Microsoft KB Archive/194434

= HOWTO: Using the Setup Wizard in Visual FoxPro 6.0 =

Article ID: 194434

Article Last Modified on 2/11/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Data Access Components 2.5

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This article was previously published under Q194434



SUMMARY
This article describes the use of the Visual FoxPro 6.0 Setup Wizard. The Setup Wizard creates distributions from the files in your distribution tree, along with necessary system files.



Starting the Setup Wizard
To start the Setup Wizard from the Tools menu, choose Wizards and then click Setup. If this is the first time the Setup Wizard has run since your Visual FoxPro 6.0 installation, it prompts you for a Distribution directory location. Please select the "Create directory" button when this prompt displays.

Step 1 - Locate Files
This step requires that you select a directory for your distribution tree. Consider this as the source of the files you wish to distribute. The distribution directory tree should already exist before you run the Setup Wizard. All files and subdirectories of this directory are created when the application installs on the user's computer. Be sure to include all files the user requires, but do not include any files the user does not require, or files that you do not wish the user to install.

Please refer to the section "Preparing to Make Distribution Disks" in Chapter 25: "Building an Application for Distribution" in the Visual FoxPro Programmers Guide for details.

The Setup Wizard records the options you set for each distribution tree and uses them as default values the next time you create a setup routine from the same distribution tree. This information is stored in the Wzsetup.ini file in the distribution directory. There is also a Wzsetup.ini file in the Visual FoxPro home directory, which enables the Setup Wizard to default to the distribution directory from the previous run.

NOTE: Do not attempt to use the DISTRIB directory that the Wizard creates in the step "Starting the Setup Wizard" as the directory for your distribution tree. In addition, it is a good idea to place your source tree outside the Visual FoxPro directory.

Step 2 - Specify Components
Select the system features your application uses. The Setup Wizard creates a setup routine that includes all necessary system files for the system features you specify.

The following table lists the sizes of files that you can include with your setup routine.                                             Select this option if    Option                         Size      your application... -

Visual FoxPro 6.0 Run-time    4 MB      Requires the Visual FoxPro Run-time file, Vfp6r.dll to                                            execute. This .dll file is automatically included with your application's files, and installs correctly on the user's computer.

Microsoft 8.0 Graph Run-time  2.2 MB    Includes forms that use Graph 8.0 controls.

ODBC Drivers                  4.3 MB    Communicates with tables other than Visual FoxPro .dbf files. Displays the ODBC Drivers dialog box so you can select the necessary drivers your application requires.

COM Components                (varies)  Includes a Component Object Model (COM) component consisting of an .exe or .dll file. Displays the "Adding COM Components" dialog box. Please see the Add COM Components section for details. This was the "Add                                            OLE Servers" dialog box in                                             Visual FoxPro 5.0.

ActiveX Controls              (varies)  Requires support for multiple in-process servers, or                                            enhanced internet and Web page functionality through installation of ActiveX controls. Displays the "Add                                            ActiveX Controls" dialog box. See the ActiveX Controls section for details. This is                                            new to Visual FoxPro 6.0.

HTML help engine              700 KB    Requires the Microsoft HTML Help engine for the custom Help file in your application. For details, see Creating Graphical Help and the online Help for the HTML Help Workshop. This is new to                                            Visual FoxPro 6.0. The sizes listed in the preceding table represent the approximate bytes used after the files install on the user's hard disk.

Add COM Components Dialog Box

 * 1) To add a COM Component, choose the Add button.
 * 2) In the Open dialog box, select the .exe or .dll file for the server, and then click the OK button. The component's accompanying .tlb and .vbr (.exe only) files must be available in the same location as the file you select. The component file and accompanying files can exist either inside or outside the distribution source directory.
 * 3) If your COM component is an .exe file, you must register it as local or remote. Please see the "Adding COM Components" section of the Help topic "Setup Wizard: Step 2 - Specify Components" for details.

Add ActiveX Controls Dialog Box
This provides a list of the ActiveX controls registered on your computer. You need to select any ActiveX controls that you want to include with your application.

In previous versions of Visual FoxPro, to distribute an ActiveX control you had to copy the .ocx file to your distribution directory, and select the ActiveX check box next to the .ocx file name in the Grid of Step 6. This is no longer required, although you can still use this method if you wish. Here are the differences in the two approaches.


 * You must register controls included through the Add ActiveX Controls dialog box in order for them to appear in the list, but you do not need to copy them to the distribution directory. If you install new ActiveX controls, you must click the Refresh button in the Add ActiveX Controls dialog box to include the new controls in the list.
 * You do not need to register controls included through the grid in Step 6, but you must place them in the distribution directory.

We recommend the first approach because it does not require that you copy your .ocx files into each distribution directory. This can be difficult if you have multiple applications and want to upgrade a control to a newer version. Do not include the same ActiveX controls using both approaches. Use the approach you prefer, but only that one approach.

Step 3 - Create Disk Image Directory
The Setup Wizard creates a disk image directory tree containing images for each type you specify. If you select the Websetup option, the Setup Wizard creates a single directory to hold all the files in compressed form. If you select the Netsetup option, the Setup Wizard creates a single directory to hold all the files in uncompressed form.    Image                   Usage

1.44 MB 3.5-inch       When distributing to users that install from diskette.

Websetup (compressed)  When distributing to users that install through low speed connections like from intranet or                          Internet. If you want to create a Web executable (see Step 7 for details), you must select this type.

Netsetup (uncompressed) When distributing to users that install through a Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN) network connection. You can create the disk image directory before you run the Setup Wizard. If you want the Setup Wizard to create the directory for you, type a directory name in the text box.

Step 4 - Setup Options
The Setup Wizard creates installation dialog boxes with the title you specify in the Dialog Caption box. It also places the copyright statement in the About Setup dialog box that the user can access from the About command on the Setup application's control menu. Entries are required in the Dialog Caption and Setup Copyright boxes. The Post-Setup Executable entry is optional. If the Post-Setup executable is a Visual FoxPro executable, it functions correctly but may cause the setup program to hang when installed under Windows NT.

NOTE: To advance to Step 5, you must enter text in both the "Setup dialog box caption" and "Copyright information" text boxes. If you do not want to copyright your application, enter None for Copyright information.

Step 5 - Specify Default Destination
The setup routine places your application in the directory you specify in the Default directory text box. The directory and file structure tree created in the default directory by the setup program mimic the directory tree in the distribution directory from Step 1. You should enter the default Start menu program group in the Program group text box. The option buttons determine whether the user can change both the destination directory and the program group, or only the destination directory at install.

Step 6 - Change File Settings
NOTE: To create a Start menu program group and icon for your application, you must select the PM Item option, providing the information described in the following table.

The Setup Wizard lists your files in a grid. You can change the settings for the listed files by clicking the item you want to change. Only the files contained in your distribution directory structure are listed here. System files added through Step 2 do not display in the list. The following table describes the settings displayed in each column:   Column       Description

File        The file name as created on the user's computer. You cannot edit the file name here but it depends on the file name as               it appears in the distribution directory.

Target Dir  Selects the file directory. You can install the file on the user's computer into the Application directory (AppDir in               the drop-down), Windows directory (WinDir), or Windows System directory (WinSysDir).

PM Item     If you select this option, the wizard displays the Program Group Menu Item dialog box so you can specify program item Properties such as, Description, Command Line, and Icon.

The Description is the text that appears with the program icon in the Start Menu.

The Command Line is the path to the file you want to               display in the Start Menu. You should use an embedded %s sequence to replace the application directory. The "s" must be lowercase. Using the %s sequence ensures that the program item points to the files correctly even if your users specify a name for the application directory other than the default name. The following example specifies a               command line for an executable called MyExe.exe, located in                the distribution directory:

%s\MyExe.exe

If you are creating a Menu Item for your executable, and you add an icon to your executable, you do not need to add an icon in this step. You can add the icon to your executable by right-clicking in the Project Manager window and selecting Project Info. Click the Attach Icon in the Project page of the Project Information dialog box. Make sure you add an icon with 16 x 16 and 32 x 32 images so the image displays correctly in all Explorer views.

If you specify an icon that is outside your source tree, the setup routine installs the icon in your application directory.

ActiveX     If you select the check box here, the setup generated registers the ActiveX control when you install the control on a user's computer. As mentioned earlier, for the control to appear in the list here, you must add it to your distribution directory. The preferred approach is to add the controls as in Step 2, which requires no action here in               Step 6.

Step 7 - Finish
There are two check boxes at this point.

The "Generate a Web executable file" check box enables only if you select the Websetup check box in Step 3.

If you select "Generate a Web executable file", the Setup Wizard creates a single executable file from your distribution files, called Webapp.exe. This file is located in the directory specified in Step 3. Use this option with the Websetup option of Step 3 to maximize compression for fast Web download of your application. This option can be time-consuming if you have specified many setup options. The actual creation of the Web executable is done through a command prompt application, and displays a MS- DOS or Command Prompt box that shows the status.

The "Create a dependency (.DEP) file" specifies that the Setup Wizard create dependency files (an .ini-style file with a .dep extension). This file contains not only dependency files needed by a component, but also any necessary registration and localization information. This file is also located in the directory specified in Step 3.

When you choose Finish, the Setup Wizard records the configuration for use the next time you create distribution disks from the same distribution tree. It then starts creating the application disk or Net/Websetup images.

A progress dialog box displays as the wizard moves through its required functions.

After the Setup Wizard has completes, the Setup Wizard Disk Statistics dialog box displays. Here you find a list of files and their sizes, disk location if applicable, and so forth. Select Done to close the dialog box and complete the wizard.

Now that you have created the images you specified, you may use them for installation. If you chose the 1.44 MB 3.5 option to make disk images, copy the images to diskettes. Note that you must copy the contents of the Disk directory to each disk, not the directory itself. This means that the files themselves from each Disk are in the root directory of the diskette, rather than having the Disk directory in the root directory of each diskette. Then copy and combine the disks with the rest of your distribution package.

The Websetup and Netsetup directories contain Setup.exe, some other files required by setup, and a file named Setup1.cab. Setup1.cab contains your application files. The only difference between the two is that the files in Setup1.cab are in a compressed form for the Websetup.

To distribute a Netsetup or Websetup, place the contents of the Netsetup or Websetup directories in a network share and allow users to connect and run Setup.exe from there.

To distribute a Web executable, allow users to download the Webapp.exe and run it to install. You can rename this file to a more descriptive name if you wish, but be sure to retain the .exe extension.

