Ok this is a follow on from the last blog. So I'm going stick with the Hungarian notation due to the use of Wise Editor and Wise .wbs file formats. For the real dev's out there .. bite me this is only a scripting language so its ok.

First up I should go into the difference between functions and subs within Wise macro code. These act in a similar way to standard vbs code. Where a sub is a procedural piece of code that does not return a result. A function performs practically the same function however it allows a return value to be passed out of the function to the calling code.

Enumerate Tables into HTA

So I am going to throw out a few simple techniques I use on a regular basis with my macro's. So this first item shows how to generate an HTA to provide visual input to a user in the form of a drop down menu populated with Database table data. For all of the following examples I will remove all the declarations for readability.

Function EnumFeatures
        'Initialising Internet Explorer HTA page
        Set objExplorer = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
        objExplorer.Navigate "about:Hi there dudes"
        objExplorer.ToolBar = 0
        objExplorer.StatusBar = 0
        objExplorer.Width=400
        objExplorer.Height = 200
        objExplorer.Left = 0
        objExplorer.Top = 0
        Do While (objExplorer.Busy)
        Loop
        objExplorer.Visible = 1
        objExplorer.Document.writeln "Select a feature to add your stuff to"

       'Connecting to Feature Table

        Set tblFeature = WTables("Feature")

        Redim preserve  arrFeature(0)       
        arrFeature(0) = "Default"
        i = 1

        'Loop to add each row of the feature table to an array.
        For Each rowFeature In tblFeature.WRows
            Redim preserve arrFeature(i)
            arrFeature(i) = RowFeature("Feature")
            i= i + 1
        Next

        'Adding each feature name to HTA dropdown
        objExplorer.Document.WriteLn ("<select id=""DD_Feature"" size=""1"" style=""background-color:WhiteSmoke"">")
        i = 0
        For i = 0 To UBound(arrFeature)
            objExplorer.Document.WriteLn "<option value=" & arrFeature(i) & ">" & arrFeature(i) & "</option>"
        Next
        objExplorer.Document.WriteLn "</select>"

       'Waits for user to select a feature

        Do until objExplorer.Document.All.DD_Feature.Value <> "Default"
         i = 0
         i = i + 1
        Loop

       'Returns selected drop down entry to calling code
        EnumFeatures = objExplorer.Document.All.DD_Feature.Value
    End Function

Using this technique you can add custom entries into 'undefined' feature names. For example if you are editing a vendor MSI you may find naming conventions a little unusual which means its difficult to anticipate what feature names you can add your custom items to. Using this you can present the packager with options that a specific to the current package allowing them a GUI view to add with selection of features from the current package.

Note: You do not have to use the Feature table this is just the example I chose to use for this demonstration.

Backup Macro

One of my favourite little macros is this little gem. This when added to the Save_Event allows backup of WSI and MST files after each compile. This has saved me and others hours of time when they accidentally delete something they should of kept.

Sub BackupProject
    If sstrExtension = "WSI" Or sstrExtension = "MST" Then
        If sobjFSO.FileExists(sstrFilePath & sstrFilename) Then

            'Creating folder within project folder (relative to wsi / msi / mst)
            CreateSourceFolder(sstrExtension & "Backup")
            strDateTimeStamp = Now
            strNewFileName = sstrFilePath & sstrExtension & "Backup\" & sstrFilename1 & "_" & Year(strDateTimeStamp) & "-            " & Month(strDateTimeStamp) & "-" & _
                Day(strDateTimeStamp) & "-" & Hour(strDateTimeStamp) & "-" & Minute(strDateTimeStamp) & "-" &                   Second(strDateTimeStamp) & "." & sstrExtension
            sobjFSO.CopyFile sstrFilePath & sstrFilename, strNewFileName
        Else
        End If
    Elseif sstrExtension = "MSI" And sobjFSO.FileExists(sstrFilePath & sstrFilename1 & ".WSI") Then
        MsgBox "Warning: You are not currently working the WSI even though it exists"
    End If
End Sub

'Sub to create folder in app path

Sub CreateSourceFolder(strFolder)
   
    If Not sobjFSO.Folderexists(sstrFilepath & strFolder) Then
        sobjFSO.createfolder(sstrFilepath & strFolder)
    End If   
End Sub

Using a macro with user input

Ok so this is again very powerful and similar types of routines can greatly assist the speed and development of packaging. I'm sure many of you have falling victim to spending hours trying to get a silly custom action to work only to realise a week later you need the same action and can't remember what you did to make it work. Or someone else on the team tries to reinvent what you have already done.

So for the repetitive task that's slightly different on each package something like this works a treat. Gather the information from the packager then automate custom actions based on input. Simple and effective.

Sub CreateSubKeyRegPerms
    strSubKeyRegMsg = "Please Enter the Registry SubKeys " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "that needs to have permissions set " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "e.g. \HKLM\Software\<Client>\*.* " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegName = inputbox (strSubKeyRegMsg, "SubKeyRegName", "\HKLM\Software\<Client>\*.*")
    strSubKeyRegMsg = "Please enter the user access to be granted " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & " " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "Users " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "Power Users " & vbCrlf
    strUserAccess = inputbox (strSubKeyRegMsg, "User group that needs access", "Users")
    strSubKeyRegMsg = "Please Enter the user access to be granted " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & " " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "F = Full Control " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "R = Read " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "A = ReAd Control " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "Q = Query Value " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "S = Set Value " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "C = Create SubKey " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "E = Enumerate Subkeys " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "Y = NotifY " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "L = Create Link " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "D = Delete " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "W = Write DAC " & vbCrlf
    strSubKeyRegMsg = strSubKeyRegMsg & "O = Write Owner " & vbCrlf
    strUserPermission = inputbox (strSubKeyRegMsg, "Access Level", "SC")
    strCmd = "cmd /c ""[SourceDir]scripts\subinacl.exe"" /subkeyreg " & strSubKeyRegName & " /grant=" & strUserAccess & "=" & strUserPermission
    Call CreateCustomAction ("CUSTSetSubKeyRegPerms", "1058", "SystemFolder", strCmd)    ' refer to previous blog this
    Call CreateInstallExecuteSequence ("CUSTSetSubKeyRegPerms", "NOT Installed", "6006")
End Sub

Ok so one of the avid Wise followers call's me "old" the other day as he was requesting some tips. For the record when someone is old well its best not to tell them that particularly if you want something. So anyway without naming any names "Owen G" here's what you have been waiting for.

So first I am going to go over a very heavily debated topic of Hungarian notation. I have come to my own opinion it has its place in languages that are not strongly typed by design. So where we are talking vbscript / wise macro and such like languages I think hungarian notation is worthy of use. However if we are talking languages which are strongly typed such as VB / C# and many other OO type languages the use of hungarian notation become less useful and perhaps even painful in some cases.

So the debate for good or bad I will leave up to you guys, for those of you whom don't know what hungarian notation is. Well its the use of prefixes on variable names to identify the content of the variable prior to knowing what the variable is. 

For example an object named WindowsInstaller in hungarian notation might be objWindowsInstaller. So for the purpose of this document I am going to code with the use of hungarian notation simply because the Wise Macro code is not strongly typed and nor is the editor particularly user friendly in showing object hierarchy.

So here's a brief table of what I am going to use.

Prefix	Description	Content
str	string	a text string
obj	object	a class with its own methods and properties
tbl	table	a windows installer table
row	row	a windows installer table row
col	collection	a collection of objects
int	integer	a number
bln	boolean	a true false value
sub	sub (routine)	a block of code that does not return a value
func	function (routine)	a block of code that does return a value
arr	array	a list of items identified by an index

Now I am assuming you all have some scripting knowledge so I am not going to cover basic scripting technique but rather how to use basic scripting to obtain access with Windows Installer tables through Wise Package Studio function known as the Macro Editor. (this is actually one of the bigger reasons I prefer Wise over Installshield)

The Wise Macro Editor allows code to be run across the tables at packaging time. This means that repetitive tasks can be automated for each application that is packaged. For those of you trying to speed up your packaging processes this is surely one of the fastest methods to do so.

Connecting to a Table

So connecting to a Windows Installer table. This is a pretty and a single line of code and get you there.

set tblInstallExecuteSequence = WTables("InstallExecuteSequence")     ' Note put your table name in the quotes.

This means that tblInstallExecuteSequence is now an object of all of the rows within this table.

Iteration of table content

If you wanted to iterate through each of the rows within that table you can do this easily with

For Each rowInstallExecuteSequence In tblInstallExecuteSequence .WRows
  msgbox rowInstallExecuteSequence("Action")     'where action is the name of the column you wish to display

next

Selecting a specific Row of a table based on a known columns value

If you want to select a specific row this code will do the trick

set rowSpecificItem = tblInstallExecuteSequence .WRows("Action")

Selecting a specific column of a specifically selected Row

strAction = rowSpecificItem("Action")

strCondtion = rowSpecificItem("Condition")

strSequence = rowSpecificItem("Sequence")

Writing values to a cell

rowSpecificItem("Action") = "my new value"

Writing rows to a table

Set NewRow = WTables.Item("Directory").NewWRow    
NewRow("Directory") = "Flag"
NewRow("Directory_Parent") = "WindowsFolder"
NewRow("DefaultDir") = "Flag"

Dynamically writing new rows to a table.

Ok so the above example does the job but takes a considerable amount of code if you were to write hundreds of rows of data to a table. In order to increase efficiency and write cleaner code the use of subs and functions is heavily advised.

Sub CreateDirectoryTableRow(strDirectory, strDirectory_Parent, strDefaultdir)

  Set NewRow = WTables.Item("Directory").NewWRow    
  NewRow("Directory") = strDirectory
  NewRow("Directory_Parent") = strDirectory_Parent
  NewRow("DefaultDir") = strDefaultDir

end sub

This method is an empty subroutine with no row data. Its more dynamic as it can create any row with any data.

Take this table for an example

Directory	Directory_Parent	DefaultDir
Directory1		Directory1
Directory1-A	Directory1	Directory1-A
Directory1-B	Directory1	Directory1-B

In order to recreate that structure using the above subroutine this would suffice.

CreateDirectoryTableRow("Directory", "" , "Directory1")

CreateDirectoryTableRow("Directory1-A", "Directory1" , "Directory1-A")

CreateDirectoryTableRow("Directory1-B", "Directory1" , "Directory1-B")

If you wanted to get really smart something a single function to write to any table would be the best option here.

Sub CreateAnyTableRow(strTableName, arrTableCells)

for i = 0 to ubound(arrTableCells)

     'add smarter table handling code here.

next

end sub

 

Ok well that about wraps up the easy lesson. I will take requests on code that people want from here or just kick into some advanced stuff on the next blog. So Owen if you have any ideas you would like to see come to reality now is the time and place !