Question

I have developed my application in .Net and my installer is working fine.

Now I want some more functionality like adding checkbox at the end of installer for launching the same aplication after clicking the finish button.

I have also implemented the step given here :How can I customize an MSI in the Visual Studio setup/deployment project? But not able to get the checkbox at the end.

Existing JScript is this:

   // EnableLaaunchApplication.js <msi-file>
   // Performs a post-build fixup of an msi to launch a specific file when the install has completed


   // Configurable values
   var checkboxChecked = true;          // Is the checkbox on the finished dialog checked by default?
   var checkboxText = "Launch [ProductName]";   // Text for the checkbox on the  finished dialog
   var filename = "FlashApp.exe";   // The name of the executable to launch - change this to match the file you want to launch at the end of your setup


   // Constant values from Windows Installer
   var msiOpenDatabaseModeTransact = 1;

   var msiViewModifyInsert         = 1
   var msiViewModifyUpdate         = 2
   var msiViewModifyAssign         = 3
   var msiViewModifyReplace        = 4
   var msiViewModifyDelete         = 6



   if (WScript.Arguments.Length != 1)
   {
    WScript.StdErr.WriteLine(WScript.ScriptName + " file");
        WScript.Quit(1);
   }

   var filespec = WScript.Arguments(0);
   var installer = WScript.CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer");
   var database = installer.OpenDatabase(filespec, msiOpenDatabaseModeTransact);

   var sql
   var view
   var record

   try
   {
var fileId = FindFileIdentifier(database, filename);
if (!fileId)
    throw "Unable to find '" + filename + "' in File table";


WScript.Echo("Updating the Control table...");
// Modify the Control_Next of BannerBmp control to point to the new CheckBox
sql = "SELECT `Dialog_`, `Control`, `Type`, `X`, `Y`, `Width`, `Height`, `Attributes`, `Property`, `Text`, `Control_Next`, `Help` FROM `Control` WHERE `Dialog_`='FinishedForm' AND `Control`='BannerBmp'";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
record.StringData(15) = "CheckboxLaunch";
view.Modify(msiViewModifyReplace, record);
view.Close();

// Resize the BodyText and BodyTextRemove controls to be reasonable
sql = "SELECT `Dialog_`, `Control`, `Type`, `X`, `Y`, `Width`, `Height`, `Attributes`, `Property`, `Text`, `Control_Next`, `Help` FROM `Control` WHERE `Dialog_`='FinishedForm' AND `Control`='BodyTextRemove'";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
record.IntegerData(7) = 33;
view.Modify(msiViewModifyReplace, record);
view.Close();

sql = "SELECT `Dialog_`, `Control`, `Type`, `X`, `Y`, `Width`, `Height`, `Attributes`, `Property`, `Text`, `Control_Next`, `Help` FROM `Control` WHERE `Dialog_`='FinishedForm' AND `Control`='BodyText'";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
record.IntegerData(7) = 33;
view.Modify(msiViewModifyReplace, record);
view.Close();

// Insert the new CheckBox control
sql = "INSERT INTO `Control` (`Dialog_`, `Control`, `Type`, `X`, `Y`, `Width`, `Height`, `Attributes`, `Property`, `Text`, `Control_Next`, `Help`) VALUES ('FinishedForm', 'CheckboxLaunch', 'CheckBox', '18', '117', '343', '12', '3', 'LAUNCHAPP', '{\\VSI_MS_Sans_Serif13.0_0_0}" + checkboxText + "', 'CloseButton', '|')";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
view.Close();



WScript.Echo("Updating the ControlEvent table...");
// Modify the Order of the EndDialog event of the FinishedForm to 1
sql = "SELECT `Dialog_`, `Control_`, `Event`, `Argument`, `Condition`, `Ordering` FROM `ControlEvent` WHERE `Dialog_`='FinishedForm' AND `Event`='EndDialog'";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
record.IntegerData(6) = 1;
view.Modify(msiViewModifyReplace, record);
view.Close();

// Insert the Event to launch the application
sql = "INSERT INTO `ControlEvent` (`Dialog_`, `Control_`, `Event`, `Argument`, `Condition`, `Ordering`) VALUES ('FinishedForm', 'CloseButton', 'DoAction', 'VSDCA_Launch', 'LAUNCHAPP=1', '0')";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
view.Close();



WScript.Echo("Updating the CustomAction table...");
// Insert the custom action to launch the application when finished
sql = "INSERT INTO `CustomAction` (`Action`, `Type`, `Source`, `Target`) VALUES ('VSDCA_Launch', '210', '" + fileId + "', '')";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
view.Close();



if (checkboxChecked)
{
    WScript.Echo("Updating the Property table...");
    // Set the default value of the CheckBox
    sql = "INSERT INTO `Property` (`Property`, `Value`) VALUES ('LAUNCHAPP', '1')";
    view = database.OpenView(sql);
    view.Execute();
    view.Close();
}



database.Commit();
    }
    catch(e)
    {
WScript.StdErr.WriteLine(e);
WScript.Quit(1);
    }



    function FindFileIdentifier(database, fileName)
    {
var sql
var view
var record

// First, try to find the exact file name
sql = "SELECT `File` FROM `File` WHERE `FileName`='" + fileName + "'";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
if (record)
{
    var value = record.StringData(1);
    view.Close();
    return value;
}
view.Close();

// The file may be in SFN|LFN format.  Look for a filename in this case next
sql = "SELECT `File`, `FileName` FROM `File`";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
while (record)
{
    if (StringEndsWith(record.StringData(2), "|" + fileName))
    {
        var value = record.StringData(1);
        view.Close();
        return value;
    }

    record = view.Fetch();
}
view.Close();

    }

    function StringEndsWith(str, value)
    {
if (str.length < value.length)
    return false;

return (str.indexOf(value, str.length - value.length) != -1);
    }

Answer 1

You should be aware that Visual Studio setup projects are horrible in many ways. So much in fact that Microsoft has removed them from the Visual Studio 11 and encouraged users to use a free version of InstallShield called Limited Edition. ISLE supports adding a checkbox to the finish dialog to launch your application. Another possibility is to convert to Windows Installer XML. It all depends on your needs and how much time you want to invest in learning installers.

Visual Studio Setup Projects hides so much of the underlying MSI that it’s very limiting. There are ways to hack it with post build SQL updates to the MSI but it’s really a pain in the rear and not a scalable solution.

This kind of script is a worthless effort in my opinion. Let’s use an analogy. If you were using some implementation of a .NET langauge ( let’s call it Bb ) and you found out that it was lacking a bunch of CLR / .NET capabilities, would you use a postbuild to manipulate the IL in the resultant assemblies or would you just switch to a better CLR language like C#? It’s the same thing. Don’t manipulate the resultant MSI, switch to a better tool.