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InstallerCollection Class

Contains a collection of installers to be run during an installation.

Namespace:  System.Configuration.Install
Assembly:  System.Configuration.Install (in System.Configuration.Install.dll)

'Declaration
Public Class InstallerCollection _
	Inherits CollectionBase
'Usage
Dim instance As InstallerCollection

The InstallerCollection provides the methods and properties that your application needs to manage a collection of Installer objects.

Use any of the following three ways to add installers to the collection:

  • The Add method adds a single installer to the collection.

  • The AddRange methods add multiple installers to the collection.

  • The Insert method and the Item property, which is the InstallerCollection indexer, each add a single installer to the collection at the specified index.

Remove installers through the Remove method. Check whether an installer is in the collection by using the Contains method. Find where an installer is located in the collection by using the IndexOf method.

The installers in a collection are run when the installer containing the collection, as specified by the Installer.Parent property, calls their Install, Commit, Rollback, or Uninstall methods.

For examples of the usage of an installer collection, see the AssemblyInstaller and TransactedInstaller classes.

The following example demonstrates the Add method of the InstallerCollection class. This example provides an implementation similar to that of Installer Tool (Installutil.exe). It installs assemblies with the options preceding that particular assembly. If an option is not specified for an assembly, the previous assembly's options are taken if there is a previous assembly in the list. If the "/u" or "/uninstall" option is specified, the assemblies are uninstalled. If the "/?" or "/help" option is provided, the help information is displayed to the console.

Imports System
Imports System.ComponentModel
Imports System.Collections
Imports System.Configuration.Install
Imports System.IO

Public Class InstallerCollection_Add

   'Entry point which delegates to C-style main Private Function 
   Public Overloads Shared Sub Main()
      Main(System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs())
   End Sub 

   Overloads Public Shared Sub Main(args() As String)
      Dim options As New ArrayList()
      Dim myOption As String 
      Dim toUnInstall As Boolean = False 
      Dim toPrintHelp As Boolean = False 
      Dim myTransactedInstaller As New TransactedInstaller()
      Dim myAssemblyInstaller As AssemblyInstaller
      Dim myInstallContext As InstallContext

      Try 
         Dim i As Integer 
         For i = 1 To args.Length - 1
            ' Process the arguments. 
            If args(i).StartsWith("/") Or args(i).StartsWith("-") Then
               myOption = args(i).Substring(1)
               ' Determine whether the option is to 'uninstall' a assembly. 
               If String.Compare(myOption, "u", True) = 0 Or String.Compare(myOption, "uninstall", _
                                                                              True) = 0 Then
                  toUnInstall = True
                  GoTo ContinueFor1
               End If 
               ' Determine whether the option is for printing help information. 
               If String.Compare(myOption, "?", True) = 0 Or String.Compare(myOption, "help", _
                                                                                 True) = 0 Then
                  toPrintHelp = True
                  GoTo ContinueFor1
               End If 
               ' Add the option encountered to the list of all options 
               ' encountered for the current assembly.
               options.Add(myOption)
            Else 
               ' Determine whether the assembly file exists. 
               If Not File.Exists(args(i)) Then 
                  ' If assembly file doesn't exist then print error.
                  Console.WriteLine(" Error : {0} - Assembly file doesn't exist.", args(i))
                  Return 
               End If 
               ' Create an instance of 'AssemblyInstaller' that installs the given assembly.
               myAssemblyInstaller = New AssemblyInstaller(args(i), CType(options.ToArray _
                                                               (GetType(String)), String()))
               ' Add the instance of 'AssemblyInstaller' to the 'TransactedInstaller'.
               myTransactedInstaller.Installers.Add(myAssemblyInstaller)
            End If
         ContinueFor1: 
         Next i
         ' If user requested help or didn't provide any assemblies to install 
         ' then print help message. 
         If toPrintHelp Or myTransactedInstaller.Installers.Count = 0 Then
            PrintHelpMessage()
            Return 
         End If 

         ' Create an instance of 'InstallContext' with the options specified.
         myInstallContext = New InstallContext("Install.log", CType(options.ToArray _
                                                               (GetType(String)), String()))
         myTransactedInstaller.Context = myInstallContext

         ' Install or Uninstall an assembly depending on the option provided. 
         If Not toUnInstall Then
            myTransactedInstaller.Install(New Hashtable())
         Else
            myTransactedInstaller.Uninstall(Nothing)
         End If 
      Catch e As Exception
         Console.WriteLine(" Exception raised : {0}", e.Message)
      End Try 
   End Sub 'Main

   Public Shared Sub PrintHelpMessage()
      Console.WriteLine("Usage : InstallerCollection_Add [/u | /uninstall] [option [...]]assembly"+ _
                                                               "[[option [...]] assembly] [...]]")
      Console.WriteLine("InstallerCollection_Add executes the installers in each of" + _
      " the given assembly. If /u or /uninstall option is given it uninstalls the assemblies.")
   End Sub 'PrintHelpMessage
End Class 'InstallerCollection_Add

System.Object
  System.Collections.CollectionBase
    System.Configuration.Install.InstallerCollection

Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0
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