Everything About Properties [Wise Package Studio]

Properties are variables used by Windows Installer during installation. The list of Properties is found under the Product tab in the Setup Editor of Wise for Windows Installer.

Example of a Property

An example of a property is WiseInitSpaceError. If the installation does not have enough hard disk space to complete the installation, the message in the Value box is displayed.

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Five Ways to Set a Property

1. The author of the MSI can add his or her own properties in Properties, found under the Product tab in the Setup Editor of Wise e.g INSTALLDIR
2. Properties can be set at the command line.

   To set a property at the command line use the following:
   Msiexec /I "your.msi" PROP=YourValue e.g. ALLUSERS =1
   See Appendix A entitled "Command Line Options" which details all the different options which may be used.

3. Wise automatically sets certain properties. An example of an automatically installed property would be installation dialog boxes; Wise defaults to a certain series of dialog boxes for the installation of every MSI.
4. Some properties are set by Windows Installer according to the configuration of the Destination computer.
5. Properties can be set up so that the values are derived from the input of users. A dialog box is offered to the user and the results become the value of the property.

Categories of Properties

There are three categories of properties as defined by Windows Installer documentation:

• Private properties
• Public properties
• Restricted public properties. Restricted public properties are only relevant on locked-down Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP computers.

Private properties cannot be changed from the command line, neither can they be passed from the UI Sequence (the period of the install when dialog boxes are displayed, user choices are made, system information gathered) to the Execute Sequence (the period when the program is actually installed). This means that private properties are more secure. Properties are made private by using some lowercase letters in the name of the property.

Public Properties can be changed from the command line and passed from the UI Sequence to the Execute Sequence (see above). For a property to be public, it must contain no lowercase letters.

Restricted Properties. The author of the MSI may want to limit the ability to change some public properties i.e. not want the user to change them. When the 'Add to the list of restricted public properties', box is checked within a Property it can only be changed by the System Administrator (Note that this is only relevant on Windows NT/2000 systems).

Most Important WFWI Properties

The following list is a collection of common Wise for Windows Installer Properties. The properties are listed below with a brief description of what each property does. Additional information on these properties can be found in the Windows Installer SDK.

1. INSTALLDIR - This is the property/directory that holds the location where the main application will be installed. Generally, this is the location of the first directory created in your install when using the Installation Expert.
2. TARGETDIR - this property specifies the root destination directory for the installation.
3. ALLUSERS - This property is set to a value of 0, 1, or 2. The property determines if shortcuts are installed to the current user's profile or to the All User's Profile on Windows NT and Windows 2000 platforms.
4. REBOOT - This property is set to a value of Force, Suppress, or ReallySuppress. This property allows the user to force a reboot at the end of the install or suppress a required reboot to varying extents.
5. REINSTALLMODE - This property is set to a sequence of character flags that affect how the Windows Installer behaves during Reinstall and Install.
6. REMOVE - This property contains a comma-delimited list of features that will be removed from the system when the .MSI is executed. In addition, there is special key word of All, which will do a complete uninstall of the current product.
7. APPS_TEST - This property, when set to 1, allows the user to make use of the DRLocator table and RegLocator table with the AppSearch table to search for and retrieve files paths or registry key values.
8. SystemLanguageID - This property holds the value of the current language code the operating system is running.
9. VersionNT - This property contains the current version number of an NT based operating system.
10. Version9X - This property contains the current version of a 9x based operating system.
11. Intel/Alpha - These properties identify the type of processor used in the current machine. A numeric value is used to represent each different processor type (such as 4 for 486, 5 for Pentium, 6 for Pentium Pro/II/III).
12. Time - This property holds the current local system time.
13. Date - This property holds the current local system date.
14. AdminUser - This property is set if the current user has administrator privileges on the local machine.
15. DiskPrompt - This property contains the text string that the user sees when creating media based installations that span multiple media. The text in this string will be displayed when a media switch is required. By default, Wise sets this property to the value [ProductName] [1].
16. INSTALLLEVEL - This property contains the current installation level (stored as a numeric value). The Windows Installer will install all features whose level attribute is less than or equal to the value in INSTALLLEVEL

Creating Properties

Properties are found under the Product tab in the Setup Editor.

1. To create a new property, right click on Properties and select New > Property from the menu.
2. In the dialog box that opens, enter the Name of the property (Properties can contain only letters, numbers, underscores (_) or periods and must begin with a letter or number) and assign the property a value (you must enter an initial value for the property as the table cannot hold an empty/blank value).
3. If you wish the property to be a restricted public property, check the relevant box - note that the box will not be available should there be any lowercase text in the Name box.

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Editing Properties

To edit a property, right click on that property and select Details.

Deleting Properties

Delete a property by right clicking on that property and selecting Delete from the menu.