the combo box’s values, you can double-click it or from the context menu select Control Data Dialog and add your values. The final value of the combo box (the one that is showed in the combo’s edit field) will be stored in the property specified in the “Property Name” field from the “Properties” pane.

List Box

The control is a regular list box that enables the user to make a single selection from a list of predetermined values. These values can be set by double-clicking the control or by selecting from the context menu the Control Data Dialog and adding them. The final value of the list box will be stored in the property specified in the “Property Name” field from the “Properties” pane.

The “Sort By Index” flag allows you to sort the values in the list box by their index or alphabetically.

List View

The control that displays a single column of values with an icon next to each item. It enables the user to select a single string or integer value for a property from a predetermined list. These values can be set by double-clicking the control or by selecting from the context menu the Control Data Dialog and adding them. The final value of the list view will be stored in the property specified in the “Property Name” field from “Properties” pane.

Check List

The control is a regular list box with check-boxes, that enables the user to make a multiple selection from a list of predetermined values. These values can be set by double-clicking by double-clicking the control or by selecting from the context menu the Control Data Dialog and adding them. When multiple items are selected, their comma separated values will be stored in the property specified in the “Property Name” field from the “Properties” pane. You can customize the separator token to be used for multiple selected values.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

Directory List

This control displays a part of the path that is currently displayed in the Path Edit control. The Directory List control displays the folders below the directory currently displayed by the Directory Combo control. This control is usually used in a “Browse” dialog (you can see an example in the “BrowseDlg” dialog under “FolderDlg”).

Volume Cost List

The Volume CostList control presents information about the cost associated with the selection on the different volumes. The control shows all the volumes involved in the current installation plus all volumes that are of the types specified in the attribute bits. If the required disk space exceeds the amount available on some drive, the volume is highlighted in the table. Clicking a column header sorts the volumes according to the chosen column.

Directory Combo

This control displays a part of the path that is currently displayed in the Path Edit control. It does not show the last segment of the path, that segment is displayed by the Directory List control. For this control you can set the flags RemovableVolume, FixedVolume, RemoteVolume, CDROMVolume, RAMDiskVolume, and FloppyVolume according to your needs.

This control must use the same property used by the Path Edit control.

Volume Select Combo

The control enables the user to select a volume from an alphabetical list of volumes. The types of volumes displayed in the list are specified using bits associated with RemovableVolume, FixedVolume, RemoteVolume, CDROMVolume, RAMDiskVolume, and FloppyVolume control attributes.

Selection Tree

This control enables a user to change the selection state of features listed in the Feature table. The control is associated with a string valued property that the user can set by a Browse dialog.

Quick Selection Tree

The Quick Selection Tree is an improvement to the simple Selection Tree. The regular Selection Tree control offers a drop-down menu for each feature where you select whether that feature will or will not be installed. The Quick Selection Tree control replaces the drop-down menu with checkboxes.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

Quick Selection List

The Quick Selection List is a feature selection control just like the Selection Tree or Quick Selection Tree. In addition to its siblings, this control brings the possibility to prepend an icon to each listed feature.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

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Prerequisite Selector

The Prerequisite Selector displays the feature-based prerequisites states. It also allows the user to select which prerequisite to install.

Prerequisites are displayed together with additional information like: required versions, versions found on target computer and action that will be performed.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

Progress

A bar that changes its length as it receives progress messages. If you set the “Progress 95” flag then the bar is drawn as a series of small rectangles in Microsoft Windows 95 style.

This control requires a “Display installation progress”subscribed event with the “Progress” attribute.

Styled Progress

A styled bar that changes its length as it receives progress messages.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

Billboard Host

This control displays commonly used billboard controls.

The following controls can be placed on a billboard host control:

Static Text
Scrollable Text
Line
Group Box
Icon
Image

Billboard host controls are most typically associated with progress actions. For details, please check the Using Billboards tutorial.

You can add only one billboard host control on a dialog.

Adding a Billboard Host control

Use the [New Control ] toolbar button or the Toolbox.

The billboard host control is not actually visible on the dialog. It displays some “views” referred to as billboards that will contain the billboard controls. When the billboard host is added to the dialog it contains a view.

As billboards most common use is to display images or text during a long operation, the billboard host control is automatically subscribed to the SetProgress Event.

To switch among the billboards of the billboard host, select them in the “Billboards” list from the Properties pane.

Adding a new billboard to the project

Select the billboard host control on the dialog and from the context menu choose the “Edit Billboards” option. TheBillboards will be displayed allowing you to create a new billboard or edit an existing one.

Hyperlink

The Hyperlink control displays an HTML link to an address, which opens in the default browser for the computer.

The link label is specified by the “Text” control atrribute. To have only part of the label act as a link, you should mark the link part using the anchor HTML tags - and.

HTML Host

The HTML Host control displays an HTML page from a given URL or a local file. The associated HTML page can be static or dynamic by using JavaScript (embedded or external).

For more information about using the HTML Host control and its APIs read this article .

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface .

Tab Host

The Tab Host control includes a list of child dialogs. The child dialogs’ titles represent the tab’s name in the control, whereas each dialog’s content will be displayed when the user selects its corresponding tab.

With this control the user can choose to navigate to the dialog’s tab inside the Tab Host control, only if he wants to customize its associated settings.

The tabs content and visibility inside the Tab Host control can be defined and conditioned from the “Child Dialogs” Dialog . This dialog can be accesed from the Tab Host control’s “Child Dialogs…” context menu or by double clicking it in the dialog editor.

Adding this control will automatically enable the Enhanced User Interface. You can read more about it in the Enhanced User Interface article.

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1. Mastering Installation Management: The Ultimate Guide to Effective Installer Control