Actions

From InstallJammer Wiki

Actions are what InstallJammer uses to perform tasks while an installer or uninstaller is running. An action can be anything that you might want to do. Any action can be added to any pane in an install, and each action is checked and run in order during installation.

Actions allow you a great amount of flexibility in your installer. While many actions are provided as a convenience for common tasks you might want to perform, you also have the option to script your actions to do anything you like.

Each action may also have any number of Conditions attached to it that are checked before executing. If the action does not meet the necessary conditions, it will be skipped, and the next action will be checked.

Actions may also be a part of an Action Group where the group itself has a set of conditions that determine whether the group will be executed.

A new install will come setup with many default actions. Without actions, the installer is nothing more than a bunch of panes to move back-and-forth through. The actions are what really does the work during the installation.

Contents 1 Supported Platforms 2 Standard Properties 3 Advanced Properties 4 Action Categories 4.1 Console Actions 4.2 Execute Actions 4.3 File Actions 4.4 General Actions 4.5 Install Actions 4.6 Java Actions 4.7 Shortcut Actions 4.8 System Actions 4.9 Uninstall Actions 4.10 Windows Registry Actions 4.11 Windows Service Actions 4.12 Wizard Actions

[edit] Supported Platforms

Most actions and conditions in InstallJammer are supported by all available platforms, but some of them are platform-specific and only apply to those platforms. When dealing with actions or conditions that are platform-specific, you don't need to worry about adding conditions to check the platform. When the documentation lists that only certain platforms are supported for an action or condition, InstallJammer will automatically skip those actions on other platforms during execution. The action will still show up in debug logs as being exected though, so if you wanted to make that clearer, you could add your own Platform Condition.

[edit] Standard Properties

ID

A unique identifier for this object. This ID is generated when the object is created and does not change throughout the life of the object.

Component

This property tells you what action was originally used to create this object.

Active

This tells InstallJammer whether this object is active or not. An inactive object is not packaged when building an installer.

Alias

An alias is an alias by which to call an object ID. Any object in InstallJammer that has an ID can also have an alias. This makes it easier to remember objects by their alias instead of their object ID. For example, the Install Actions group that is created for a new project is aliased to be called Install Actions to make it easier to call from other actions.

Comment

Comments are sometimes provided by InstallJammer to tell you what an object is doing, but they are usually set by someone building the project. Comments are not used by InstallJammer for anything and can contain any text you want.

Conditions

This tells you if there are any conditions placed on the object that will be checked during installation. Selecting this property will let you bring up the Conditions Editor to see and modify any conditions on the object.

Data

This property is used to hold user-specific data. Just like comments, this data is not used by InstallJammer and is safe for you to store anything you want into it. This can be helpful for storing other bits of relevant data with an object in the system for use by other objects, actions or conditions.

Execute Action

This tells InstallJammer when to execute the given action. The descriptions of when to execute mean just what they say. The default is After Pane is Displayed, which means to execute the action after the given pane has been displayed to the user.

Ignore Errors

This tells InstallJammer to ignore any errors that might occur while executing this action. Errors usually occur because of bad data, but they can be as a result of bugs. If this option is set to Yes, InstallJammer will keep moving to the next action / pane when it encounters an error instead of stopping the install.

[edit] Advanced Properties

Each action has a different set of advanced properties that further define the properties of the action. Please see the documentation for each type of action for more information.

[edit] Action Categories

[edit] Console Actions

• Console Ask Yes or No
• Console Clear Screen
• Console Get User Input
• Console Message
• Console Pause

[edit] Execute Actions

• Execute Action
• Execute External Program
• Execute Script

[edit] File Actions

• Adjust Line Feeds
• Backup File
• Change File Ownership
• Change File Permissions
• Copy File
• Create File Link
• Create Folder
• Delete File
• Read File Into Virtual Text
• Rename File
• Replace Text in File
• Write Text to File
• Unzip File

[edit] General Actions

• Continue Install
• Exit
• Fetch URL
• Generate UID
• Launch File
• Launch Web Browser
• Log Debug Message
• Message Box
• Message Panel
• Modify Object
• Pause Install
• Set Object Property
• Set Virtual Text
• Stop Install
• Text Window
• Wait

[edit] Install Actions

• Add Install Info
• Add to Uninstall
• Check for Previous Install
• Get Previous Install Info
• Install Log File
• Install Selected Files
• Install Uninstaller
• Install Wish Binary
• Install Wrapped Script
• Unpack Stored File

[edit] Java Actions

• Get Java Property
• Locate Java Runtime

[edit] Shortcut Actions

• Install Desktop Shortcut
• Install Program Folder Shortcut
• Install UNIX Shortcut
• Install Windows Shortcut

[edit] System Actions

• Add Directory to Path
• Add Environment Variable
• Delete Environment Variable
• Reboot or Shutdown System
• Register Package
• Remove Directory from Path

[edit] Uninstall Actions

• Uninstall Leftover Files
• Uninstall Selected Files

[edit] Windows Registry Actions

• Add Windows File Command
• Add Windows File Extension
• Add Windows File Type
• Add Windows Registry Key
• Add Windows Uninstall Entry
• Import Windows Registry File
• Remove Windows Registry Key

[edit] Windows Service Actions

• Continue Windows Service
• Create Windows Service
• Delete Windows Service
• Pause Windows Service
• Start Windows Service
• Stop Windows Service

[edit] Wizard Actions

• Add Pane to Order
• Add Widget
• Create Install Panes
• Destroy Widget
• Focus On Widget
• Modify Widget
• Move Forward
• Move to Pane
• Populate Components
• Populate Setup Types
• Remove Pane from Order