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Getting Started Inno Setup

Only install the file if a file of the same name already exists on the user's system. This flag may be useful if your installation is a patch to an existing installation, and you don't want files to be installed that the user didn't already have. Only install the file if it doesn't already exist on the user's system. . Windows build installer has switched to Inno Setup. Installer command line parameters have thus changed. Installer command line parameters have thus changed. For example, to extract the installer to a specific directory, the command line parameter is now `/DIR=x: dirname`. Causes Setup to create a log file in the user's TEMP directory detailing file installation and Run actions taken during the installation process. This can be a helpful debugging aid. For example, if you suspect a file isn't being replaced when you believe it should be (or vice versa), the log file will tell you if the file was really skipped.

There are times you have to create installer for your client or for yourself.It is easy for end user to install application using installer.I once created a data analysis application using Picalo.You can read more about creating data analysis applications using Picalo here.I was trying to create installer of that application.I searched many options for this purpose and finally landed on Inno Setup.

I noted whole process of installer creation using Inno Setup for future reference.This post provides step by step details of whole process followed by me along with screen shots.You can also download whole tutorial using the download link provided at end of this post.

I am assuming that you have already downloaded and installed Inno Setup.In case you have not completed this step do so.After installing the application launch Inno Setup script wizard.I am describing each screen you have to navigate to create installer while using Inno Setup script wizard.

Inno Setup Application information screen

Application information screen is the screen where application information is entered by the user while creating the installer.User needs to enter information as mentioned below

1. Application Name — Name of the Application.This information is mandatory.for example Udinra.This is the name by which people will know the application.So choose the name so that it is unique and easily remembered.
2. Application Version — Version of Application.If this installer is created for first time then version is 1 or 1.0.Now if the previous version is 2.3 then the next version is any numeric value greater than 2.3 i.e. 2.4 or 3.0 or 3.for example if previous version of udinra is 2 then current version will be value greater than 2 ie.e 3.It is mandatory information.
3. Application Publisher — Name of application publisher.It is optional field but it is good practice to provide the information.Name of application owner either individual or company is given.
4. Application Website — Website of application.Optional field but is good practice to provide the information.

Inno Setup Application folder screen

Inno setup script wizard presents user with Application folder screen .User decides the location where the application will be installed by default.Below screen shows the application folder screen

Inno Setup Script Wizard application folder screen

Application Destination Folder — It is the name of folder where the installed files will be located once a user installs an application using the installer created by this process.For example in above case the Program files option is chosen so if the application is installed then the installation files will be located in Program Files folder.If other folder is chosen then the files will be located there.

Application folder name — It is name of the folder in which all the installed files of the application will be located.in this case the folder is Udinra.So for the above case the installed files will be located in udinra directory under the program files directory.

Allow user to change application folder — If this option is chosen then the user have option to change the installation folder.If the user does not choose the folder the application is installed in the default folder i.e in udinra under program files folder.

So summarizing the above facts let there is an installer udinra.exe created with above options then while installing the user can change installation location if Allow user to change application folder is checked else user cannot change the installation location and if default location is used the application will be installed in udinra sub directory of program files directory.

Inno Setup Application files screen

Inno Setup Application files screen presents user with an option to select files to be included in the application installer.User can select the files and folders to be part of the application installers.Below screen shows the Application Files screen

Application main executable files — If the application contains a main executable file then click on browse and choose the main executable file of the application.

Choose the option Allow user to start the application after setup has finished if application can be launched by the user as soon as installation is completed.

Click on the Add files and Add folders option to select the files and folder which are part of the installer for example let there is a folder a and file b,c which are to be added in the installer then these folder and files are browsed and added using this option.

Inno Setup Compiler settings screen

On the compiler settings screen user give options as shown below

Inno Setup script wizard compiler settings screen

Custom Compiler output folder — Browse the folder under which the installer file needs to be saved so in above case the installer file is saved in demo_output folder under My documents folder.

Compiler output base file name — This is the name of the installer i.e. the .exe files so in above example the name of the installer file is udinra.exe.

Custom setup icon file — browse for the .ico file to be used as icon of the installer.One can create .ico files using free software like GIMP.In above case icon of udinra was used so the result is

Setup password — It is not used but if one want to protect the application using password then can specify it but remember the password entered on this screen is visible so while entering please hide it else any one standing behind can see the password.

Inno Setup Application icons screen

When one needs to launch any application in windows either desktop icon is searched for or start menu is clicked.So application icons are an important part of any application created for installation.Application icons can be specified for an installer created using Inno Setup on the Application Icons screen.Below is the Application Icons screen of Inno Setup Script wizard

Inno setup script wizard application icons screen

Application Start Menu folder name — This name appears on the START –> ALL Programs and one can see a arrow and if mouse is placed on the option the option is expanded and user can see additional options.In above case there will be an option Udinra on the Start –> All programs.

Rest of the check boxes are self explanatory but it is good practice to not allow users to change Start Menu folder name.If this option is checked then user can enter folder name of their choice while installing the application in this case user can choose any name instead of Udinra.

It is better to associate an application with a unique name not user defined name also from user perspective a person can forget the name assigned to the application while installing it.So don’t click on the Allow User to change the Start Menu folder name option.

Inno Setup Application documentation and setup languages screen

The Application documentation and Setup languages are additional screens and may be ignored by the user.One can use these screens to provide additional features which add value to installation experience of user.Below are Application documentation and Setup language screen

License file is used to display license information while installing the application,information file shown before installation can be used to display assistance and explaination of some parameters inputed by the user.This acts as great help to the user and adds to the software value.Also information file shown after installation can be used to display summary of installation.

This screen is used to support additional languages during installation.

Consider sharing the post in case you found this useful.

Using Inno Setup with dBASE Applications
Includes Deploying the BDE
Updated: October, 2003
Ken Mayer, SQA Engineer
dBASE, Inc.
Thanks to Dan Howard, dBVIPS, for Editing ...

NOTE: This HOW TO document is aimed specifically at deploying a dASE Plus. If you are using earlier versions of dBASE (dB2K, Visual dBASE 7.5), there are different HOW TO documents that discuss these topics ... This document was originally written for Inno Setup version 1.3.21, and modified over time to try to keep up with changes made in versions 2.x and 3.x of Inno Setup and now Inno Setup 4.0.9. Provided on your dBASE CD is the latest version of Inno Setup at the time this article was last updated. There are options not discussed in this document you may wish to examine/use -- check the help when you run the Inno Setup compiler.

Contents

• Getting started with Inno
• Creating an install for Vesper 9.0
  • The files section
• Installing the BDE with your applications
• Final Thoughts

Introduction

Ok, you have an application ready to deploy, but you don't have InstallShield Express. So, what do you do?

Simple -- you use the copy of Inno Setup that is shipping with dBASE.

The software is called 'Inno Setup', which is short for 'Innovative Setup'. It is a Delphi application, and has very little in the way of a graphical interface when building your deployment disk set. However, it is easy to use, very quick, and very flexible.

There is a folder on your dBASE Plus CD called 'Inno' -- in this folder you will find a .EXE file, which is the current Inno Setup install image (when run this will install the version current at the time we created the dBASE CD) and a sample template file (template.iss) which can be used to create your own setups.

If you are not using dBASE, or you wish to obtain a more recent version of this software, go to this website:

The main website discusses the software, talks about functionality, etc. If you want to cut to the chase, you can download directly by using the information below.

Downloading Inno Setup

There are several sites to download it from. This one works for me: http://www.jrsoftware.org/isdl.php -- Jordan links from here to other sites.

The author, Jordan Russell, has done a lot of work to give you a lot of functionality. He has, in addition, documented this software well, with details in the online help for the software itself.

Installing Inno Setup

There is a folder on the CD named 'Inno' -- insert the CD, and if the Launcher starts, use the option to exit. Then using the Windows Explorer (from the 'Start Button' in the task bar, right click ...), find the 'Inno' folder, and double-click on the executable using the name as noted below.

Note that in the Inno folder is an .exe named 'isetup-4_0_9.exe' -- this file is the version current at the time this document was last updated. (Note that the version number may have changed, if it's not identical to that shown here, don't panic -- it's a more recent version ...)

When you find or download the file, run it. It will install to some folder, by default:

C:Program FilesInno Setup 4

When the software is updated by the author, you can obtain new versions by downloading them from his website, or in some cases downloading a patch with a patch program to do the work.

Getting Started with Inno

Although Inno doesn't look like much - it doesn't offer the kind of drag and drop functionality that you might be used to from other install programs - it's actually quite powerful and very functional. It also produces very fast install programs. If you work with it a bit you will see that it provides a wizard, as well as other features, including syntax highlighting (colors for specific parts of the script, etc.).

Some Basic Information

(Much of the following information is condensed from the help file ...)

This screen is simply an editor that can be used to create a setup script. The script created will have an extension of .ISS (Inno Setup Script). The program is also a 'compiler' -- it will attempt to create your setup program based on the contents of the script - if there are errors during the 'compile process', they will be described and the setup program will not be created.

The script itself is an ASCII file, so you could create it elsewhere rather than using this program, although using the program to create/edit the script makes as much sense as anything else.

The format of the 'commands' in this script is similar to Windows .INI files - if you are familiar with these, you should be in pretty good shape.

Most of the script contains name/value pairs -- a name which references a value. These values will be things like filenames, or destinations for where to deploy to, and so on. These can also have parameters -- modifiers for what you want the deployer to do with them ...

Note that Inno Setup performs a top-down execution of your script -- there is no branching (IF/ELSE, etc.) possible, no error trapping during installation, and so on ... Everything is performed in a specific sequence, as shown in this document (and in the Inno Setup help file).

Inno Constants

Inno supports the use of special constants which represent certain directories on either your computer or the person using your install's computer. Some of these are defined by you in the setup section.

Also note that the constants defined below cannot be used in the SOURCE parameter of the Files section.

{app}
The application directory, which the user selects on the Select Directory page of the wizard. For example: If you used {app}MYPROG.EXE on an entry and the user selected C:MYPROG as the application directory, Setup will translate it to use C:MYPROGMYPROG.EXE.

{sys}
The system's Windows System directory (System32 in a 32-bit installation on Windows NT). For example: If you used {sys}CTL3DV2.DLL on an entry and the system's Windows System directory is C:WINDOWSSYSTEM, Setup will translate it to use C:WINDOWSSYSTEMCTL3DV2.DLL.

{src}
The directory in which the Source files are located. For example: If you used {src}MYPROG.EXE on an entry and the user is installing from 'S:', Setup will translate it to use 'S:MYPROG.EXE'.

{pf}
Program Files. The path of the system's Program Files directory, typically C:Program Files.

{cf}
Common Files. The path of the system's Common Files directory, typically C:Program FilesCommon Files.

There are others, which you can look up in help.

Using Other Languages

The author of Inno Setup has written the code in such a way that the message strings used during an actual install are pulled from a file (*.ISL) -- this file contains the strings used, and can be changed for different languages.

You can download a new file for a specific language from a third-party website:

When you find the language file you need, it is suggested that you either store this file in the folder that Inno Setup was installed to, or that you put it in your application directory -- my inclination would be to store it with Inno Setup.

Creating an Install for Vesper 9.0

This document from here on discusses a full install of the Vesper 9.0 application, which is a sample application written in dBASE Plus 2.01, available from my dBASE website:

The script discussed here was used to test options and get something that worked -- what this means is that the sample script actually does work for my application ... There are notes throughout, to help explain what I did.

All of the following came from the Inno help, except for the information on installing the BDE and dBASE Plus runtime, which comes from our own development team at dBASE, Inc.

To test this I went to a machine I wanted to test the install on, and uninstalled dBASE Plus, and deleted any left-over folders and files, removed the runtime files from the WindowsSystem folder, and uninstalled the BDE. I checked the registry and made sure no remnants of either were there ... after each install test I did the same to make sure I was working on a 'clean' machine.

Most of what is discussed below is specifically the Inno Setup Script needed to deploy the Vesper application, but there are a few places that digress into general topics ...

You can include comments by using the ';' at the beginning of the line.

This sample script shown in this article was last actually updated for version 3.0.7 of InnoSetup, but has been tested under the more recent versions, and no changes appear to be necessary.

The Setup Section

As you might imagine, this is important in a few ways. See the comments associated with each entry below ...

There are a lot of other options that can be set there, read the online help if you are interested (this includes adding a license text file, a readme before and/or after the install starts, and a lot more ...).

The Dirs Section

The directory section is used to define directories to be created, besides the application directory ... it uses the constants that are defined elsewhere in the script. While you aren't required to create directories first before copying files to them in the [Files] section, directories will not be deleted by the uninstaller if they are not specified here.

The Files Section

The documentation states this 'is optional, but necessary for most installations.' Since it defines all of the files that are copied to the user's system, it is required unless you don't wish to actually deploy any files ...

Each file has a 'Source' and a 'DestDir', and there are some parameters that you should examine ...

dBASE Plus Runtime Installer
NOTE: The runtime/BDE installer is stored on your dBASE CD, in a special RUNTIME folder. I recommend that you copy the file or files that you wish to use for your application(s) to the dBASE directories, perhaps in a folder called Runtime. The sample below assumes that this is where the runtime file is stored.

Also note that there are six different install programs, one contains all languages currently supported and there are five for specific languages. If you wish to deploy the full multi-language runtime/BDE installer, use the file named: dBASEPlusRuntimeEngineNNNN.exe.

The 'NNNN' in red is the build number of dBASE Plus.

If you wish to use a language specific installer (which has the advantage of being smaller), you would use one of the files named dBASEPlusRuntimeEngineNNNN_xx.exe, where the 'xx' letters correspond to one of the following:

EN = English
DE = German
ES = Spanish
IT = Italian
JA = Japanese

Back to the example:

The Run Section

This section is used to define programs that are to be executed during the installation process. You can execute more than one program and Inno will, by default, wait for the next to complete. Any programs defined here will be run in the sequence given, and after the Files section is executed.

For our purposes, this section deals with running the BDE Install and dBASE Plus runtime.

Note that the runtime installer may ask a question about storing files to the TEMP directory -- if you wish, you can 'silence' that question (so your user does not need to see it), by adding a '-s' switch to the run instruction. In the code below, you would add to the end of the line:

So it would look like:

Back to the example:

Someone in Jordan's newsgroups for Inno Setup asked about displaying the newly created group for the user after the install is complete. This is a nifty idea, especially since the install is very fast. You can do this by adding the following lines:

The Icons Section

As with the files section above, this may not be 100% required, but it is really pretty much a necessity:

You can add other icons for other programs if you wish.

The Registry Section

This is where you can place any registry keys your application may require. If you are not using any, you can leave this section out of your Inno Setup script.

Uninstall Option

The uninstall program created by Inno Setup is stored in the same directory as your application, and will be named: UNINS000.EXE, and there are a couple of other files (UNINS000.DAT and UNINS000.MSG). The uninstall is quick. Note that this does not uninstall the BDE or the Runtime files, which are installed from a separate program ...

Inno Setup Change Install Directory Exists Free

Compiling and Testing

Click on the 'File' menu, and first save your script (always a good idea). Then click on the 'File' menu again, and select the 'Compile' option (or Press F9). By default, this program creates the images in a folder called 'Output' under the folder that your script is in, but the example above actually tells it to create 'InstallImage' so if your script is in C:VESPER, the 'Output' folder would be: C:VesperInstallImage, and the disk images would be there.

If you set it to install to a CD (a single setup image), you will have only SETUP.EXE ....

If the DiskSpan setting is set to 1 (floppy disk), I am getting 14 images for 3 1/2' disks, with names of:
SETUP.EXE
Setup.1
Setup.2 etc.

The idea for a floppy disk install is to copy SETUP.EXE and SETUP.1 to the first disk, and the other disk images to the other disks, i.e., 14 3 1/2' floppy disks if using the 'All Languages' runtime/BDE installer.

The reason that (if you used the 'All Languages' install) there are 14 disk images for a floppy disk install is that the dBASE Plus or dB2K Runtime and BDE installer is designed to install six different languages -- the user is asked when the runtime installer executes, which language to install. This is to ensure that the correct language versions of the dBASE Plus or dB2K Runtime files, the BDE Administrator, help files, and so on are installed ...

The reason there are the smaller, language specific runtime installers is to reduce the size of your installation disk set (this is also useful for web-installs ...).

Installing the dBASE Plus Runtime With Your Application

Your best bet to install the Runtime for dBASE Plus is to use the installer that comes with the product. This installer includes the BDE, and can make life a lot easier.

However, for whatever reason, you may wish to deploy only the runtime files (an update to your application or some other reason).

If that is the case, you need to install the following:

dBASE Plus	dB2K
PlusRun.exe	dB2KRun.exe
PlusR_en.dll	db2kr_en.dll
Resource.dll	Resource.dll

Note: the runtime DLL file (PlusR_xx.dll) needs to have the correct language reference -- the default is 'en' for English -- use the following for the two-letter language code:

Language	Code
English	en
German	de
Spanish	es
Italian	it
Japanese	ja

In addition, you need to deploy 'resource.dll' if you are using any images (pushbuttons, etc.) that use this file in your application. If you are deploying a web-based application this should not be necessary.

Installing the BDE With Your Application

Some people are not comfortable with using the Runtime Installer that ships with dBASE Plus, and would prefer to install the BDE themselves. If you do that, you need to get a BDE Installer from Borland. That said, you may have a need to create your own settings ...

Handling the Registry Settings

For the BDE registry settings, you may want to consider if you need them at all. One item that is very important is the default language driver. If you do not set this yourself, the default dBASE language driver will be 'ascii ANSI'. The Vesper application uses 'Western European ANSI' ('WEurope' Ansi), as some of the characters used need that ... In order to save the registry settings you have for your installation of the BDE for the Language Driver, you may want to use a .REG file (created from 'REGEDIT' -- the registry editor program on your computer) to copy the keys you need to a .REG file. Important Note: BDE Aliases are not stored in the registry -- see information further down in this document regarding these.

NOTE: If you are using Win 2K you should use REGEDIT4 for this, rather than the standard REGEDIT, as the registry entries are apparently written out in a different format using REGEDIT on Win 2K, and if you are creating an install for, say, a Win 98 machine the registry entries will not be recognized.

A .REG file is simply a text file, so you can open it and edit it yourself before deploying it. The following is an example of what you might want to do. You may want to ensure that the default dBASE language driver is one you specifically prefer to use for your application. This can be done by finding the following entry in the Registry:

• Run REGEDIT.EXE from Windows (click the 'Start' button, select 'Run' and enter 'REGEDIT', press <enter> or click on the 'OK' button)
• In the treeview on the left, click on the '+' left of: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• This expands to show more information, click on the '+' left of: Software
• Click on the '+' left of: Borland
• Click on the '+' left of: Database Engine
• Click on the '+' left of: Settings
• Click on the '+' left of: DRIVERS
• Click on the '+' left of: DBASE
• Using the file menu, select 'Registry' and 'Export Registry File' -- give a path, and then a name such as 'BDEStuff' -- this will create a small file .REG file with some settings, including your language driver information.

If you open it in a text editor (notepad, wordpad, dBASE's source editor) it will look like:

If you wanted to, you could edit any of this. I would recommend leaving it 'as is'. The LANGDRIVER key will be set to whatever the language driver is currently set to for dBASE tables in the BDE Administrator.

You may also want to export the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareBorlandDatabase EngineSettingsSYSTEMINIT section. This contains the BDE memory and file settings like MaxFileHandles, MaxBufferSize etc. This could be important if you use higher settings than the BDE defaults.

Note that each registry export should be kept in their own seperate files. Don't combine them into a single REG file becauase the settings may not get into registry properly.

In order to update the target machine's registry, copy this file to your source code folder. Then, in the FILES section of the Inno Setup Script you are creating, add the following:

This will copy the file to the temp folder of your users's computer. Then, in the RUN section, add this after the dB2K Runtime install (if it is before the runtime install, the new keys will be overwritten ...):

This will cause the .REG file to be 'executed' by Windows after the BDE is installed. This avoids problems with setting the BDE registry before the BDE is installed (which then causes the registry settings to be overriden). Note that this actually runs the REGEDIT program with the 'silent' switch so no dialog appears. (This information courtesy of Jordan Russel)

A Simpler Way
The most recent versions of the dBASE Users' Function Library (dUFLP), which should be in the Knowledgebase that is installed with dBASE Plus 2.02 or later, have a couple of programs that you can use to do similar things. These are 'BDERegistrySettings.wfm' and 'BDERegistrySettingsLight.wfm'. These can be used to a) modify your own BDE Registry settings; and/or b) create a program that can be deployed to modify the BDE Registry settings on your users' machines. These settings are specifically the ones noted above, and others that might be useful for your own application(s).

Merging BDE Configuration Files

Jordan Russel (author of Inno Setup) is not sure how to work with BDE Aliases, merge configuration files, and so on. Vic McClung, a developer who uses dBASE for many things, spent some time working out how to merge BDE Configuration files using the BDE API (Application Programming Interface), and created a simple-to-use program in dBASE code that is provided with this document. The program is named 'Merge.prg'.

To use this program, there are several steps you need to take, which are given in detail below.

1. Create a Custom .CFG File
   Custom Configuration Files are created using the BDE Administrator. Make sure that in you current configuration that you have the BDE Alias (or aliases) that you need for your application.

   Use the 'Object' menu, and select 'Save as Configuration ...'. This menu option will ask for the location/name of your new configuration file. You may want to put your custom configuration file in your application's directory (this will make it easier to deploy, later). Give it a name that makes sense for you, such as 'MyApp.cfg' (where 'MyApp' is the name of your application).

   Now, note that the currently active .CFG file in the BDE Administrator is the custom one. Go down to the list of aliases in the main screen (click the tab 'Databases', and then click the '+' by the word 'Databases' there to see a list of all aliases).

   You should delete the aliases that are not important to your application -- note that this does not affect the original file -- we'll re-set that in a moment. You can delete these aliases by clicking on the ones you wish to delete and pressing Ctrl+D, or by using the 'Object' menu and selecting 'Delete'.

   Note if you have an alias that does not delete it is probably because this is an ODBC Driver setting -- you cannot delete it, but unless your user has the exact same ODBC Drivers set up on their computer(s) then they will not see these -- in other words, you don't have to worry about these.

   Now that you have your custom configuration file, you need to re-set the BDE Administrator to be using the original 'IDAPI.CFG' file that it started with. Select the 'Object' menu, and 'Open Configuration ...'. Select the path that the BDE was installed to - by default this is:

   And then select 'Idapi.cfg', then 'Open' -- you will see the list of databases collapse - if you re-open it you will see all of the aliases there that you had before this exercise.

2. Compile the Merge Program
   This is done quite simply -- start dBASE Plus or dB2K, find the folder that you have the Merge.prg file in using the Navigator's 'Look In' dialog, and in the Command Window, type the following:

   You now have your MERGE.EXE file, which is what will take your custom .CFG file and merge it with the BDE's .CFG file when your application is installed.

3. Modify the Inno Setup Script For Your Application
   There are several places you need to modify your script.
   1. The 'Files' Section
      This section is the one you use to define the files to deploy. Add the following:
   2. The 'Run' Section
      This is where you tell Inno Setup to run any executables that need to be run. Add the following after the runtime part, or the MERGE.EXE will not run.

   When done, save your Inno Setup Script, and you'll be ready to go.

Another Method
If you are not comfortable with using this program, creating a custom configuration file, etc., there is a custom class in the dBASE Users' Function Library (in the Knowledgebase for dBASE Plus) called 'BDEAlias.cc' that can be used to create a BDE Alias in your own application when it starts. This works well, so it will give you another option for setting up your BDE Aliases.

SQL Links Drivers

When your user installs the dBASE Plus Runtime and BDE using the programs provided, all of the current SQL Links files necessary will be installed on your users' computer. This means that the Oracle, InterBase, Sybase, and other SQL Links drivers will be installed -- you do not have to do anything special to install them.

In addition, just because SQL Links are installed, does not mean you can just assume that your user has whatever Client software may be needed for the specific SQL Server (i.e., Oracle, etc.). SQL Links are the native drivers for these servers, but they will not allow your application to work without the proper software for the SQL Server/SQL Client being installed. See the documentation for the SQL software you are using for more details.

Creating a CD Image

When you run your CD Burner software, whatever it is, you should be allowed to set up your CD image in whatever fashion works for you, including adding other software, if you feel that you need to. (And have space on the CD, which you probably will.)

One thing I found was not documented in my own CD software was how to tell the operating system what program to run, if Windows had AUTORUN set to on (which is the default).

After digging around, it is actually very simple. There is a file on any CD that is used when autorun is enabled, called AUTORUN.INF. It should contain the following three lines -- modify these as necessary for your own application/CD layout -- NOTE that this file must be created/saved as a DOS TEXT file:

If your CD layout is with all your files in folders, you would want to be sure that you point to the folders, using the root as ', for example, if you examine the AUTORUN.INF file on the dBASE Plus CD, you will see that the OPEN option points to the SETUP program in the root of the CD, but the ICON option points to a different folder ... Anyway, this is much easier than it sounds like it ought to be (which is handy ...).

Final Thoughts

Note that the deployment of Vesper is for a single-user, relatively simple application. There are options in the setup program that you may need to examine for more complex application installs ... the idea of this document was to get you started.

Why Do It The Hard Way?

Well, for one thing it's a great way to learn how something works ... however, in the long run, it's probably easier to do this by using a graphical interface.

NOTE: Version 3.x and later has a wizard that can be used. When you first start Inno Setup, it asks if you want to use it. So, it appears that Mr. Russel has decided to make this even easier. I have not used the Wizard, and cannot say how good it is.

The dBASE Users' Function Library, as of the first version for dBASE Plus, will have a new form called 'InnoScriptBuilder.wfm' -- this is a simple one-way-tool, Inno Setup Script Builder, which is designed to get you started. It does not cover all possible options in Inno Setup, and is meant to give you the basic stuff that you need, and help get your script started. You may need to modify it when done ...

In the dBASE newsgroups (specifically dbase.deployment) one of the users (Jonny Kwekkeboom) has posted a huge amount of information on using Inno Setup for deploying dBASE applications, and he's been working on a dBL (dBASE Language) two-way tool that can be used ...

See the 'third party' section below ...

Contacting the Author

For assistance with Inno Setup, please contact the author via information at his website: http://www.jordanr.dhs.org/isinfo.htm

In addition, Jordan has newsgroups for additional support for Inno Setup at:

For information on dBASE Plus -- if you own dBASE, please see the CD which has the Knowledgebase on it, or you may visit the dBASE, Inc. website and check the Knowledgebase page there, which among other things is likely to be more up-to-date than the one on the CD.

3rd Party Add Ons

TaFWeb Software created a GUI for Inno called 'ScriptMaker' It can be found at:

There are several others as well. See Jordan's 3rd party page http://www.jrsoftware.org/is3rdparty.htm for more information.

The Complete Vesper 9.0 Inno Setup Script

Inno Setup Change Install Directory Exists Online

Note that the script below works for the Vesper 9.0 application. However, there is a more generic script available in the Inno directory on your CD. This is named 'template.iss'. This script is based on the classic wizard style, and in the text below I have added the necessary value to use the classic style. If you leave that out, as noted elsewhere in this document, it will default to the modern style.

Inno Setup Change Install Directory Exists Download

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