How do I make features in an MSI Feature Table automatically selected when their parents are selected

Question

In my specific example I am looking at the nightly builds of FarManager 3. However, the same applies to FarManager 2.0.

By default when you install FarManager the Addons feature is not selected. You can select the features from a non-interactive command line install with the following command:

msiexec /i "farSetup.msi" /passive ADDLOCAL=Addons,Colors,Macros,SetUp,Shell,XLat'

I think it should be possible to do it with just ADDLOCAL=Addons because of the Feature Table. If you open the Feature Table in Orca, you see the following child features of Addons.

Addons from the msi Feature Table

Is there any way to modify the feature table so that ADDLOCAL=Addons implies the clild features of Colors, Macros, SetUp, Shell, and XLat?

While FAR is being looked at on [meta](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/373222/what-to-do-with-an-off-topic-tag-with-a-lot-of-off-topic-questions-inside) as a bad tag, this question's purely about MSI behavior (with FAR being the app the installer is for vs for "my app"), and doesn't deserve to be closed as part of the cull. — Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight, Aug 30 '18 at 13:51

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 29 '12 at 14:08

2

Have you tried specifying Attributes that include msidbFeatureAttributesFollowParent (value 2) and msidbFeatureAttributesUIDisallowAbsent (value 16), taking you to 26? Per the Feature table documentation, this should tie the feature states together. Of course if you want to allow the child features to remain unselected, this is not viable.

answered Jul 29 '12 at 14:08

Michael Urman

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I will try doing that with a transform. If it works I'll mark this as correct and propose to the Far Developers that they make use of this method. – Justin Dearing Jul 29 '12 at 21:23
I created a transform with the features you suggested and applied it with `msiexec /i Far30b2782.x86.20120730.msi TRANSFORMS="Far-3.mst" ADDLOCAL=Addons`. This does what I requested. I also changed the Display of Addons to 3 so it would be automatically expanded. I'm now curious if it's possible to autoselect properties for an interactive install, but give you the option to deselect them. I've tried several permutations of Attributes, but can't seem to find one. – Justin Dearing Jul 30 '12 at 00:59
Just make sure to also try it with UI (specifically a feature selection dialog), as I'm not clear what the resulting behavior is there, or what you want it to be. – Michael Urman Jul 30 '12 at 11:32
When you try attribute level 26 in the UI, the values are autoselected and cannot be unselected. – Justin Dearing Jul 30 '12 at 13:58

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 29 '12 at 03:20

1

Strictly speaking, no.

However you could have a property like INSTALLADDONS=1 and then use that property in Feature Conditions. You could also have a custom action that adds the other feature names to the ADDLOCAL property when the property contains Addons.

answered Jul 29 '12 at 03:20

Christopher Painter

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Maybe I misread the question. Michael's answer might be what you are looking for. – Christopher Painter Jul 29 '12 at 19:57
I don't think you misread the question. Assuming it works when I test it I will make his right over your's. However, your strategy is valid, and I would certainly propose that strategy. – Justin Dearing Jul 29 '12 at 21:24

How do I make features in an MSI Feature Table automatically selected when their parents are selected

2 Answers2