Installanywhere silent install is not respecting several properties in the response file?

Question

I am trying to run a silent installation of an application using Installanywhere's silent install and response file functions. I have recorded a response file multiple times, and then run a silent install using that response file, yet certain properties are not used. The target directory always ends up being correct, but things like a passphrase or a server port are completely ignored. I have researched the vendor's boards and found nothing helpful on the topic. Can anyone with Installanywhere experience be of assistance?

Answer 1

If those panels are custom, it is a vendor bug: storing variable to response file is an additional action that should be added to custom panel code

it is possible though to investigate the installer and find out what variable to add to response file

Answer 2

The problem might be that the installer you are using relies on "merge modules". It seems that variable values are not passed to-and-from merge modules when running in silent mode.

I have unfortunately encountered this issue with the installers I'm working on, but the Flexera forums don't provide much help either:

silent installation with merge modules

merge module variable are accessible in silent install

The vendor may not even be aware of this either.

Answer 3

Just put to blank your default value in your "Set installanywhere variable"'s action, Otherwise values from your properties file (for silent install) will be overwrite by values define in action 'Set installAnywhere variable".

Answer 4

As stated in Flexera's documentation, you will need to set the variable both in your proxy's 'setVariable' method, and ReplayService 'register' method. The 'register' method is responsible on writing the variable to the response file:

customCodePanelProxy.setVariable("MY_VAR", "MY_VALUE");
ReplayVariableService replayService = (ReplayVariableService)customCodePanelProxy.getService(ReplayVariableService.class);
// This will do the trick:
replayService.register("MY_VAR", "MY_VALUE");

For further details refer to this IA guide: http://helpnet.flexerasoftware.com/InstallAnywhereAPI/IA2010/javadoc/com/zerog/ia/api/pub/ReplayVariableService.html