17.2 Structure of an AIT file, and procedure for creating it

Normally, you use the following procedure to create an AIT file. In most cases, you will need to repeat this procedure several times to complete the desired AIT file.

Figure 17‒2: Procedure for creating an AIT file

After you use the Recorder to record installation operations, if you use the Package Information tool to generate the PACKAGE_INFO section, an AIT file with the structure shown in the following figure is automatically generated. You can use this file as a model file to create a new AIT file. Normally, you modify the shaded portions in this file to complete the AIT file.

Figure 17‒3: Structure of an AIT file

As shown in Figure 16-3, the AIT file consists of four sections. All the sections are required. You cannot change the order of the sections. The following gives an overview of these sections.

• PACKAGE_INFO section

  This section contains the package information and setup information for the software to be distributed. You can manually complete this section, but you can also use the Package Information tool that automatically generates this section.

• DEFINE section

  This section defines and initializes the variables that may be used in the MAIN and ERROR sections. No variables can be defined in sections other than the DEFINE section. If you want to add variables in the MAIN and ERROR sections or want to change initial values of variables in the MAIN and ERROR sections, you have to modify this section.

• MAIN section

  This section contains the operations on the windows output by the installer. You must manually modify this section automatically generated by the Recorder to code the operations on all the installer windows. You can also set return codes for the results of installation.

• ERROR section

  If an internal error occurs during execution of the AIT file, control over the execution moves to this section. If you want to change the behavior when an error has occurred, modify this section.

You can write comments in the AIT file. The AIT language is not case sensitive. For details about AIT files, see Chapter 18. AIT Language Reference.

Although you can manually create a program product ID file, you can also use the Package Information tool to conveniently create the program product ID file. This is possible because the tool can generate the file when the PACKAGE_INFO section is generated.

The program product ID file generated by the Package Information tool is assigned the name PPDEFAIT.DMP and stored in JP1/IT-Desktop-Management-2-installation-folder\DMPRM.

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