Summary

Synopsis

The InstallShield Automation interface enables you to modify your project's properties outside the InstallShield IDE, as well as to perform operations such as building releases and patch configurations. This article gives some examples of how to build releases from a VBScript file using the ISWiProductConfig and ISWiRelease objects.

This article includes some sample code in Visual Basic script to demonstrate how to use the Automation Interface to build a project.

Important: If you are using the automation interface on a 64-bit machine, you may need to load the automation interface through a 32-bit executable file. Otherwise, you may encounter an error when you instantiate a copy of ISWiProject, or any other object. For more information, see Using the Automation Interface on a 64-Bit System.

Discussion

The ISWiProductConfig and ISWiRelease Objects

When working with the InstallShield environment, you can use the Release Wizard to create product configurations and release names, and to set such release properties as the media type, whether to include the Windows Installer redistributables, and whether to compress your data files. You can view your existing releases in the Releases view, and rebuild a release by right-clicking its icon in the Releases view and selecting Build, or pressing F7 to rebuild the current release.

Inside your project file, each product configuration is represented by an ISWiProductConfig Automation object, and every release is represented by an ISWiRelease object. Moreover, there are collections called ISWiProductConfigs and ISWiReleases that store all the product configurations and releases in your project.

For example, you can place the following code in a VBScript file called EnumReleases.vbs, and execute the file to view a message box displaying all the product configurations and releases in a given project. (When opening a project with the Automation interface, note that the project should not be open in the InstallShield environment.)

' NOTE: ProgID changes with each InstallShield version;
' check documentation to see your version's ProgID
Set oISM = CreateObject("ISWiAuto14.ISWiProject")

' open project as read-only
oISM.OpenProject "D:\MySetups\BuildMe.ism", True

strAllReleases = ""

' walk through all product configurations
For Each oConfig in oISM.ISWiProductConfigs

   strAllReleases = strAllReleases + vbNewLine + oConfig.Name + vbNewLine

   ' walk through all releases in current product configuration
   For Each oRelease in oConfig.ISWiReleases

   strAllReleases = strAllReleases + vbTab + _ oRelease.Name + vbNewLine
   
   Next ' oRelease

Next ' oConfig

MsgBox strAllReleases, , "Product Configs and Releases"

oISM.CloseProject

Set oISM = CreateObject("ISWiAuto14.ISWiProject")

' open project as read-only
oISM.OpenProject "D:\MySetups\BuildMe.ism", True

' build the release
oISM.ISWiProductConfigs("Version1").ISWiReleases("cdrom").Build( )

' for testing purposes
MsgBox "Done!"

oISM.CloseProject

Set oISM = CreateObject("ISWiAuto14.ISWiProject")

' open project as read-only

oISM.OpenProject "D:\MySetups\BuildMe.ism", True

' walk through all product configurations
For Each oConfig in oISM.ISWiProductConfigs

   ' walk through all releases in current product configuration
   For Each oRelease in oConfig.ISWiReleases

   oRelease.Build( )

   ' for testing purposes 
   MsgBox "Built " & oConfig.Name & "/" & oRelease.Name & "..."

Next ' oRelease

Next ' oConfig

' for testing
MsgBox "Done!"

oISM.CloseProject

?Set oISM = CreateObject("ISWiAuto14.ISWiProject")

' this time, open project as read-write
oISM.OpenProject "D:\MySetups\BuildMe.ism", False

' get existing configuration
Set oMyConfig = oISM.ISWiProductConfigs("DemoVersion1")

' add new release to existing configuration
Set oNewRelease = oMyConfig.AddRelease("new")

' set release properties
oNewRelease.Compressed = True
oNewRelease.SetupEXE = True
oNewRelease.TargetOS = 3 ' i.e., os9xNT: include both engines
' ...set other properties...

' if you want, build the new release
oNewRelease.Build( )

' for testing
MsgBox "Done!"

' this time, save the project before closing it
oISM.SaveProject
oISM.CloseProject

Related Documents

Additional Information

InstallShield 11 through InstallShield 2015

NOTE: CreateObject is based on the version of InstallShield being used.

'Create project object for InstallShield 11
'Set automation = CreateObject("ISWiAuto11.ISWiProject")

'Create project object for InstallShield 2015
Set automation = CreateObject("ISWiAuto22.ISWiProject")
 
'Open project
 automation.OpenProject "C:\Test.ism"

'Set an existing product configuration
 Set productconfig = automation.ISWiProductConfigs.Item("Tutorial")
  
'Set and existing release
 Set release = productconfig.ISWiReleases.Item("cdrom")
 
'Build the release
 release.Build

DevStudio and earlier

The following Visual Basic code shows how to build a project named "Tutorial" by the click event of a Command Button, and includes basic error handling:

Private Sub Command1_Click()
 Dim automation As ISWiAutomation.ISWiProject
 Set automation = CreateObject("ISWiAutomation.ISWiProject")
 automation.OpenProject Text1.Text, False
 Dim productconfig As ISWiAutomation.ISWiProductConfig
 Set productconfig = automation.ISWiProductConfigs.Item("Tutorial")
 
 If Not (productconfig Is Nothing) Then
  MsgBox ("Productconfig good!")
 Else
  MsgBox ("Productconfig bad!")
 End If
 
 Dim release As ISWiAutomation.ISWiRelease
 Set release = productconfig.ISWiReleases.Item("cdrom")
 release.Build
End Sub