Advanced install options...

[Tom WP]

I am using the labview application installer (LabVIEW 7) to compile and
distribute our products, however our latest application requires information
to be added to the registry in an intellegent fashion. I understand 7 uses
MSI files and i can edit these to perform the functions i want however i do
not want to have to edit the MSI file LabVIEW creates each time i recompile
the application. Does anyone know a way around this or how i could add
items to the registry using only the labVIEW install program. Perhaps
someone has developed an MSI developing VI....

[JRA]

Here's one option. Build a second VI which makes these registry changes. Built this into an executable also. You can make other executables execute after your installer has run and you could make this registry-modifying executable run at that point. This way, the Run-Time Engine should already be installed and so your registry executable would be able to run.

[Tom WP]

Cheers for the suggestion. Problem is we are creating lots of modules, each
which write different values to the registry, this would mean compiling a
new program for each module. The aim is to add the data to the MSI file the
installer creates.

After thinking about the problem i realised the application builder is just
a VI, so therefore NI must have already developed VIs to edit MSI files....
...after a little hunting i found them:

C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW
7.0\applibs\distkit\NiMsiDistKit.llb

Now im just trying to get the hang of using them. Have worked out how to
add stuff to the registry, add new shortcuts etc. Problem is im quite new
to MSI files so its quite a steep learning curve!