VBMySQL.com

Introduction

In our previous article we added the final base functionality to our application, allowing for the creation and use of custom status messages. Now that we have a basic working application we can move to creating an installer for our application, allowing it to be deployed to other PCs.

There are multiple options for creating installers for a Visual Basic application, including the new one-click installer that will be included with Visual Studio.NET 2005. In this tutorial I am going to introduce you to an excellent Open Source installer called InnoSetup. InnoSetup is a script-driven installer, written in Delphi, that is very versatile and expandable. InnoSetup is free for commercial use and is available for download at www.innosetup.com.

In addition to the files generated by the Visual Basic compiler, we also need the .NET framework 2.0 installer, for those machines that do not have the appropriate version of the .NET framework installed. The .NET framework redistributable package can be downloaded here.

Building the Application

Before we can package the application into an installer, we need to build an executable. Open your project in VB.NET and choose the Clean option from the Build menu. The Clean option deletes all binary and intermediate files from the project, ensuring that the next build will not contain any old files. After the clean is completed, choose the Build option from the Build menu.

After building the project, the bin directory will contain the In-Out.exe executable. and the In-Out.exe.config configuration file. As these are the only two files in our application the installation will be relatively simple; we must install the two built files and run the .NET framework installer.

Creating an Installation Support Directory

First we need to create an installation support directory within our project directory to store the installer files and the support files. Add a \install directory with \support and \output sub-directories to your project directory.

Move the .NET framework installer (dotnetfx.exe) into the \support directory. The \output directory will contain the compiled install file.

Creating the Install Script

Now that we have built the executable. and prepared the support files, we are ready to create the application installer. The InnoSetup tool comes with a wizard interface that we will use to build the basic install profile. Download InnoSetup from www.innosetup.com and install it before proceeding.

Once you have downloaded and installed InnoSetup, start InnoSetup and you will be presented with a file dialog:

Choose the Create a new script file using the Script Wizard option and click OK.

The next dialog is an introduction to the wizard:

Make sure the Create a new empty script file option is un-checked and click Next >.

Setting the Application Information

The next dialog in the wizard is for setting some basic application information:

Set the appropriate application information for your project and click Next > (if you are unsure about a piece of information just use a dummy value, you can change it later).

Setting the Program Directory

After setting the basic application information, we can configure the installation directory for our application:

It is generally best to install to the Program Files directory of the target machine. Set the application directory name and click Next >.

Specifying Installation Files

The next step is to specify the files that will be included with the installer:

Browse to the executable file you created in VB.NET and specify it as your application main executable file. After identifying your main executable, use the Add file(s) button to add the .config file for your executable.

After you have specified your application files, click Next >.

Creating Shortcuts and Icons

After specifying installation files we move on to creating a Start menu entry and various shortcuts to our application:

Select a start menu folder name (usually your application name) and choose your desired options. I like to add an Uninstall icon to the start menu entry just to make things more convenient for my users.

Once you have configured the Start menu entry, click Next >.

Specifying Install Documentation

The next screen of the wizard allows you to specify installation documentation files:

Of particular interest is the License file; if you specify a license file, the user will be unable to proceed with the installation without agreeing to the contents of the license file.

In our case we do not have a license file, so leave the fields blank and click Next >.

Specifying Output Files

The final step in the InnoSetup wizard is to specify where the output files of the InnoSetup compiler will be placed:

Set the Custom compiler destination base directory to the \output subdirectory you created previously. You can change the base name of your installer if you wish, in my case I have changed the name to in-out-setup (InnoSetup will take care of the extension).

After entering your output settings, click Next >.

Finishing the InnoSetup Wizard

On the final screen of the InnoSetup wizard click the Finish button. When prompted, click the No button to skip compiling the new script. You should be presented with a setup script similar to this one:

; Script generated by the Inno Setup Script Wizard.
; SEE THE DOCUMENTATION FOR DETAILS ON CREATING INNO SETUP SCRIPT FILES!

[Setup]
AppName=In-Out
AppVerName=In-Out 1.0
AppPublisher=Mike Hillyer
AppPublisherURL=http://www.openwin.org
AppSupportURL=http://www.openwin.org
AppUpdatesURL=http://www.openwin.org
DefaultDirName={pf}\In-Out
DefaultGroupName=In-Out
OutputDir=C:\Documents and Settings\mhillyer\Desktop\in-out\install\output
OutputBaseFilename=in-out-setup
Compression=lzma
SolidCompression=yes

[Tasks]
Name: "desktopicon"; Description: "{cm:CreateDesktopIcon}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:AdditionalIcons}"; Flags: unchecked
Name: "quicklaunchicon"; Description: "{cm:CreateQuickLaunchIcon}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:AdditionalIcons}"; Flags: unchecked

[Files]
Source: "C:\Documents and Settings\mhillyer\Desktop\in-out\In-Out\bin\In-Out.exe"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "C:\Documents and Settings\mhillyer\Desktop\in-out\In-Out\bin\In-Out.exe.config"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
; NOTE: Don't use "Flags: ignoreversion" on any shared system files

[Icons]
Name: "{group}\In-Out"; Filename: "{app}\In-Out.exe"
Name: "{group}\{cm:UninstallProgram,In-Out}"; Filename: "{uninstallexe}"
Name: "{userdesktop}\In-Out"; Filename: "{app}\In-Out.exe"; Tasks: desktopicon
Name: "{userappdata}\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\In-Out"; Filename: "{app}\In-Out.exe"; Tasks: quicklaunchicon

[Run]
Filename: "{app}\In-Out.exe"; Description: "{cm:LaunchProgram,In-Out}"; Flags: nowait postinstall skipifsilent

This script is enough to perform a basic installation of the application in a target machine. Choose the Save option of the File menu of InnoSetup and save the script in the /install directory of your project (I named mine in-out.iss). You may want to change the various file paths in the script to relative paths, just to make it easier to move your project directory around.

Adding the .NET Framework

While the installer would now successfully install our application, we need to add support for installing the .NET Framework. The dotnetfx.exe we downloaded earlier needs to be added to the installer and run as part of the installation process. This will radically increase the size of the installation (the MSI installer is 22 megabytes), but it cannot be avoided since we cannot assume that the target machine will have the .NET Framework 2.0.

Adding a File to the Install Script

We need to instruct InnoSetup to add dotnetfx.exe to the installer. We will want to have this file available during the installation as a temporary file that is deleted at the end of the installation.

Files that are part of the installation are listed in the [Files] section of the installer script. We specify a source and destination for each file, along with special flags that dictate the behavior of the file. In our case the source is support/dotnetfx.exe, the destination is a special target called {tmp} that maps to a temporary directory on the target machine:

        Source: support\dotnetfx.exe; DestDir: {tmp}; Flags: deleteafterinstall

This line ensures that the MSI installer for the .NET Framework will be available to the installer.

Executing the Installer

Now that the installer is part of the installation package, we need to add a call to the installation script to run it before the installation completes.

We can run applications during the install process by adding them to the [Run] section of the install script. We can specify parameters to pass to the application, along with a working directory and a status message to display while the application runs:

        Filename: {tmp}\dotnetfx.exe; Parameters: "/q"; WorkingDir: {tmp}; StatusMsg: Installing DotNET Framework 2.0

The parameter we are passing to dotnetfx.exe instructs it to be quiet during the installation and thus not bother the user as much.

Adding Connector/NET

The last file needed for our application is the assembly file for Connector/NET, named MySql.Data.dll. The assembly file can be found in the Connector/NET installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Connector NET 1.0.X).

Copy the dll file to your \Support directory and add the following line to your install script:

        Source: support\MySql.Data.dll; DestDir: {app}

This will add the dll file to your application install directory.

Compiling the Installer

Now that we have added the .NET Framework and Connector/NET to the installer, we can proceed with the install. Before we do, here is an example of what your install script may look like:

[Setup]
AppName=In-Out
AppVerName=In-Out 1.0
AppPublisher=Mike Hillyer
AppPublisherURL=http://www.openwin.org
AppSupportURL=http://www.openwin.org
AppUpdatesURL=http://www.openwin.org
DefaultDirName={pf}\In-Out
DefaultGroupName=In-Out
OutputDir=output
OutputBaseFilename=in-out-setup
Compression=lzma
SolidCompression=yes

[Tasks]
Name: desktopicon; Description: {cm:CreateDesktopIcon}; GroupDescription: {cm:AdditionalIcons}; Flags: unchecked
Name: quicklaunchicon; Description: {cm:CreateQuickLaunchIcon}; GroupDescription: {cm:AdditionalIcons}; Flags: unchecked

[Files]
Source: ..\In-Out\bin\In-Out.exe; DestDir: {app}; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: ..\In-Out\bin\In-Out.exe.config; DestDir: {app}; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: support\dotnetfx.exe; DestDir: {tmp}; Flags: deleteafterinstall
Source: support\MySql.Data.dll; DestDir: {app}

[Icons]
Name: {group}\In-Out; Filename: {app}\In-Out.exe
Name: {group}\{cm:UninstallProgram,In-Out}; Filename: {uninstallexe}
Name: {userdesktop}\In-Out; Filename: {app}\In-Out.exe; Tasks: desktopicon
Name: {userappdata}\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\In-Out; Filename: {app}\In-Out.exe; Tasks: quicklaunchicon

[Run]
Filename: {tmp}\dotnetfx.exe; Parameters: "/q"; WorkingDir: {tmp}; StatusMsg: Installing DotNET Framework 2.0
Filename: {app}\In-Out.exe; Description: {cm:LaunchProgram,In-Out}; Flags: nowait postinstall skipifsilent

You can begin compiling the installer by choosing the Compile option from the Build menu of InnoSetup. The progress of the compile will be displayed in the bottom window of InnoSetup. Once the compile is complete we can test the installer.

Testing the Installer

To test the installer, choose the Run option from the Run menu of InnoSetup. As you work through the installer debug information will be presented in the bottom window of InnoSetup. If your installer works without error during this test, the next step will be to test the installation on a ‘clean’ machine that you have not installed your application on before and which does not have the .NET Framework installed.

If your application works properly on the clean machine you can be fairly certain that it will run properly on the target platform represented by that machine. If you expect to deploy on other versions of Windows, you may want to try installing your application on clean machines running that version of Windows.

Improving the Installer

There are some minor improvements that could be made to our installer, including the addition of support for downloading the .NET Framework files only if needed, and adding different install types such as Minimal, Full, and Custom. While these changes will not be covered in this article, the InnoSetup documentation is quite good and should help you make such changes if you so desire.

Conclusion

We now have a working installer for our application, allowing us to distribute the application to our users. The installer deploys our application, the .NET Framework, and Connector/NET, allowing the application to be deployed on any number of desktops, all with a versatile, Open Source installer that ships a single executable. for installation.

The source code for this project is available at http://www.vbmysql.com/wp-content/uploads/vb-mysql-tutorial-part-7.zip.

This will be the last regular article in this tutorial series, I hope it has proven of use to you in learning the basics of working with Visual Basic.NET and MySQL. As I continue development of the application covered in these articles, I will write individual articles covering single subjects such as the system tray, creating configuration screens, and using version control.