BestInstaller: AHK-based setup creator

BestInstaller (Alpha release)
v1.0.0a - Feb 9, 2012

Goals:[*:1fudaicw]Completely obedient to user: No more unwanted startup, start menu, or desktop shortcuts! Plus, it can save your settings and then recall them for later installs!
[*:1fudaicw]Configurable to the developer: Lacks nothing in terms of what a developer could want from an installer. (Or it hopefully will, by the first stable release!
[*:1fudaicw]Easy & Open source: Each installer project is saved in one single file, human-readable, & down to 50 lines!**Length greatly depends on the individual project.

The User
An image is worth a thousand words. Here's a sample installer built with BestInstaller to install BestInstaller. (Meta much?)



Obviously, some GUI elements are a little less refined than others, so your input is gladly welcomed.

The Developer
The Developer wanting to create BestInstaller gets a wonderful GUI to work with that gives each option layed out easily.



Open-Source
the best part about GUI is that in the end, it just creates a <=50 .ahk file that you then compile with the Template to get your installer. Plus, the resultant .ahk is very humanly readable, so you can edit it on the fly without the GUI, if the desire arises.
Click here for a screeny or check the download below

Etc
Uninstaller
Lastly, BestInstaller also creates a log with each installation and (will eventually) leave a small BestUninstaller behind that you can run to remove the installation. Keep in mind that the uninstaller is pretty untested.

Credit
SKAN: PNG embedding
SKAN: White read-only edit control
Chris & Lexicos: for AHK

Missing Features:[*:1fudaicw]About window
[*:1fudaicw]"Terminal-like" detailed view for the "Installing" step
[*:1fudaicw]Error Checking when Compiling
[*:1fudaicw]Error Checking when installing files
[*:1fudaicw]Error Checking in BestUninstallerA lot of the features are small, but big accomplishments for me, like "Recent Files" and "Check for Update".

Download BestInstaller_Alpha.exe
Contains all sources and binaries.

* AHK Basic: Seems to work ok...
* AHK_L x32: Works fine.
* AHK_L x64: Problems with extracting files; some come out 0 bytes.
* Might need to run as Administrator, at least if extracting to a "restricted" folder like Program Files.

Use the "Portable Install" to just extract the files.

-Bry

Also, happy birthday to me.

Happy birthday indeed!

I wanted to say that this seems very awesome. I'll be trying it as soon as possible.

@notbryant, Happy Birthday to you. But you gave us the present Thanks

Thanks for the replies and the birthday greetings.

By the way, I would very much appreciate any feedback at all, if any of you have tried it. There are quite a few features I can think of adding (7z compression support, for example), but I'd like to know people's thoughts before continuing on.

I tried, but failed at "Run". It just launches a new script called "Program", and then nothing. I did set the AHK Path to my AHK.exe (in Program Files (x86). Otherwise, seems pretty OK. Three comments:

*I prefer static tooltips, these ones are flickering.
*You could add is some ampersands (&) to make menu items selectable by keyboard (f.ex. Alt+F opens the File menu)
*I might have missed something obvious, but where will the installation file go?

*I prefer static tooltips, these ones are flickering.

Yep, I can see the flickering tooltips too.

When I choose Help > About, the program closes itself.
Maybe auto resize or auto center image?
Why does I'm not allowed to create a custom license in the available editbox by manually typing into it?
The text on checkbox doesn't show up, so turning on the tooltip is a must in order to see the purpose of the checkboxes. I'm using Win 7 - AHK Basic.

And the most important, I can't find a tutorial to make an installer..

I tried, but failed at "Run". It just launches a new script called "Program", and then nothing. I did set the AHK Path to my AHK.exe (in Program Files (x86).

That is very odd. I have no clue why that would be happening. Did you fill in any information? Try opening SAMPLE.ahk and running that.

*I prefer static tooltips, these ones are flickering.

I will try to switch to static tooltips.

*You could add is some ampersands (&) to make menu items selectable by keyboard (f.ex. Alt+F opens the File menu)

A very valid suggestion, I will get right on that.

*I might have missed something obvious, but where will the installation file go?

I'm unsure of the question. To add a file to be installed, you go to the "Files/Start Menu" tab and add the files from there.

When I choose Help > About, the program closes itself.

Yes, I'm quite aware of that "feature", heh heh. I've yet to write an About window and I set it to use the Guiclose glabel for now. Nice catch, though!

Why does I'm not allowed to create a custom license in the available editbox by manually typing into it?

You can (or should be able to) type into the License box when you are creating, but not when running an installer that has already been created.

The text on checkbox doesn't show up, so turning on the tooltip is a must in order to see the purpose of the checkboxes. I'm using Win 7 - AHK Basic.

:shock: I have absolutely no clue why this is! Like I specified, I have not tested it on Basic much, but I'm not doing anything special for the checkboxes, so it should show up. Let me look into it though.

And the most important, I can't find a tutorial to make an installer..

To be honest, it seems really straightforward, at least to me. I downloaded and tested the other major Setup Creators and as far as I can remember, none of them had tutorials. With BestInstaller, you basically fill in the fields that you want, then "Compile".

One thing I should do is make the options that are required bold, which might help a bit. But otherwise, I really tried to let the tooltips be a tutorial as-you-go.

Thanks for the thoughts, you two. I appreciate any type of feedback I can get, even bugs.

Very nice, I am looking forward to the improvements you have listed

Heya, got some updates.

[*:3htf7zu4]Switched to a docked Tutorial instead of tooltips
[*:3htf7zu4]Added &'s to menus for keyboard navigation
[*:3htf7zu4]Added an About window (It looks nice!)
[*:3htf7zu4]Fixed an issue where Recent menu entries could be too long and throw an error
[*:3htf7zu4]Fixed not detecting changes when adding/removing files
[*:3htf7zu4]Other things :)I hope you guys will like the Tutorial pane. I think it's a large improvement over the tooltips.

I've tried it on Windows 7 and have been unable to replicate the problems you guys were having. But I'm having trouble with the FileInstalls with the x64 version of Autohotkey_L. It looks like it's not even getting added to the executable and when you go to extract them, it is just a 0 byte file. I've tried both the script and Ahk2Exe as Administrator.

Anyway, again, all comments are welcome.

I suppose I will need a tutorial.

I get error #Include file "BestInstaller_TEMPPLATE.ahk" cannot be opened.

I ran BestInstaller as administrator.
I chose the path to authotkey.exe
I filled in Program Name and Version
I chose the files I wanted added.
I chose Compile and I chose Run
I also tried File - Save.
I still get that error.

2 Questions:

What does Set Program/Re-Set Program and Set Readme/Reset Readme do?

When I choose Source, then View Script, it opens two tabs in my editor. One is the script the other is labeled 2 %. What is the 2nd tab for?

Looks promising.

I get error #Include file "BestInstaller_TEMPPLATE.ahk" cannot be opened.

Sorry, I forgot to mention, the TEMPLATE file needs to be in the same directory as the source file.

What does Set Program/Re-Set Program and Set Readme/Reset Readme do?

That part needs some serious tweaking on my part. "Set" is used to designate which item in the list is the program or readme, and "Re-Set" is supposed to signify that it is already set. I'll try to think of a more clever way of presenting it.

When I choose Source, then View Script, it opens two tabs in my editor. One is the script the other is labeled 2 %. What is the 2nd tab for?

Sorry, that was an error on my part from reading from the registry. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll have it fixed ASAP.

Looks promising.

Thank you.

Set and Retrieve? Save and Retrieve? Save and Restore?

hey notbryant,

will this app make it possible to create an installer for your ahk app? so you can send someone a setup file and it will unpack your software etc? Sorry for noob question...

bmoore45, yes, that is exactly the goal! Thought I would not recommend it to be used just quite yet, hence the Alpha version.

No updates for now, school has picked up, but hopefully I will be able to get any more features you guys are looking for!

I am getting error: "Error changing icon: Unable to read icon or icon was of the wrong format."
Looks like a great program. I am looking forward to using it.

Thanks for it and the help.