After linking, copying a necessary file from one package to another

[MartinGagnon]

I am a newbie with ThinApp and presently am in a testing scenario with the Evaluation version of ThinApp 4.6.0-287958 and I am in a Windows XP Pro SP3 environment.

I am packaging MS Office 2003 and a software called MultiTrans.  I cannot package them together as not all of the desktops would receive the second package.

MS Office 2003 package was created

MultiTrans package was created

OptionalAppLinks was configured in each of the according Package.ini so that they can communicate together

Now, what I need to do is that when MultiTrans is installed, it needs to copy a .dot file in the packaged MS Office 2003 installation.  Office launches this .dot file at startup for Office to communicate with MultiTrans. 

I now need to make it so that when the MSI of MultiTrans is launched, that it copies the file in question.

Multitrans MSI package resides at U:\ThinApp Beta V1.0\Projects\MT44_Translator_English\bin\MT44_Translator_English.msi

Multitrans installs at : C:\Documents and Settings\DEV-EN\Application Data\MT44_Translator_English (VMware ThinApp)\MT44_Translator_English.dat

MS Office 2003 installas at : C:\Documents and Settings\DEV-EN\Application Data\MS Office 2003 EN-STD + 2007 Compability Pack (VMware ThinApp)\MS Office 2003 EN-STD + 2007 Compability Pack.dat

It would be to copy %ProgramFilesDir%\MultiCorpora\MultiTrans 4.4\MultiTrans Client\en\TranstermII_Word.dot of the MultiTrans package to the installation of MS Office 2003 into %ProgramFilesDir%\Microsoft Office\Office11\STARTUP.

While writting this message, I realized that I really need to shorten my packages and path names.  I will be working on that.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

I have attached my Package.ini files but had to rename them to do so..

MT-Package.ini = MultiTrans

MS-Package.ini = MS Office 2003

[MartinGagnon]

to make things simpler.

I have PackageX.dat installed in the user profile

PackageY.dat gets installed also in the user profile

PackageY.dat needs to copy one of its file to PackageX.dat

Source package would be PackageY.dat

Source file within the package would be %ProgramFilesDir%\MultiCorpora\MultiTrans 4.4\MultiTrans Client\en\TranstermII_Word.dot

Target package would be PackageX.dat

Target folder witin the package would be %ProgramFilesDir%\Microsoft Office\Office11\STARTUP

I've read that some vbs within the package.ini would do the thing.  This scripting would need to go into PackageY.dat since it would be the installation of this package that would create the need for the copy.

Unfortunately, I don't have any .vbs knowledge and I've tried to understand it from the users manual with no success..

So I was wondering if someone could give me the syntax with the examples mentioned in this post.  The copying would either need to be donne at the installation of the MSI or at the first launch of the PackageY entry (PackageY.exe associated to the PackageY.dat)

And I couldn't get from the manual where in the package.ini would this scripting be entered.

Any help would be appreciated.. or if it would be possible to point me towards some post or site that could help me figure it out.

Thank you

[EuwRhU]

To copy your file, you can use a script like this:

Option Explicit

Function OnFirstSandboxOwner
    Dim sourceFile, targetFile, fso

    sourceFile = ExpandPath("%ProgramFilesDir%\MultiCorpora\MultiTrans 4.4\MultiTrans Client\en\TranstermII_Word.dot")
    targetFile = ExpandPath("%ProgramFilesDir%\Microsoft Office\Office11\STARTUP\TranstermII_Word.dot")
    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

    If Not fso.FileExists(targetFile) Then fso.CopyFile sourceFile, targetFile
End Function

The script file must be placed in the project folder (the one that contains the package.ini file).

[hos250872]

There is no need to copy that file.

If, in the MultiTrans Package, you put the file TranstermII_Word.dot in the path %ProgramFilesDir%\Microsoft Office\Office11\STARTUP and have an applink between Office and MultiTrans, Office would see the file in the Startup folder.

[MartinGagnon]

Thank you EuwRhU,

Sorry for the lateness of my reply.  Wasn't at work due to the holidays.  Your answer help me notice that I was doing the creation/linking of my packages incorrectly since my .dot file was not in my packages.  So I will be testing around with that for the next days and weeks.

thank you.

[MartinGagnon]

Correct,

I found out that this is all due to the fact that I was creating/linking my packages incorrectly.  I was packaging Office 2003 and Multitrans by themselves.  And the user's manual helped me find out that I should of packaged MS Office 2003 with Multitrans and then packaged Multitrans by itself and then linked them up and relaunch the build process.  I will be doing so in the next days.

Thank you