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Custom Action Overview

What are custom actions?

Custom actions are powerful tools in Paquet Builder that extend the capabilities of standard actions, allowing you to customize the behavior of your package without requiring programming skills.

  • Custom actions are visually managed through the Custom Action Editor, explained in the Custom Action Manager topic.
  • They allow you to control the behavior of the package and uninstaller, performing tasks such as displaying additional dialog boxes, manipulating files, or working with the Windows registry.

Each custom action has properties that you can modify using the Action Properties Editor.

When are custom actions executed?

Custom actions are assigned to specific phases of the package's execution, called events. These events include:

  • Main Events: Initialization, Before File Extraction, After File Extraction, Finalization.
  • Dialog Events: Related to user interactions.
  • Uninstaller Events: For uninstall operations.

Actions within an event are executed in the order they appear in the event's action list. The sequence for package-related events is as follows:

  1. Initialization
  2. After Welcome Screen
  3. After Start Readme Screen
  4. Before File Extraction
  5. After File Extraction
  6. After Shortcut/Registry Creation
  7. After Setup Run (for Setup Packages)
  8. Before Final Screen
  9. Finalization

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Key Notes on Custom Actions

  • Custom actions are optional; many configurations can be achieved through other steps in Paquet Builder.
  • Custom actions offer total control for advanced customization.
  • Paquet Builder checks that required properties are filled but does not validate whether the action will function correctly.
  • Actions such as "Conditional Begin If/Then" must always be paired with "Conditional End If/Then."
  • Variables and resource strings can be used in action properties.
  • Some actions have no properties, like the "Exit Package" action, so the Action Properties Editor will not open.

To add comments to your action list, use the "User Comment" action.

Tip

Visit the G.D.G. Software Forum for help and samples related to custom actions.

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