Install prerequisite (Adobe Reader) from the web using InstallShield 2009

Question

Currently my InstallShield project uses a custom prerequiste to install Adobe Reader on the target machine if it is not already installed.

The prerequisite executable (Adobe Reader SetUp) is installed locally and so it is packaged into the SetUp.exe by InstallShield.

Everything works as desired with the Adobe Reader setup completed prior to my program (if it is not already installed).

Now while you can apply for an Adobe reader distribution licence my company needs to investigate the legal implications of the licence first.

Therefore in the meantime I would like to link to the adobe site and install the application from there. Is this possible as I cannot see a way of doing this?

If not, how do I supply a link to the adobe site and then pause or exit the installshield setup while it is downloaded and installed?

If you could provide some pointers / an example or point me to any relevant resource it would be most appreciated.

Cheers

Answer 1

InstallShield does not provide a built-in way to pause your install and direct a user to a donwload, although you could certainly create a prerequisite which runs an custom executable to do this. I believe it's more common to create a prerequisite that downloads an installation off the web - just provide URLs to all files in it, and set its location to Download - but I can't comment usefully as to whether that has different legal implications.

Answer 2

It's not possible to do what I want within InstallShield.

My company has decided that they do not want to distribute Adobe with our software and so the way I implemented this was to simply have the tool check for the presence of Adboe before opening any PDFs. If Adobe is not installed the user is presented with a message requesting them to visit the Adobe website to install Reader.