Referring to Feature States and Other Feature Data in the UI of an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced UI Project

InstallShield 2020

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.

At run time during an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced installation, you may need to trigger specific UI behavior that depends on feature-related information. Following are examples of how you may want to use this information:

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If a particular feature is not selected for installation, you can skip a special corresponding wizard page.

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If a specific feature is already installed, you can disable a check box on one of the wizard pages.

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You can create an extension condition DLL to define a custom condition for a feature-related check that you want the installation to perform at run time.

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You can configure the installation to display a custom feature tree wizard page that shows how much space on the target system each feature requires.

Following are various feature-related pseudo properties that you can check at run time during an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced UI installation. In each case, the name portion should be replaced with the name of the feature.

Feature-Related Pseudo Properties for the UI of an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced UI Installation

Pseudo Property	Type	Description
FEATURE[name].actionState	Read-write	This indicates the upcoming action for the specified feature. Available values are: • install—This state indicates that the feature is set to be installed. This state is valid only when the feature is not already installed. • remove—This state indicates that the feature is set to be removed. This state is valid only when the feature is already installed. • null (empty string)—An empty string state requests no action. It is always valid.
FEATURE[name].installState	Read-only	This indicates the current state of the specified feature. Available values are: • 0—The feature is currently absent from the target system. • 1—The feature is partially available on the target system; that is, only some of the packages in this feature are present. • 2—Only some of the feature’s child features are present on the target system. • 3—The feature is currently present on the target system.
FEATURE[name].displayName	Read-only	This indicates the name that is displayed for the specified feature on the appropriate wizard page at run time.
FEATURE[name].description	Read-only	This indicates the description of the specified feature that is displayed on a wizard page at run time.
FEATURE[name].cost	Read-only	This indicates how much space the specified feature requires on the target system.

You can set the read-write pseudo property FEATURE[name].actionState through an extension condition, for example, or through the Action setting for a control in the wizard interface.

You can read any of those pseudo properties through an extension condition or through in binding conditions for the Visible or Enabled settings for a control in the wizard interface.

See Also

Creating a Custom Condition for an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced UI Installation

Working with the Wizard Interface

Creating an Extension Condition DLL for an Advanced UI or Suite/Advanced UI Project

Configuring an Action for an Element in the Wizard Interface