Installer Script

[fyrye]

Having had to "assist" a dyslexic friend of mine through the installation and configuration of several addons I decided to make a script to install the Addons and configure them for him and other members of my guild.
Was wondering if the wowinterface community might benefit from its use.
Written in JScript and VBScript open source via Windows Scripting Format (WSF)
This way anyone can look and see how it works or if anything malicious exists in it.

Current features are

1. Smart detection of wow installation, if unable to find via registry it prompts the user to browse to the directory.
2. Back up and Uninstaller
3. Backups are compressed via zip, (tested on Windows XP SP2.0 and Vista)
4. Installs addons based on a list generated from another simple script.
5. Lists addons to the user with a # in the addons.fyr file or complication with <compilation name>.
6. Parses included savedvariable files and duplicates code for character/server based configurations start duplicate @# end duplicate !#
7. Replaces included savedvariable files !SERVERNAME! with the server name intended and !CHARACTERNAME! with the character's name intended, as well checks to see if that character/server combination exists
8. Parses the layout-cache.txt and replaces needed settings with included settings.
9. Internal Option for upgrade (leave current addons and settings and install the new ones) and Full Install (Deletes all current addons and configurations and installs the new ones)
10. If a savedvariable or addon file already exists, it prompts the user to overwrite with the new configuration file. It then deletes the entire folder (from addons) or savedvariable file before installing the new one. If the user chooses no to overwrite existing configuration/addon files, only the new configuration files that dont already exist are installed.
11. Cleans up unused .lua files that no addon exists for.

I plan to do some more work on it, but seeing as how I have seen many EXE based installers and Batch installers, I assume there is a demand for an open source based installer with install/uninstaller and simplistic user interface. So more worrying about viruses/keyloggers from an addon you just installed that was from an exe.
Maybe even an approval list hosted on the script's portal page.
What do you guys think?

Requirements:
Windows XP SP2.0a or later
Administrator Rights
.NET Framework 2.0

[Dreadlorde]

I think it's a really cool idea. I always like the installers that came with Kaomod and other addon compilations. They always made installing them easier, especially for people that don't know how to install addons and setup wtf folders.

[Kaomie]

I actually thought about using scripts for KaoMod after installers got nuked in December but:

- Scripts will probably not be allowed on interface sites. From what we see now any ZIP with anything other than LUA or arts / sounds inside is rejected almost everywhere. Although they are clear text, a corrupt script can be as harmful as any EXE (especially with admin rights), since I doubt casual addons users will dig into the code to verify them. They might even be easier to temper with than an installer.

- Scripts are not portable (VBS will not work on Mac I guess) or if they are they require additional setup which goes against the whole simplicity purpose (Java, Perl, .NET)

If you find anything that would magically avoid those two aspects I will be glad to use it myself.

[fyrye]

Originally Posted by Kaomie I actually thought about using scripts for KaoMod after installers got nuked in December but: - scripts will probably not be allowed on interface sites. From what we see now any ZIP with anything other than LUA or arts / sounds inside is rejected almost everywhere. Although they are clear text, a corrupt script can be as harmful as any EXE (especially with admin rights), since I doubt regular addons users will dig into the code to verify them. They might even be easier to temper with than an installer. - scripts are not portable (VBS will not work on Mac I guess) or if they are they require additional setup which goes against the whole simplicity purpose (Java, Perl, .NET) If you find anything that would magically avoid those two aspects I will be glad to use it myself.

Yea thats the basics I thought of as well, having several guildees on macs, they cant use VBS or WSF, not sure about JScript though.
The script itself being open source would always have a reference for the script, the more knowledgeable could go and see the differences between their included installer script and the original. Though it could be tampered with to do "ANYTHING" with. I based it off of the same script I made that quality control checks the systems my company builds before they are shipped. Registry settings, com port testing, filesystem check, windows settings, and stress testing. So in that aspect someone that knows how to go to msdn's website, could add whatever they wanted.

The only magical universal method I see is lua based installers as I am unsure of the limitations of internet based installations of a mac (similar to windows update) which I have done for my employer as well and are far from open source, short of basing it off of another scripting engine like python or PERL where the user and developers would need to install that as well.

I guess at that point I will develop it for my own compilations, and not go all out with it like i had planned

[PeteA]

You actually face a bigger problem than just the issue in getting a script file onto a website and that is that the vast majority of virus checkers inherantly stop you running VBScript or similar scripts by default, and the biggest thing to put off a user, is their antivirus flashing up that this file could damage your computer.

The only way I can see you could do this is to create a full blown installer and have it endorsed by a website, WoWAce and Curse have both done this now.