InstallOptions is a NSIS plugin which allows you to create custom
pages for NSIS installers, to prompt the user for extra information.
InstallerOptions will create a dialog which will be displayed inside
the NSIS window. The controls on the dialog can be defined in an INI file.
NSIS 2 has a new page system, which allows you to add custom pages
to your installer without messing with Prev/Next functions. With the new plugin
system, you also don't have to worry anymore about extracting and deleting the DLL
file. When you store the INI files in the plugins directory, NSIS will also delete
them automatically.
This new version of InstallOptions has been designed for NSIS 2.
It supports customized user interfaces and custom font and DPI settings.
The INI file has one required section. This section includes the
number of controls to be created as well as general window attributes.
The INI file also includes a variable number of Field sections which are used to
create the controls to be displayed.
The required section is named "Settings".
It can contain the following values:
| NumFields |
(required) |
The number of control elements to be
displayed on the dialog window. |
| Title |
(optional) |
If specified, gives the text to set the
titlebar to. Otherwise, the titlebar text is not changed. |
| CancelEnabled |
(optional) |
If specified, overrides NSIS settings and enables or disables the cancel button.
If set to 1, the cancel button will be enabled. If set to 0, the cancel button will be disabled. |
| CancelShow |
(optional) |
If specified, overrides NSIS settings and shows or hides the cancel button
If set to 1, the cancel button will be shown. If set to 0, the cancel button will be hidden. |
| BackEnabled |
(optional) |
If specified, overrides NSIS settings and enables or disables the back button.
If set to 1, the back button will be enabled. If set to 0, the back button will be disabled. |
| CancelButtonText |
(optional) |
Overrides the text for the cancel button. If not specified, the cancel button
text will not be changed. |
| NextButtonText |
(optional) |
Overrides the text for the next button. If not specified, the next button text
will not be changed. |
| BackButtonText |
(optional) |
Overrides the text for the back button. If not specified, the back button text
will not be changed. |
| Rect |
(optional) |
Overrides the default rect ID to run over. This will make IO resize itself
according to a different rect than NSIS's dialogs rect. |
Each field section has the heading "Field #" where # must be sequential
numbers from 1 to NumFields. Each Field section can contain the following values:
| Type |
(required) |
Type of control to be created. Valid
values are "Label", "Text",
"Password", "Combobox",
"DropList", "Listbox",
"CheckBox", "RadioButton",
"FileRequest", "DirRequest"
"Icon", "Bitmap" or
"GroupBox".
A
"Label" is used to display static text. (i.e. a caption for a
textbox)
A "Text" and "Password"
accept text input from the user. "Password" masks the input
with * characters.
A "Combobox" allows the user to type text
not in the popup list, a "Droplist" only allows selection of
items in the list.
A "listbox" shows multiple items and can
optionally allow the user to select more than one item.
A
"CheckBox" control displays a check box with label.
A "RadioButton" control displays a radio button with label.
A "FileRequest" control displays
a textbox and a browse button. Clicking the browse button will display a
file requester where the user can browse for a file.
A
"DirRequest" control displays a textbox and a browse button.
Clicking the browse button will display a directory requester where the
user can browse for a directory.
An "Icon" control displays an icon.
Use no Text to use the installer icon.
A "Bitmap" control displays a bitmap.
A "GroupBox" control displays a frame to group controls.
|
| Text |
(optional) |
Specifies the caption of a label, checkbox, or radio button control.
For icon and bitmaps control this specifies the path to the image.
Note: For labels, \r\n will be converted to a newline. To use a back-slash in your text you have to escape it using another back-slash - \\.
|
| State |
(optional) |
Specifies the state of the control. This is updated when the user
closes the window, so you can read from it from NSIS. For edit texts and dir and file
request boxes, this is the string that is specified. For radio button and check boxes,
this can be '0' or '1' (for unchecked or checked). For list boxes, combo boxes and drop lists this is the selected items separated by pipes ('|').
|
| ListItems |
(optional) |
A list of items to display in a combobox,
droplist, or listbox.
This is a single line of text with each item
separated by a pipe character '|' |
| MaxLen |
(optional) |
Causes validation on the selected control
to limit the maximum length of text.
If the user specifies more text
than this, a message box will appear when they click "OK" and the dialog
will not be dismissed.
You should not use this on a
"combobox" since the user can not control what is
selected.
This should be set to a maximum of 260
for "FileRequest" and "DirRequest"
controls.
Ignored on "label"
controls. |
| MinLen |
(optional) |
Causes validation on the selected control
to force the user to enter a minimum amount of text.
If the user
specifies less text than this, a message box will appear when they click
"OK" and the dialog will not be dismissed.
Unlike MaxLen, this is
useful for "Combobox" controls.
By setting this to a value of "1" the program will force the user to
select an item.
Ignored on "Label"
controls. |
| ValidateText |
(optional) |
If the field fails the test for
"MinLen" or "MaxLen",
a messagebox will be displayed with this text.
Note: \r\n will be converted to a newline, two back-slashes will be converted to one - \\. |
Left
Right
Top
Bottom |
(required) |
The position on the dialog where this
control appears. All sizes should be set in dialog units.
To get the right dimensions for your controls, design your dialog
using a resource editor and copy the dimensions to the INI file.
Note: For combobox or droplist, the
"bottom" value is not used in the
same way.
In this case, the bottom value is the maximum
size of the window when the pop-up list is being displayed. All other
times, the combobox is automatically sized to be one element tall. If you
have trouble where you can not see the combobox drop-down, then check
the bottom value and ensure it is large enough.
Note (2):
FileRequest and DirRequest controls will allocate 15 dialog units to the
browse button. Make this control wide enough the contents of the textbox
can be seen. Note that you can specify negative coordinates to specify the
distance from the right or bottom edge. |
| Filter |
(optional) |
Specifies the filter to be used in the
"FileRequest" control.
This is constructed
by putting pairs of entries together, each item seperated by a | character.
The first value in each pair is the text to display for the filter.
The second value is the pattern to use to match files.
For example, you might specify:
Filter=Text Files|*.txt|Programs|*.exe;*.com|All Files|*.*
If not specified, then the filter defaults to All
Files|*.*
Note: you should not put
any extra spaces around the | characters. |
| Root |
(optional) |
Used by DirRequest controls to
specify the root directory of the search. By default, this allows the
user to browse any directory on the computer. This will limit the search
to a particular directory on the system. |
| Flags |
(optional) |
This specifies additional flags for the
display of different controls. Each value should be seperated by a |
character, and you should be careful not to put any spaces around the |
character.
| Value |
Meaning |
| REQ_SAVE |
This causes "FileRequest"
controls to display a Save As dialog. If not specified, an Open dialog
is used. |
| FILE_MUST_EXIST |
Used by "FileRequest" to
determine if the selected file must exist.
This only applies
if an "Open" dialog is being displayed.
This currently does not force
the file to exist other than through the browse button. |
| FILE_EXPLORER |
Used by "FileRequest",
enables new file request look (recommended) |
| FILE_HIDEREADONLY |
Used by "FileRequest",
hides "open read only" checkbox in open dialog. |
| WARN_IF_EXIST |
Used by "FileRequest"
to display a warning message if the selected file already exists.
The warning message is only displayed for files selected with the
browse button. |
| PATH_MUST_EXIST |
Used by "FileRequest"
to force the path to
exist. Prevents the user from typing a non-existant path into the
browse dialog window.
This only validates path's
selected with the browse button. |
| PROMPT_CREATE |
Used by "FileRequest"
to display a warning
if the selected file does not exist. However, it still allows the
user to select the file.
This only displays the
warning for files selected with the browse button. |
| RIGHT |
Used by "Checkbox"
and "Radiobutton" controls to specify you
want the checkbox to the right of the text instead of the left as is
the default. |
| MULTISELECT |
Used by "Listbox"
controls. Turns string selection on or off each time the user clicks or double-clicks a string in the list box. The user can select any number of strings. If this flag and EXTENDEDSELCT are not specified, only one item can be selected from the the list. |
| EXTENDEDSELCT |
Used by "Listbox"
controls. Allows multiple items to be selected by using the SHIFT key and the mouse or special key combinations. If this flag and MULTISELECT are not specified, only one item can be selected from the the list. |
| RESIZETOFIT |
This causes "Bitmap"
controls to resize the image to the size of the control.
Also useful to support custom DPI settings. |
| GROUP |
Add this flag to the first control of a group
of controls to group them. Grouping controls allows you to create multiple
groups of radio button and makes keyboard navigation using arrow keys
easier. |
| NOTABSTOP |
Do not stop on the control when the user pressed
the Tab key. Add NOTABSTOP to all controls of a group except the first
one to allow navigation between groups with the Tab key. |
| DISABLED |
Causes a control to be disabled. |
| ONLY_NUMBERS |
Used by "Text" controls. Forces the user to enter only numbers into the edit box. |
|
For information about using InstallOptions with
the Modern UI, have a look at the
Modern UI documentation.
First, you have to extract the INI files for the dialogs
in the .onInit function:
Function .onInit
InitPluginsDir
File /oname=$PLUGINSDIR\test.ini test.ini
FunctionEnd
You can call InstallOptions in a page function,
check the NSIS documentation
for information about the page system. Example:
Page custom SetCustom ValidateCustom
The InstallOptions DLL has three functions:
- dialog - Creates the dialog immidiately
- initDialog - Creates the dialog in memory, does not show it
- show - Shows a dialog created in memory
Usually, you only need to use the dialog function:
Function SetCustom ;FunctionName defined with Page command
;Display the Install Options dialog
Push $R0
InstallOptions::dialog $PLUGINSDIR\test.ini
Pop $R0
FunctionEnd
To get the input of the user, read the State
value of a Field using ReadINIStr:
ReadINIStr $R0 "$PLUGINSDIR\test.ini" "Field 1" "State"
Important Note:
For Multiline edit
boxe's the output "State" comes with "\r\n" if text as more
than one line and is your responsiblity to convert it inside script to
"$\r$\n" if needed! example macro:
NORMALIZE_CRCF VALUE
push $1 ; Index
push $2 ; Output char by char
push $3 ; Output char by char next
push $4 ; Text Accumulator
StrCpy $1 "0"
DONEXT:
StrCpy $2 ${VALUE} 1 $1
IntOp $1 $1 + 1
StrCpy $3 ${VALUE} 1 $1
StrCmp $3 "" EOT
StrCmp $2 "\" 0 NORMAL_CHAR
StrCmp $3 "r" FOUND_CR
StrCmp $3 "n" 0 NORMAL_CHAR
;FOUND_LF:
StrCpy $4 "$4$\r"
IntOp $1 $1 + 1
goto DONEXT
FOUND_CR:
StrCpy $4 "$4$\n"
IntOp $1 $1 + 1
goto DONEXT
NORMAL_CHAR:
StrCpy $4 "$4$2"
goto DONEXT
EOT:
StrCpy ${VALUE} $4
pop $4
pop $3
pop $2
pop $1
!macroend
If you want to validate the input on the page,
for example, you want to check whether the user has filled in
a textbox, use the leave function of the Page command and Abort
when the validation has failed:
Function ValidateCustom
ReadINIStr $R0 "$PLUGINSDIR\test.ini" "Field 1" "State"
StrCmp $0 "" 0 +3
MessageBox MB_ICONEXCLAMATION|MB_OK "Please enter your name."
Abort
FunctionEnd
After you have called the DLL, InstallOptions
adds one value to the stack, with one of the following values:
- success - The user has pressed the Next button
- back - The user has pressed the Back button
- cancel - The user has pressed the Cancel button
- error - An error has occured, the dialog cannot be displayed.
Usually, you don't need to check this value,
but you still have to remove it from the stack (have a look at
the example above).
If you want to check the user input immidiately,
for example, to display a warning when the input is invalid, you
should check whether the user has pressed the Back or Next button.
It you are using BZIP2 compression and your .onInit and Page
functions are not above all other sections/functions with File commands, use
ReserveFile on the top of your script to put the DLL/INI files first in the
data block, which will make your installer start faster:
ReserveFile "${NSISDIR}\Plugins\test.ini"
ReserveFile "${NSISDIR}\Plugins\InstallOptions.dll"
If you want to use custom fonts or colors on your InstallOptions
dialogs, you should use the initDialog and show functions. initDialog creates the
dialog in memory, but does not show it. After calling initDialog, you can set
the fonts and colors, and call show to show the dialog.
initDialog pushes the HWND of the custom dialog to the stack. To get the HWND
of the controls use:
GetDlgItem (output var) (hwnd of the custom dialog) (1200 + Field number - 1)
Example of using a custom font:
Function FunctionName ;FunctionName defined with Page command
;Display the Install Options dialog
Push $R0
Push $R1
Push $R2
InstallOptions::initDialog /NOUNLOAD $PLUGINSDIR\test.ini
Pop $R0
GetDlgItem $R1 $R0 1200 ;1200 + Field number - 1
;$R1 contains the HWND of the first field
CreateFont $R2 "Tahoma" 10 700
SendMessage $R1 ${WM_SETFONT} $R2 0
InstallOptions::show
Pop $R0
Pop $R2
Pop $R1
Pop $R0
FunctionEnd
- DLL version 2.2 (6/10/2003)
- \r\n converts to newline in Multiline edit box
- Support for multiline edit box
- Better tab order in DirRequest and FileRequest
- Minor fixes
- DLL version 2.1 (3/15/2003)
- \r\n converts to newline in both label Text and ValidateText
- New browse dialog style (modern)
- Word wrapping for check boxes and radio buttons
- No ugly border for edit fields under XP
- Scroll bar for list boxes
- Works with SetStaticBkColor
- DISABLED dir and file request fields now disable the browse button too
- No more STATE value for labels
- Minor fixes
- DLL version 2.0 (1/4/2003)
- Supports custom font and DPI settings (by Joost Verburg)
- INI files should contain dialog units now, no pixels (by Joost Verburg)
- RESIZETOFIT flag for Bitmap control (by Amir Szekely)
- New documentation (by Joost Verburg)
- New GROUP/NOTABSTOP/DISABLED flags
Complete version history
Original version by Michael Bishop
DLL version by Nullsoft, Inc.
DLL version 2 by Amir Szekely, ORTIM, Joost Verburg
New documentation by Joost Verburg
Copyright © 2001-2003 Michael Bishop
Portions Copyright © 2002-2003:
- Nullsoft, Inc.
- Amir Szekely
- ORTIM
- Joost Verburg
This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages
arising from the use of this software.
Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose,
including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute
it freely, subject to the following restrictions:
1. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented;
you must not claim that you wrote the original software.
If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the
product documentation would be appreciated but is not required.
2. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such,
and must not be misrepresented as being the original software.
3. This notice may not be removed or altered from any distribution.