Install sequencer example - anyone?

[alex_k]

I need to create a simple installer sequencer that launches my installers and third party installers built with different tools based on customer selection. Both LV installer and InstallShield are using MS installer that complicates the task (i.e. two msi files are not allowed to run at the same time, so when you do a custom action it often crashes).

Anyone has an example of an install sequencer written in LV?

Thanks,

Alex.

[mikeporter]

It occurs to me that there is a potential for a "chicken-and-egg" situation here. The issue is that the install sequencer would only run after the LV runtime engine is installed - but the RT engine is probably the first thing that you would want the install sequencer to install!

Something you can do is similar to the behavior of several commercial applications. The main installer installs the application program. Then when the application first boots up the first thing it does is check to see if everything else is installed. If not, it dynamically launches a separate process that installs everything else. To run an installer from within LV all you have to do is use the System Exec.vi function to execute the same command line that you would type in to a Command Prompt window. This VI has an input that allows you to specify whether to continue immediately, or wait for the program you launched to finish.

Mike...

[alex_k]

Mike,

1. Do you know if there's a way to create a run-time engine that will load and run with the application, directly from a CD or DVD?

2. Do the installers always behave the same as other applications (i.e. return the same value upon completion)? The installers I need to string are very different - device, card drivers, NI VISA, our own applications written from LV6.1 to LV8.2 and created with LV and InstallShield... Some of them may or may not be installed, some are pre-requisites to the others and some need to run after the others because they may install a later version of the same component (e.g. NI MAX). 

Thanks for your suggestion, I'll try to use System Exec.vi and see what happens.

Alex.