Sherston Mega Deal Offer

[Trapper]

Will you be running this promotion again?

 

Just noticed it, and it seems a fantastic offer.

[ztwtso]

Have just sent a reply but I think I messed it up.

 

You can use the RM C3 packages on the cd to create your own msis easily.

All you need to do is copy the cd to the server, create a P drive share=RMPublic amd a q drive share = rmapplications on a test pc and run the msis from the q drive one by one.

A 'normal' msi is created in a directory called applications within the RM CC3 Packages directory from which you can distribute via gpo or msiexec via a login script as is your want.

 

The P drive is where the Sherston save directory goes.

 

You can of course change both drives by editing the customaction in the original msi via ORCA to suite your installation.

 

Cheers

[eean]

You know, sometimes I even impress myself!

 

I've just written a little script that will:

1. Run the preliminary MSI, to extract the proper MSI.

2. Run the proper MSI in admin mode to extract a small MSI and all the files within

3. Edit the sherston.ini to change the P: path for saves

4. Create the saves file on the server!

5. Install the file on the local PC so you can test it.

 

Here's what to do:

1. Download AutoitScript and install

2. Open up the editor (now on your start menu) and paste the script in below.

3. Edit the variables at the top to the path of your Resource Pack HD, and to the drive letter of where you want to put the saves files.

4. Create these folders on your c: drive c:\MSIs\Extracted1 and c:\MSIs\Extracted2

5. If you have a q drive mapped, disconnect it temporarily

6. At the cmd prompt type subst q: c:\MSIs\Extracted1 (this will make the computer think that that folder is the q drive).

7. Run the script. You'll need plenty of HD space. After the program has installed you can delete file from Extracted1.

8. Look forward to adding all the MSIs in Extracted 2 to AD.

 

#include 
#include 
#Include 

;This is the path to the MSI directory on your Sherston hard drive
$SourceDir = "E:\RM CC3 Packages\"

;These is where it will find the preliminary install you could make this q:\Applications\
$Extracted1 = "C:\MSIs\Extracted1\Applications\"
;This is where it will place the final MSI
$Extracted2 = "C:\MSIs\Extracted2\"
;What drive letter do you want the save path to be?
$DriveLetter = "Y"

;This is where the MSIexec file is
$msiexec = "c:\windows\system32\msiexec.exe"

;list all the MSI files in the folder
$FileList = _FileListToArray($SourceDir, "*.msi", 1)

;Now, for each of those files:
For $FileN = 1 to $FileList[0]

;Full Name of the MSI file
$CurMSI = $FileList[$FileN]
;Name minus the extension
$CurName = StringTrimRight($CurMSI, 4)

;Run the preliminary install
ShellExecuteWait($msiexec, " /i " & Chr(34) & $SourceDir & $CurMSI & Chr(34) & " /qb-")

;Run an admin install to extract all the files to 'Extracted2'
ShellExecuteWait($msiexec, " /a "  & Chr(34) & $Extracted1 & $CurName & "\" & $CurMSI & Chr(34) & " targetdir=" & Chr(34) & $Extracted2 & $CurName & Chr(34) & " /qb-")

;This is the ini file name
$IniFile = $Extracted2 & $CurName & "\Sherston.ini"

;Read what the current ini file path is
$SavePath = iniread($inifile, "PC", "Savepath", "##ERROR##")

;What is the new path?
$NewSavePath = $DriveLetter & StringTrimLeft($SavePath, 1)

;Write the new path
IniWrite($inifile, "PC", "Savepath", $NewSavePath)

;Create the new path
DirCreate($NewSavePath)

;Run the install so you can test it
ShellExecuteWait($msiexec, " /i " & Chr(34) & $Extracted2 & $CurName & "\"& $CurMSI & Chr(34) & " /qb-")

Next

 

Note: In 'All Around the House' Sherston didn't hard code the saves path as p: but left it as saves\. My script doesn't recognise that so it needs to be manually set.

There are some sherston.ini files that are in a slightly different place, don't use the saves= or are otherwise irregular. Do a search for sherston.ini with error## in the search for text within files box. This will throw up 12 files that need manual editing or deleting. Check within the subfolder for sherston.ini file.

 

Thanks Sherston - this is an excellent resource!

 

 

EDIT: There are are 16 titles where it will only partly automate this task. This is because sherston have been inconsistent with naming. For these titles you'll need to go c:\msis\extracted1\ and get the name of the msi in the folder. Then run

msiexec /a "c:\msis\extracted1\\.msi" targetdir="c:\msis\extracted2\\" /qb-

 

After that you can edit the sherston.ini file in extracted2

 

Alphonsos Magical Spreadsheet

Izzys Story Skills - Goldilocks

LDA Prep and Adj

Magic Grandad Seaside Holidays

Magic Grandad The Great Fire V1.1

Map Detectives Urban Mystery

Nature Park

ORT Talking Stories Stage 1 & 1+

ORT Talking Stories Stage 2

ORT Talking Stories Stage 3

ORT Talking Stories Stage 6 and 7

ORT Talking Stories Stage 8 and 9

Phoneme Track

The Science Express 2 - Life Processes

Tizzys Toybox Special Edition.

Where in the world is Barnaby Bear

 

I'm sure someone could easily fix my script to automate this though. It's a bit crude but only took me 10 minutes!

Edited January 13, 2010 by eean

[Sherston]

Hi,

 

Firstly, we'd like to offer our thanks to everybody posting in this thread for their feedback on our products. This is really useful to us as going forward, it will help us to improve our products even further.

 

This thread is giving us several things that we'd like to investigate. We are all out of the office at various stages this week, working at the BETT exhibition (on stand C50), which means that we can't look into everything that we'd like to immediately.

 

We would however really like to meet anyone posting in this thread that is visiting the BETT exhibition. If you'd like to stop by and have a chat with us, please post a reply with the day that you're visiting or email us at [email protected]. We'd love the opportunity to thank the people involved in this thread personally for their feedback, and discuss any technical queries you have, as well as some of the technical aspects of this thread.

 

We hope to see you at stand C50!

[eean]

Thanks Sherston. Unfortunately my school won't fly me across the world to meet you but I would like to suggest:

Proper MSIs to save this messing about.

 

Descriptions in the shortcut of what the program is, so the teacher doesn’t need to open up the software to find out what topics are within it or what it’s about – they can just hover their mouse over the shortcut.

 

Cheers.

[jamin100]

Anyone been able to get the above script to work?

I've tried it and all I get is the Windows Installer window flashing repeadtly about 50 times and then a folder on my desktop called K##error## (the K refers to the save path in the script)

 

Anyone got any ideas?

[eean]

Obviously there's no error handling in the script! So, you need to follow the instructions to the letter.

 

Have you mapped (i.e subst) the q drive to c:\MSIs\Extracted1?

Check this, when you go to my comptuer there should be a q drive that actually goes to the above folder.

 

Are the source files from on the sherston hard drive. Is that hard drive located on drive e? If not, change the $SourceDir = "E:\RM CC3 Packages\" to the root folder where all the MSIs are located. Just check they're in there. (You may have a different version).

Make sure you've included the trailing backslash.

Check the variables on the top of the script.

 

Good luck, let me know if you get stuck.

[Nemesis]

Thanks for all the advice on this - we have this on the list of things to install over the summer so forewarned is forearmed!