MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\Tips and TricksUser Interface TipsDynamically Update Dialog Controls

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Dynamically Update Dialog Controls

The source of this tip is "TryMeWithUserDialog.MM" so please see it for a complete example.

This code demonstrates the basics of dynamically making in memory updates to an MSI while it is executing. You would do this as you are examining the environment and possibly providing relevant choices to a user.

This code assumes there is a "ComboBox" control called "ANSWER6" and notice that the custom action is of type "immediate" (a deferred CA can't update the database!).

Similar code could of course make any other database changes (to any tables) you might need to make.

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------
;--- Dynamically insert records into a "ComboBox" dialog control ------------
;----------------------------------------------------------------------------
<$VbsCa Binary="AddEntriesToDialogControls.VBS">
   ;--- Initialization ------------------------------------------------------
   const MSIMODIFY_INSERT_TEMPORARY = 7
   dim oInstaller, oDB, oView                     'Some globals
   dim ErrNumb, ErrDesc
   #define SAVE.ERR.DETAILS   ErrNumb = err.number : ErrDesc = err.description
   #define ADD.ERR.DETAILS    vbCRLF & vbCRLF & "Reason 0x" & hex(ErrNumb) & " - " & ErrDesc

   ;--- INSTALL -------------------------------------------------------------
   <$VbsCaEntry "UpdateControls">
       ;--- Extra a binary --------------------------------------------------
       AddEntriesToDialogControls()
   <$/VbsCaEntry>

   <?NewLine><?NewLine>
   '%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
   sub AddEntriesToDialogControls()
   '%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
       ;--- We will handle all errors ourselves -----------------------------
       on error resume next
       CaDebug 1, "Updating Dialog Controls as a demo..."

       ;--- Open the database -----------------------------------------------
       CaDebug 0, "Opening the database"
       set oInstaller = session.Installer
       set oDB        = session.Database
       if  err.number <> 0 then
           <$SAVE.ERR.DETAILS>
           on error goto 0
           VbsCaRaiseError "AddEntriesToDialogControls()", "Tried to open the database..." & <$ADD.ERR.DETAILS>
       end if

       ;--- Look for the BINARY ---------------------------------------------
       CaDebug 2, "Opening a view to the ComboBox table"
       set oView = oDB.OpenView("SELECT * FROM `ComboBox`")
       oView.Execute()
       if  err.number <> 0 then
           <$SAVE.ERR.DETAILS>
           on error goto 0
           VbsCaRaiseError "AddEntriesToDialogControls()", "Could not open a view to the ComboBox table..." & <$ADD.ERR.DETAILS>
       end if

       ;--- Add lines (normally in some sort of loop looking at environment) ---
       on error goto 0
       AddComboBoxLine4ANSWER6 30000, "Fish (dynamic)", "Splash"
       AddComboBoxLine4ANSWER6 30001, "Bird (dynamic)", "Tweet Tweet"

       ;--- Finish up -------------------------------------------------------
       on error resume next
       set oView      = Nothing
       set oInstaller = Nothing
       set oDB        = Nothing
   end sub

   <?NewLine><?NewLine>
   '%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
   sub AddComboBoxLine4ANSWER6(Order, Text, Value)
   '%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
       ;--- Create a blank record -------------------------------------------
       on error resume next
       CaDebug 0, "Adding control with value: " & Value
       CaDebug 0, "Creating record..."
       dim oRec : set oRec = oInstaller.CreateRecord(4)
       if  err.number <> 0 then
           <$SAVE.ERR.DETAILS>
           on error goto 0
           VbsCaRaiseError "AddComboBoxLine4ANSWER6", "Failed adding blank record" & <$ADD.ERR.DETAILS>
       end if

       ;--- Update the record we just created -------------------------------
       CaDebug 0, "Updating Record..."
       dim Property : Property = "ANSWER6"
       oRec.StringData(1)  = Property
       oRec.IntegerData(2) = Order
       oRec.StringData(3)  = Value
       oRec.StringData(4)  = Text
       if  err.number <> 0 then
           <$SAVE.ERR.DETAILS>
           on error goto 0
           VbsCaRaiseError "AddComboBoxLine4ANSWER6", "Failed updating the record (is Order=" & Order & " valid?)" & <$ADD.ERR.DETAILS>
       end if

       ;--- Insert the record -----------------------------------------------
       CaDebug 0, "Inserting into the view..."
       oView.Modify MSIMODIFY_INSERT_TEMPORARY, oRec
       if  err.number <> 0 then
           <$SAVE.ERR.DETAILS>
           on error goto 0
           VbsCaRaiseError "AddComboBoxLine4ANSWER6", "The record insertion failed" & <$ADD.ERR.DETAILS>
       end if
end sub
<$/VbsCa>
<$VbsCaSetup Binary="AddEntriesToDialogControls.VBS" Entry="UpdateControls" Seq="<-WelcomeDlg" SeqTable="InstallUISequence" Type="Immediate" CONDITION=^<$CONDITION_INSTALL_ONLY>^>

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