Installing Your Ruby App with Inno Setup Installer

In my last article, we looked at 'compiling' your Ruby app into a single portable executable file using RubyScript2Exe.

As a reader commented, "For windows it becomes so important to make things 'one click'. I guess the next step would be to also wrap this in some kind of simple installer script to store it in the right place and add the appropriate menu/desktop icons."

Which brings us to the topic of today's discussion: using Inno Setup to create an Install program (ie, setup.exe) for your Ruby applications.

Inno Setup, created, by Jordan Russell, has been around for about a decade, is very well documented, and frequently updated. It's very customizable and extendable, and allows you to create professional installation packages that will allow you to create directories, install files to multiple locations (install folder, Windows system folder, etc.), create Start menu Program groups and icons, and place shortcut icons on the user's Desktop and Quick Launch bar. And it's free of charge.

Inno Setup creates your Setup.exe file based on parameters that you define in a text-based script. Your ISS script file is divided into sections, with parameter=value pairs, much like a Windows INI file. Starting out, you'll probably use the Inno Setup user interface to create and edit your scripts, and then to compile your installation package into a setup.exe and run it.



Section names may include [Setup], [Files], [Icons], and [Code]. Inno Setup includes a comprehensive help file detailing all of the options, and there is an extensive FAQ document on the website.

A typical ISS script might look something like this:

[Setup]
AppName=My Ruby Application
AppVerName=My Ruby Application version 09.23.07
AppPublisher=David Mullet
AppPublisherURL=http://davidmullet.com
AppContact=david@davidmullet.com
AppVersion=09.23.07
DefaultDirName=C:\My Ruby Application
DefaultGroupName=My Ruby Application
UninstallDisplayIcon={app}\MyRubyApp.exe
Compression=lzma
SolidCompression=yes

[Files]
Source: "MyRubyApp.exe"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "ReadMe.txt"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: isreadme ignoreversion

[Icons]
Name: "{group}\My Ruby Application"; Filename: "{app}\MyRubyApp.exe"; WorkingDir: "{app}"
Name: "{group}\View ReadMe File"; Filename: "{app}\ReadMe.txt"; WorkingDir: "{app}"

Inno Setup is highly customizable. You can, for example, customize the install wizard, or include a [Code] section with Pascal procedures (see the Help file for details and examples). The scripts are straight text, and the compiler can be called from the command line, so you can create and compile your ISS script all within Ruby, if you like, such as in a Rakefile. I'll include just such an example in an upcoming article.

So, you can now create a single executable file for your Ruby application and use a professional-looking installer to distribute it.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Post a comment here or send me an email message.

Thanks for stopping by!