Creating a New Project

InstallShield 11 Universal

A project holds the contents of your installation/uninstallation. You can create, open, and edit as many projects as necessary at the same time in the interface.

If a Universal Installer or Convert InstallShield project is selected to be created, you have the option of using the Project Assistant or configuring the project directly in the Installation Designer tab. For all other project types, you must configure your project in the Installation Designer because the Project Assistant is not available.

To set the Java compiler:

If you have not already done so, set the Java compiler that Universal will use to compile the Java code in your projects. This is done by selecting Options on the Tools menu. The compiler is set in the Compiler Options tab. Browse to the bin directory of the JVM that is installed on your machine, then select the javac executable—its extension is either .exe or .bin depending on whether you are working on a Windows or Unix machine.

To create a new project:

Click Create New Project in the interface Start Page tab.
--OR--
Select File | New Project.
--OR--
Click New Project in the toolbar

The New Project dialog box opens.
Select the tab that represents the category of project you want to create.
- Universal Installer
- Condenser
  - Condenser Installer
  - Condenser Dynamic Suite
- Windows Specific
  - Convert InstallShield
Select the type of project you want to create. A description of that type of project opens.
Type the name of your project in the Project name text box.

You cannot use special characters in the name of your project, for example, "\", "/", ":", "*", "?", """, "<", ">", "|", etc. Doing so results in an error message, and you will be prompted to retype the project name.
The default location for the project will be the location you set in Tools | Options | General | Default Project Location, followed by a directory named the same as what was displayed as the default for the Project Name. To change the location and/or directory name, click Browse and browse to the location, or type the path in the Location text box.

In the Premier and Professional editions, the directory that contains the code you write in the Swing, Console (Premier Only), and/or Silent Events tabs in the Dialog Editor automatically goes into a subdirectory of the directory where you save your project. For example, if you set your project directory to user/home/MyInstallations/Project1, then Project1.uip (the project file) will go into that directory, and your custom code (.java files) will go into user/home/MyInstallations/Project1/CustomCode/src. The location to where your custom code is saved can be changed in the General Information view Project Properties.

The directory that contains the code you write in the Swing, Console (Premier Only), and/or Silent Events tabs in the Dialog Editor automatically goes into a subdirectory of the directory where you save your project. For example, if you set your project directory to user/home/MyInstallations/Project1, then Project1.uip (the project file) will go into that directory, and your custom code (.java files) will go into user/home/MyInstallations/Project1/CustomCode/src. The location to where your custom code is saved can be changed in the General Information view Project Properties.

In the Premier and Professional editions, you can also change the default locations of your source and compiled custom Java event code in this dialog box by clicking Advanced. Two additional properties display:
- Event Code Source Location—Where your custom event source code (JAVA files) for this project will be saved. The default location is the <projectFolder>/CustomCode/src directory.
- Event Code Output Location—Where the compiled output for those JAVA files (CLASS files) will be saved. The default location is <projectFolder>/CustomCode/lib directory.
Change their locations here, if you desire.
In the Express and Professional editions, you will have an additional selection to make in this dialog box: select the one language that this project will support in the Chose language support list.
Click OK. If you selected an installer-type project, it opens in the Project Assistant. If you selected a suite-type project, the Installation Designer opens.
In the Project Assistant:

Answer the questions to create and build your project. If this project will be built as an assembly (Premier Only), do not build it in the Project Assistant—you must add and configure an Assembly Build Configuration in the Releases view, and then build the project using that build configuration.

--OR--

In the Installation Designer:

Right-click in the View List and select Expand all to expand the list of views. Begin configuring your project by setting the properties in the General Information view.