Automatically including 3rd party installers on CD

[Wire Warrior]

Okay, here's my issue. We have an in house piece of test software which we are working on a new release for. Some of the new features require the use of the PortMon program (serial port monitor) for use during the verification/validation process of the software. These are not needed during the normal operation. We would like to have the NI LabVIEW application builder automatically include the installer for PortMon on the distribution CD but not run it during the install, preferrably to not even install it on the target machine (Windows XP OS FYI). We are concerned with later releases not having the required support software installed if we simply trust it to human action. Has anyone done this with the NI App Builder? Know of an article? Anything?

I have tried searching the NI site and LAVA but I have not been able to find the right information. I would appreciate any help any one could give.

Thanks

Jason

[george seifert]

QUOTE (jasonw @ Mar 5 2009, 10:07 AM)

We would like to have the NI LabVIEW application builder automatically include the installer for PortMon on the distribution CD but not run it during the install, preferrably to not even install it on the target machine (Windows XP OS FYI). We are concerned with later releases not having the required support software installed if we simply trust it to human action. Has anyone done this with the NI App Builder? Know of an article? Anything?

Jason

Piece of cake. Put the installer code in your project. In the Source Files tab create a destination folder for the installer. Then include the installer code in that folder. When the installer is run it'll put that code in the directory you specified.

George

[Wire Warrior]

:thumbup: Thanks! That helped me solve my problem. I really appreciate it.

[JustinThomas]

How would you add multiple 3rd party installers? The NI App Builder allows for only one EXE to run after the application install.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

QUOTE (JustinThomas @ Mar 9 2009, 09:55 PM)

How would you add multiple 3rd party installers? The NI App Builder allows for only one EXE to run after the application install.

1) You could use some Install Builder like Install Shield to bundle all 3rd party libraries into one installer to be run.

2) Or you could write a small LabVIEW app that executes the various extra installers and launch that.

3) The poor mans choice would be to create a patch file that calls the multiple installers and have that executed instead.

The OP of this thread however explicitly did not want to run that extra installer at all. Just bundle it on the CD so it can be installed manually if the need arises.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[Dan DeFriese]

QUOTE (rolfk @ Mar 10 2009, 04:32 AM)

1) You could use some Install Builder like Install Shield to bundle all 3rd party libraries into one installer to be run.

2) Or you could write a small LabVIEW app that executes the various extra installers and launch that.

3) The poor mans choice would be to create a patch file that calls the multiple installers and have that executed instead.

The OP of this thread however explicitly did not want to run that extra installer at all. Just bundle it on the CD so it can be installed manually if the need arises.

Rolf Kalbermatter

I generally keep a copy of the 3rd party installers on my local drive and run a batch file to copy these into a sub folder in my build directory during a release build. I rarely run 3rd party installers automatically because many of these behave differently when the product has already been installed... That is, not in a cool "do nothing" way like the NI drivers. ( :thumbup: NI)

When I do need to run a non-NI installer I generally do Rolf's 3rd option and create a batch file to run post install. You can configure the LabVIEW installer to run an executable (or batch file) in the 'Advanced' page in the installer build dialog.