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turning a standard installation into an ActiveX installation

I have just finished up an application developed by VC and used InstallShield to write an installer. Everything works fine. What I want now is to enable the users install my application directly from the web page(by ActiveX, or is there better ways?). I would really appreciate if anyone can explain in detail the steps needed for this.

Thanks a lot.

wyldsj

bbousquet

You might want to check InstallShield's web site. I think they have something for that.

V_Bapat

Listening

ShaunWilde

They have products called package for the web and install from the web both of which are available for evaluation purposes (~10days). Both products wrap your existing Installshield project

wyldsj

ASKER

I just tried the InstallFromTheWeb. It's cool and easy. But it's very expensive...(US$700-800)

ShaunWilde

I know - but it is to be expected as it is a very low volume application.

eg You may have a project with 10 developers but you only need 1 possibly 2 Installshields and you only need one InstallFromTheWeb and one PackageForTheWeb. However I am surprised it is that expensive it is only 245 UK pounds ~400 US dollars. I would have thought it was cheaper in the US

wyldsj

ASKER

Is it possible to write my own ActiveX that simply execute the setup.exe???

I don't have to bother for Netscape. So long as it supports IE will be good enough...

ShaunWilde

I - don't see why not - you would have to either bind all the objects together somehow so you can download them - this could be a script or list that the activeX control reads from the site - it would then have to download all the relevent files to the temp directory and then it would have to execute the setup

here it is in .ini form

[files]
file1=setup.exe
file2=data1.cab
....
filen=data2.cab

[execute]
exe1=setup.exe

you could of course build a dedicated activeX control but if you going to do it you might as well build an adaptable version.

wyldsj

ASKER

sorry ShaunWilde, can you please explain in more detail?

i.e. where do I store the ini file? how do I call it? etc...

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ShaunWilde

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wyldsj

ASKER

Yup, I got it working! Thanks, shaunwilde!

ShaunWilde

If it is truly adaptable or something other people might find useful and not part of a your company product/project you might fancy making it an article at one of the programmer web-sites such as www.codetools.com.