Defining Filters for a Dynamically Linked Folder in an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced UI Project

InstallShield 2016

Project • This information applies to the following project types:

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Advanced UI

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Suite/Advanced UI

Edition • The Advanced UI project type is available in the Professional edition of InstallShield. The Suite/Advanced UI project type is available in the Premier edition of InstallShield. For information about the differences between these two project types, see Advanced UI Projects vs. Suite/Advanced UI Projects.

Once you have added a dynamic link to your project, you can specify filter criteria for including files in and excluding files from the dynamic link.

To specifying filter criteria for a dynamic file link:

In the View List under Organization, click Packages.

In the Packages explorer, select the dynamically linked folder.

In the Files pane, click the folder for which you want to configure filter criteria.

In the Dynamic Link pane, review the subsettings under the Filter setting.

Do one of the following:

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To add a filter:

In the Filter setting, click the New filter button, and then select Include File, Exclude File, Include Folder, or Exclude Folder, depending on the type of filter you want to add. InstallShield adds a new row that you can use to define the filter.

In the new row, specify the name or the pattern for the file or folder.

To indicate a wild-card character, use an asterisk (*). For example, to include all .htm files, you could enter *.htm in an Include File setting. To include all files, you could enter *.*.

To refer to the root folder (the one that contains the package file) in a path, use a dot and a backslash:

For example, to refer to a ReadMe.txt file in a subfolder called MyDirectory, where MyDirectory is a subfolder of the folder that contains the package, you could use the following filter:

.\MyDirectory\ReadMe.txt

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To modify a filter: In the setting for the filter that you want to modify, enter the appropriate name or pattern for your filter.

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To change the order of the filter criteria: In the setting for the filter that you want to move, click the Move Filter button, and then click Move Up or Move Down.

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To remove a filter: In the setting for the filter that you want to remove, click Delete this Filter button.

How an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced UI Installation Evaluates the Filter Criteria at Build Time

At build time, InstallShield uses the filters that are set up for a dynamically linked folder to determine which folders and files to include in the release for a particular package, and which ones to exclude.

When InstallShield checks the dynamic link’s source folder (the folder that contains the package), it reviews the filters in the order that they are listed under the Filter setting, from top to bottom. The first file filter that matches a file is the one that determines whether the file is included in the build. Similarly, the first folder filter that matches a folder is the one that determines whether the folder’s files are included in the build.

For example, if the first filter in the list is as follows, InstallShield includes all files that are in the source folder, including a file called ReadMe.txt:

The *.* Include File filter overrides the ReadMe.txt Exclude File filter since the *.* filter is listed above the ReadMe.Txt filter.

If you move the ReadMe.txt filter exclusion above the *.* inclusion filter, the build includes all files except any that are named ReadMe.txt.

If a dynamically linked folder does not contain any filters, InstallShield includes all of the files that are in the source folder but none of the files in its subfolders.

Defining Filters for a Dynamically Linked Folder in an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced UI Project

InstallShield 2016 Help Library

August 2016