MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\Source CodeCommandsProperty

---

The "Property" Command

This command is used to create or update the value of a Windows Installer property.

If you wish to have the property set at a specific time (to capture the "current" value of properties etc) you should use the "PropertyCa" command instead.

This command takes these parameters:

• Property Name (positional)
  Name of the property to be updated or created. MSI property names are case sensitive and names in all upper case ("public") characters can be overridden on the MSIEXEC.EXE command line.

  As public properties can be overridden on the command line they are very useful for the setting up of default configuration values such as registry or INI settings and SQL connection (see the persist parameter). My recommendation is set up public properties to contain the correct values for production and then override as required for development, test installs etc.

• [*]Value (required)
  The value of the property. If the value is "" then the property is deleted (as Windows Installer doesn't support properties containing empty strings).

  You should use "*VALUE" if you have a VBSCRIPT expression which resolves to a string (use "cstr()" if you get a type mismatch).

  Any MSI formatting will be left in place which is a major difference from the "PropertyCa" command.

• Persist (optional)
  Should this value be saved (Y/N) (the default is 'N')? If so the value be saved to registry via the "Registry" command (action "WriteRegistryValues") and restored via a RegistryRead.

  While Windows Installer saves the location of directories which are overriden on the command line (or more likely used by a component), it does not do so for properties. Without persisting a configurable property any "repair" process will not work correctly as it will use the default value and not that selected at installation time!

  ---

  Note that the exact value of the property (when "WriteRegistryValues" executed) is saved. If the property's value is a formatted value (such as "[INSTALLDIR]") then you should set it using the "PropertyCa" command.

• PersistHow (optional)
  If we are persisting the property then this can override defaults, available attributes are:

  • Life Span?
    How long do you wish to keep the properties value?:

    • FOREVER
      The propery is never cleared.

    • UNINSTALL
      The propery is cleared on UNINSTALL (the default). Basically you are mainly persisting the values so they will be available during maintenance operations (repair etc).

  • Which registry?
    A per-user install would want to save in the current user registry etc, options are:

    • LOCAL_MACHINE
      Store the property in the "HKLM" hive.

    • CURRENT_USER
      Store the property in the "HKCU" hive.

    • HK??
      Store the property in the "HKCU" or "HKLM" hive (see the "Registry command for more details).

  • Visibility (Level of Sharing)?
    This defines the location in the registry where the properties will be saved:

    • PRODUCT
      All versions of the product share the same properties. The "PROPERTY_PERSIST_PRODUCT_LOCATION" macro defines the registry location where the properties will be saved

      If a macro of the form "PROPERTY_PERSIST_REGNAME_FOR_PRODUCT_PropertyName" exists then this holds the registry "name" (this defaults to the name of the property).

    • VERSION
      The propery is persisted only for this version of the product (the default). The "PROPERTY_PERSIST_PRODUCT_VERSION_LOCATION" macro defines the registry location where the properties will be saved.

      If a macro of the form "PROPERTY_PERSIST_REGNAME_FOR_VERSION_PropertyName" exists then this holds the registry "name" (this defaults to the name of the property).

    • SHARED:NameSpace
      The propery is persisted in the namespace you identify. The namespace can't contain spaces and allows sharing of persistence data between multiple MSIs.

      A macro of the form "PROPERTY_PERSIST_SHARED_NameSpace_LOCATION" macro (or "PROPERTY_PERSIST_SHARED_ROOT_LOCATION" if the former doesn't exist) defines the registry location where the properties will be saved.

      If a macro of the form "PROPERTY_PERSIST_REGNAME_FOR_SHARED_NameSpace_PropertyName" exists then this holds the registry "name" (this defaults to the name of the property).

  The default for this parameter can be set via the DEFAULT_PROPERTY_PERSIST_HOW macro. This is initially "".

• Options4Component (optional)
  This parameter is ignored unless this command needs to create components. This can contain any Component command parameter names and values.

  The default for this parameter can be set via the DEFAULT_PROPERTY_PERSIST_OPTIONS4COMPONENT macro. The initial value for this is "".

Main Property Related Options

Please see the "options for commands" section of the manual.

#define? DEFAULT_PROPERTY_PERSIST_HOW                             ;;HK?? VERSION UI_REMOVE
#define? PROPERTY_PERSIST_ROOT_LOCATION             <$MAKEMSI_BASE_REGISTRY_KEY>\PersistingProperties
#define? PROPERTY_PERSIST_PRODUCT_LOCATION          <$PROPERTY_PERSIST_ROOT_LOCATION>\<$ProdInfo.Productname>
#define? PROPERTY_PERSIST_PRODUCT_VERSION_LOCATION  <$PROPERTY_PERSIST_PRODUCT_LOCATION>\<$ProductVersion>
#define? PROPERTY_PERSIST_SHARED_ROOT_LOCATION      <$PROPERTY_PERSIST_ROOT_LOCATION>\$Shared$              ;;You could redefine to include your company details (to ensure uniqueness)
#define? PROPERTY_PERSIST_DOCUMENT_REGISTRY_IN_HTML N             ;;Show in HTML report (Y/N)?
#define? PROPERTY_PERSIST_COMPONENT_ATTRIBUTES      LocalOnly
#define? PROPERTY_PERSIST_COMPONENT_PERMANENT       N             ;;Do values survive an uninstall?
#define? DEFAULT_PROPERTY_PERSIST_OPTIONS4COMPONENT               ;;Any options for autocreated components
#define? PROPERTYCA_DEFAULT_TYPE_ATTRIBUTES                       ;;You'll probably never need to change...

EXAMPLE - Simple

;--- Set a property ---------------------------------------------------------
<$Property "ROOTDRIVE" VALUE="C:\">

;--- Get "CustomField" from .VER product information ------------------------
<$Property "CustomField" VALUE="<$ProdInfo.CustomField>">

EXAMPLE - Remember Installation Directory

If you main installation directory is "INSTALLDIR" and you wish to remember where a user may have redirected this for all future installs of your product then you can use code similar to the following:

;--- Define the installation directory --------------------------------------
<$DirectoryTree Key="INSTALLDIR" Dir="[ProgramFilesFolder]\<$ProdInfo.ProductName>" CHANGE="\" MAKE="Y">

;--- Save/Restore the "INSTALLDIR" location ---------------------------------
<$Property "INSTALLDIR" Persist="Y" PersistHow="PRODUCT FOREVER">

;--- Example of using your own namespace ------------------------------------
<$Property "SharedProperty" Value="ItsShared" PERSIST="Y" PersistHow="LOCAL_MACHINE SHARED:MyCommon FOREVER">

Please email me any feedback, additional information or corrections. See this page online (look for updates) MAKEMSI© is (C)opyright Dennis Bareis 2003-2008 (All rights reserved). Saturday December 27 2008 at 3:15pm Visit MAKEMSI's Home Page