Automating InstallAnywhere installation

Question

In my company we are using InstallAnywhere for one of our product. I was wondering if it is possible to automate installation process? I know that InstallAnywhere is able to run from console with settings given in config file, but unfortunately this option is turned off, and it will not be turned on. I thought maybe I will write application in Java which will automate installation process.

What kind of subjects I should study before start?

Do you have any other ideas how can I help myself?

Answer 1

You can use Test Automation API from InstallAnywhere.

Follow readme.txt to configure environment.

You can find docs and examples under InstallAnywhere_installation_directory/gui-test-auto

Answer 2

for what it's worth, the option to enable this is a function of being in the "enterprise" tier IA and is under Installer UI -> Look & Feel -> General UI Settings -> Allowable UI Modes.

If you tried to contact the publisher for having those enabled and they refused, the next sensible thing to try is scripting it yourself.

Does the installer in UI mode generate an installer.properties file? This contains a list of files it placed and where, and would be an easy thing to base a script off of where you just fix the path leading to each file on the list.

If no such luck, you can always make a listing of the resulting installation manually, hoping it's just in one folder. Once you have a list of where the files go and which files, the rest should be easy. Don't forget to modify all of IA's own files for the path to Java VM ;)

Answer 3

Run this command build.exe my product.iap_xml . build.exe is a command line tool of installanywhere.