Summary

Synopsis

This article discusses how to create a serial number validation function using Delphi. It provides a sample project that can be used as a reference.

Discussion

1. Navigate to the Customize the Setup Appearance | Dialogs view.

2. Select the Customer Information dialog.

3. Select Yes as the value for the Show Serial Number property.

4. Decide what the format will be for the valid serial number. For example, a serial number that uses the format ?????-#####, requires the user to enter 5 alphanumeric characters followed by 5 numeric characters. Add this to the Serial Number Template property.

5. Build the serial number validation DLL in Delphi. The declaration of the serial number validation function should appear as follows:
   function ValidateSerial(Wnd: HWND; SrcDir, SupportDir, SerialNum, Dbase: PAnsiChar): Longint; stdcall;

   The function should validate that SerialNum has the correct format and must return an integer value between 1 and 32767. Do not return 0 or values above 32767 because that causes the installation to terminate prematurely. The function should also be exported via the exports directive.

6. Specify a value in the Success Return Value property. The value of this property must match the value returned by the ValidateSerial function. All other return values indicate an invalid serial number.

7. After the DLL is built, select the DLL in the Serial Number Validation DLL property and specify the path to the serial number checking DLL.

8. Set the Retry Limit property to a value.

9. The Validate Function is the function name of the function exported by the DLL that does the actual serial number validation. It must adhere to the function signature as indicated above.

• The steps above will only allow the custom action to be called when the user has entered a serial number and clicks the Next button. However, during a silent install, the user does not click the button and consequently the serial number validation function doesn't get called.

  In the attached sample code (SerialNumberValidation.zip), see the function ValidateSetup. ValidateSetup can be used in place of ValidateSerial if the setup needs to be run silently. The serial number can be entered by the user in the GUI but also via the command line. No matter how the serial number is entered, this custom action verifies it.

  Create a new DLL custom action and call the DLL function ValidateSetup and the custom action DllValidateSetup. The name of the custom action should be different from the function name. Use the following property values:

  Here are the other property settings for the DllValidateSetup custom action:

  File Name: <ISProjectFolder>\CustomActions.dll
  Function name: ValidateSetup
  Function signature: ValidateSetup
  Invoke: Before System Search (Silent Mode Only)
  Wait for Action: Yes
  Run Once: No
  Execute: During Installation
  Ignore Exit Code: No
  Conditions: No Conditions

  Although the invoke method is "silent mode only", the custom action also gets called if the user interface is visible. All custom actions should return a nonzero value to continue the installation or zero to abort.

• There are two support units in the sample code that ValidateSetup relies on:
  • MSI contains a partial translation of msi.h and MsiQuery.h, which are part of the MSI API.

  • MsiUtils contains wrappers around selected MSI API calls to make it easier to work with the MSI API.

• GetMsiInstallationInfo is available in MsiUtils. This function can be used to retrieve the user name, company name, and serial number from the installation database.
  
• Note: InstallShield does not provide technical support for Windows programming or DLL debugging. You are responsible for correctly writing any DLL functions.

Additional Information

The sample project and content of this article was provided as a courtesy by user Tomatoman from the InstallShield Community group.