Mostly Software Engineering

In this last post about NSIS I am going to describe how to use some of the most useful plugins which will allow you create a pretty decent and featurefull installer for windows.

• Checking for adminstrator privileges:

userInfo::getAccountType

Pop $0

StrCmp $0 “Admin” +3

MessageBox MB_OK “Debe tener privilegios de administrador para correr este programa de instalación: $0″

Return

StrCmp $0 “Admin” +3

MessageBox MB_OK “You need Administrator privileges: $0″

Return

This chunk of code will pop up a windows with the propoer notification. The StrCmp sentence compares the $0 variable poped from the stack against “Admin” and if they are equal continue the execution with the 3rd line of code, the one below Return.

• Downloading and Executing, e.g. an external installer:

NSISdl::download /TIMEOUT=30000 “http://www.advansen.com/this/is/a/test/advansen.msi” “$INSTDIR\advansen.msi”

Pop $R0 ;Get the return value

StrCmp $R0 “success” +3

MessageBox MB_OK “Download failed: $R0″

Quit

ExecWait  ’”msiexec” /i “$INSTDIR\advansen.msi” /quiet’

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After playing for a few days with NSIS I have manage to create a full features installer which perform all the actions I needed. These are the following:

• Download files
• Unzip Files to a specific folder
• Execute external installers
• Modify Environment Variables

Since NSIS supports plug-ins there are quite a few available which provide extra functionalities such as the unzipping one.

Before going into these extra features, which will be subject of a new post, I prefer writing down how a more complex script is structure, just to keep in to the future.

NSIS is structured in pages (page == panels show each time a “next button” is clicked), most of them are predefined, where you can only change tittle or add extra text in them. Following are the pages definition using the MUI2 interface:

!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_LICENSE “path\to\license.txt”

!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_COMPONENTS

!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_DIRECTORY

!insertmacro MUI_PAGE_INSTFILES

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Last week I faced a new problem, I had to program a installer for Windows in order to deploy some software we have produced at work. After a quick googling I found NSIS an installer generator, open source and with a simple scripting language.

NSIS comes with a compiler which parses the sentences writting in its own language and produces a pretty decent installer. It also has a look-and-feeling similar to latets Windows versions, so it was the perfect choice!

The scripting language is really simple, we can generate a simple installer with only the next few lines:

OutFile “simpleAdvansenInstaller.exe”

InstallDir $DESKTOP

Section

SetOutPath $INSTDIR

WriteUninstaller $INSTDIR\uninstaller.exe

CreateShortCut “$SMPROGRAMS\simpleAdvansen.lnk” “$INSTDIR\uninstaller.exe”

SectionEnd

Section “Uninstall”

Delete $INSTDIR\uninstaller.exe

Delete $INSTDIR\test.txt

Delete “$SMPROGRAMS\simpleAdvansen.lnk”

SectionEnd

After compiling the script with the tool NSIS package’s comes with, two executables are generated:

simpleAdvansenInstaller.exe

Which will copy the uninstaller.exe to the Installation Dir set up to the Desktop and will add an entry in the Programs Menu for the uninstaller.

uninstaller.exe

Will delete itself and remove the entry in the Programs Menu.

NOTE: NotePad++ highlights the syntax of NSIS as well.