Defining Features

InstallShield 2020 Express Edition

A feature is a building block of an application from the end user’s perspective. It represents a specific capability of your product—such as its help files or a part of a product suite that can be installed or uninstalled based on the end user’s selections. Your entire application should be divided into features that perform a specific purpose. You can define features in the Features view.

A feature should be self-contained, in the sense that a feature should not require sibling features. For example, a thesaurus feature should not require a dictionary feature that the end user can choose not to install. However, you can design your installation to contain subfeatures of a “parent” feature, which allow the end user finer control over which files and data to install.

Subfeatures are further divisions of a feature. If all features and subfeatures are visible, your end user can then select which portions of a feature to install in the Custom Setup dialog.

Tip:Although you can create many levels of subfeatures, you should keep the design as simple as possible for organizational purposes.