labview 8 app builder file placement

[TNeilson]

I'm trying to build an installer (I sure wish I could just use install shield) for an application.  I'm trying to have files copied to c:\<directory> but that doesn't appear to be an option.  Under the Source Files selection, on the right side (destination) the only directories that appear are:

[DesktopFolder]

[LV80RTEDIR]

[LVDIR]

[PersonalFolder]

[ProgramFilesFolder]

[SystemFolder]

[TempFolder]

[WindowsFolder]

[WindowsVolume]

Also, when it asks the user to select the directory to install files, is there a way to hide the part for installing the National Instruments files?  I'd like that just to be default where the user cannot change it, but not show it as well.

[AESulzer]

The destination "[WindowsVolume]" corresponds to whatever volume in which Windows is installed, which is the C:\ drive on most systems. The reason why the installer doesn't allow you to specify C:\ explicitly is because that drive may not exist on the target PC or it may correspond to a removeable storage drive, like a CD-ROM. By specifying the windows volume instead, you ensure that you are always installing to valid location.

As for your second question, I'm not sure what you mean by "the National Instruments files". Are you talking about the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine and NI drivers? If so, you can run a batch file after your installer completes (set up under the "Advanced" tab) that installs any installers silently instead of bundling those installers with the installer for your executable. You can then use command line arguments to specify varying levels of silence while your other installers install. The online Knowledgebase here explains the process in detail.

Kind Regards,

[TNeilson]

ok, the link you gave me was for 6.1 and higher but apparently it is not the same for 8.0 and 8.0.1.  How will the user know when it is finished installing?  Will the main (my program's) portion of the installer stay on the screen until this is finished in the background?

[AESulzer]

The KB I linked hasn't been updated for LabVIEW 8.0 yet, but it does still apply to it. The only difference is that the Run-Time Engine installer for LabVIEW 8.0 is located in a different place, <CD Drive>:\Bin\Products\Runtime Engine\lv80rte. The extent to whether the user knows when it finishes installing all depends on how silent you configure the installation to be. If you configure it to have no UI, then the user obviously won't see anything and won't know when it finishes, but you can configure other degrees of "silence" that do have a UI, all of which are described in the KB I linked previously.

Kind Regards,

[TNeilson]

The options talked about in that KB don't apply to 8.0.   It seems that only the /q option works wich is no UI. 

[AESulzer]

If you are trying to call the actual setup executable, you are correct: the command line options have changed for version 8.0 and only the /q works for silent mode. All of the available command line options for the setup executable of the LabVIEW 8.0 Run-Time Engine are documented in this KB. You can, however, call the underlying .msi files directly (like the one for the Run-Time Engine located in the path I gave before) and then use the general msi command line options, which do include all of the different silent mode varieties. To get a list of the command line options you can use on all msi files, just enter "msiexec /?" in the command prompt.

Kind Regards,