Add Files to Project
The Add Files to Project dialog box appears when you choose Add Files from Disk... on the Files and folders page. It is based on the standard Windows Open dialog, but adds a number of features that make it easy to add not just single files, but also groups of files that match a certain pattern, and even entire folders with their subfolders and the files they contain.
The upper portion of the dialog, including the Open and Cancel buttons, works as normal with one exception: the File name field changes to File filter if you enter a file filter pattern in it. A filter pattern is a file name that contains one or more "*" or "?" wildcards. The behavior of the Open button depends on the presence of wildcards as well:
- If the File name/filter field contains wildcards (and its label reads File filter), clicking Open refreshes the files shown in the dialog and only shows those that match the filter specification.
- If the File name/filter field does not contain wildcards (and its label reads File name), clicking Open closes the dialog and returns the file names in the File name field to InstallMate.
Apart from the switch between File name and File filter, this is in fact the standard behavior of the Windows Open dialog. The additional functionality that InstallMate provides is located in the lower part of the dialog, inside the rectangle marked Filter options. The options within this rectangle are active when the upper portion of the dialog reads File filter.
To add multiple files at once using the File filter specification, enter the filter pattern in the File filter field, then click the Add with filter button in the Filter options box. Do not use the Open button; as explained above, this merely refreshes the visible files to match the filter pattern. You may specify several patterns at once by separating them with semicolons; see the description of the Exclude files matching field below for examples.
Tip: If the Add with filter button is grayed out, click the Reset filter button to restore the filter settings and re-enable Add with filter. Alternatively, start typing a filter pattern in the File name field. As soon as you type a wildcard character, InstallMate switches to File filter mode. You can also select one of the predefined filters in the standard Files of type field.
Dialog fields and options
This dialog box contains the following fields and options.
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| Include Hidden | Check this box to include files that match the File filter pattern even if they are marked Hidden. In many cases, Hidden files are auxiliary files that should not be installed, but are instead created automatically by the application or Windows. For example, Windows Help uses Hidden files for keyword search and indexing information; these files are automatically re-created as needed and should not be installed separately. |
| Include System | Check this box to include files that match the File filter pattern even if they are marked System. In many cases, System files are special-purpose files that should not be installed as part of the normal Setup process. |
| Include Setup files | Check this box to include files that match the File filter pattern even if they are part of Setup applications; clear it to omit them. The reason to omit them is that InstallMate automatically installs its own Setup files for the project (specifically, Setup.exe and Setup.ini); if you include others yourself, this might cause unintended interactions between InstallMate's Setup files and others. Moreover, they would not serve any useful purpose and just take up space in the distribution package. |
| Include empty files | Check this box to include files that match the File filter pattern even if they are empty, i.e., have a file size of 0. Although these files will install correctly, they are often used as markers or lock files that should not be installed, but are instead created by the application when needed. |
| Include subfolders | Check this box to add all eligible files from subfolders in addition to the files in the current folder. InstallMate applies the same filter patterns and inclusion or exclusion criteria to files in subfolders as it does for files in the main folder. Note: These criteria are not applied to the subfolders themselves; that is, all subfolders will be searched, whether or not their names match any of the filter patterns or other attributes. |
| Preserve folders | Check this box if you checked Include subfolders and want to preserve the existing folder structure. In that case, InstallMate will add not just all matching files, but will also re-create the subfolder tree on the Files and folders page. If you clear this box, all files will end up in the main folder, in effect "flattening" the original folder tree. |
| Include empty folders | Check this box if you checked both Include subfolders and Preserve folders and want to include all subfolders, even if they do not contain files or subfolders with files. If you clear this box, InstallMate will only re-create non-empty subfolders on the Files and folders page. |
| Exclude files matching | Enter the file filter patterns for files to exclude even if they pass all other criteria. This option is intended to filter out classes of files that typically are used for "scratch" purposes only, or should otherwise not be installed as files. The default pattern list filters out backup files, various temporary and system files, and shortcut (.lnk) files that cannot be reliably installed as simple files, but should be re-created on the Files and folders page instead. |
| Add with filter | Click this button to add all eligible files in the current folder and optional subfolders to the current installation folder on the Files and folders page. |
| Reset filter | Click this button to reset all filter settings to the values they had when you opened the Add Files to Project dialog box, i.e., the settings that you used the last time. This command is useful to quickly restore the filter settings; it will also re-enable the Add with filter button if it was grayed out because the File name field contained file names instead of a filter pattern. |
| Defaults | Click this button to reset all filter settings to the "factory" defaults. This is useful if you have modified the filters extensively and want to restart with reasonable defaults. It will also re-enable the Add with filter button if it was grayed out because the File name field contained file names instead of a filter pattern. |
| Automatic component assignment |
Select this option to assign the files and folders to the same component as their parent folder, or to a newly generated ADDEDxxx component. |
| Assign to component | Select this option to assign the files and folders to a named component. You can select the component by clicking on the Select... button. |
| Select... | Click this button to open the Select Component dialog box. This dialog box lets you select an existing component, or create a new one if desired. |