Using the ‘Add tree’ function in Visual Installer

If you already have created a folder structure on your hard drive, with the files that you want to install, and want to create a similar folder structure on the destination drive, there is a very useful function in Visual Installer that you can use. The name of the function is Add tree and you can access it via the List menu in Visual Installer, by choosing the List – Add – Add tree menu item (see the picture below):

The 'Add tree' menu option

After you have chosen this menu item, the following dialog box is shown:

The 'Select folder' dialog box (1)

Via this dialog box you can browse to the folder, with sub folders and files, that you want to add to Visual Installer’s file list. For example like:

The 'Select folder' dialog box (2)

You can see the current folder path to the right of the Folder field name in the dialog box.

After you have selected your folder, you can click on the OK button to continue. The following dialog box will now be shown:

Collect files from folders and sub folders

In the option frame (above the three buttons) you can choose how the folder structure will be built in Visual Installer’s file list. You can choose between replacing the root level of the folder tree with the %DESTDIR variable, or add the folder tree to the %DESTDIR variable.

When you have decided how you want to build the folder tree, you can press the Add files button. Now Visual Installer’s file list will be filled with the files and folders. And you can see how many files that were collected in the No. files field name in the dialog box:

Ready!

To return to the file list, just press Close in the dialog box.

The collected files

How to obtain only folders of a folder tree
Instead of collecting the files in a folder tree you can also extract only the folders (directories) of the tree and skip all files. In this blog post we explain how to do this.

How to add a folder tree to Visual Installer’s file list

With the Add tree function in Visual Installer you can add a folder structure including files to Visual Installer’s file list in an easy way. It is also possible to add a folder structure without files to Visual Installer’s file list with the same Add tree function. We will show below how to do this.

1. Open the List menu and choose the Add – Add tree menu item.

The 'Add tree' menu option

2. Select a folder in the Select folder dialog box and click OK.

The 'Select folder' dialog box

3. Click on the More options button in the Collect files from folders and sub folders dialog box that now appears.

Collect files from folders and sub folders

4. Select the Only add folders option in the More options dialog box that now is shown.

The 'More options' dialog box

5. Click OK to close the dialog box. The text in the previous opened dialog box will be updated to:

Collect folders from folders and sub folders

6. Now click on the Add folders button to start collecting folder. All folders and sub folders in the selected folder (in step 2) will be added to Visual Installer’s file list. The number of collected folders will be displayed after the No. files field name in the dialog box.

Ready!

7. Click the Close button in the dialog box to return to the file list.

The collected folders