Platform

MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way

Source Code

Commands

Platform

The "Platform" Command

This command is used to supply a list of all possible platforms where any of your MSIs might be supported.

You might consider "WINDOWS XP" to be a platform or your company might define other types of boxes such as "INTERNET SERVERS" etc.

Your MSI's version file will then then define which of these platforms it is supported on. You should also see the "Enable Platform Definition Creation" section.

This command takes these parameters:

Name (positional)
This is the name of the platform (or platform group) being defined. It should not contain spaces.
Desc (required)
This is the description of the platform or group.
A description for a group replaces the possibly many descriptions for its individual members. A blank description is valid for a group and indicates that you wish the descriptions for the individual members to be used.
Contains (required)
If this is a group definition then this lists the "names" of the platforms or groups it includes.
PlatDir (required)
When making the MSI (in developer or production mode) the built MSI and HTML can be copied into a directory tree which "lists" all the MSIs that have been built so that for example you could use Explorer to navigate to the "windows 2000" directory and see what MSIs are supported on that platform (and what the latest version are).
You can imbed "{?}" which will be replaced with the value of the "Desc" parameter.

Once all platforms have been defined you must use the command "PlatformProcessing" (no parameters).

EXAMPLE

;--- WIN2000 ----------------------------------------------------------------
#define  PD_WIN2000  Windows\2000
<$Platform "WINDOWS_2000_SERVER" DESC=^Windows 2000 Server^ PLATDIR="<$PD_WIN2000>\Servers">
<$Platform "WINDOWS_2000_PRO"    DESC=^Windows 2000 PRO^    PLATDIR="<$PD_WIN2000>\PRO">
#(
   <$Platform "WINDOWS_2000"    DESC=^Windows 2000 (Server/PRO)^
               Contains="WINDOWS_2000_SERVER WINDOWS_2000_PRO"
   >
#)

;--- WINXP ------------------------------------------------------------------
#define  PD_WINXP  Windows\XP
<$Platform "WINDOWS_XP_SERVER" DESC=^Windows XP Server^ PLATDIR="<$PD_WINXP>\Servers">
<$Platform "WINDOWS_XP_PRO"    DESC=^Windows XP PRO^    PLATDIR="<$PD_WINXP>\PRO">
#(
   <$Platform "WINDOWS_XP"    DESC=^Windows XP (Server/PRO)^
               Contains="WINDOWS_XP_SERVER WINDOWS_XP_PRO"
   >
#)

;--- WIN?? (Others + internal platform names etc) ---------------------------
;...

;--- Now Do a group for all WINDOWS (group can contain groups) --------------
#(
   <$Platform "WINDOWS_ALL" DESC=^Any Windows workstations or servers^
               Contains="WINDOWS_2000 WINDOWS_XP"
   >
#)

;--- Finished ---------------------------------------------------------------
<$PlatformProcessing>

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