Apple

I'm creating a PackageMaker installer. At runtime, it needs to select and deselect packages based on user input. The catch is the user input is via an Installer plug-in. The Installer plug-in API specifically states, about installer-plugins not being able to change package choices:

@method installerState

@abstract Returns the Installer State object for the current install session.

@discussion Returns an object which describes the Installer choices and status

at the given time. Plugins cannot influence this state, it should only

be used for informational purposes. See InstallerState.h for more details.

I haven't gotten around to testing to see if this is really the case, but the documentation says I can't do what I need to get done. So, is this really the case? Is this not possible? There is no mechanism for having an installer plug-in select or deselect packages to be installed?

There's another approach I can take but I'd rather be able do everything I need to do internally, within the installer. The other approach is basically chaining two installers.

1) Have one installer or application get the needed user input via custom code.

2) The custom code saves the needed information on disk and then launches the second, chained installer.

3) The main installer, on launch, will read the information on disk and via the Distribution.dist _javascript_ mechanism, select and deselect the packages.

I would need to do it this way because the Distribution.dist _javascript_ file runs when the main installer first launches. So the information needed that selects and deselects packages in the main installer would have to already exist, on a file on a disk for example, when the main installer launches.

I also know that packages can depend on packages, so if one gets selected/delected, other packages can get selected/deselected, but I can't do it this way.

I'd appreciate input on this. Thanks, Tony Zepeda