Even though there are many WarpIN script elements (which are all listed in the "Script element reference"), you will not need all of them.

The basic rules for WarpIN scripts are as follows:

  1. Since WarpIN scripts are XML-compliant, they must start with a special XML header. See WarpIN XML document header for details.

  2. The entire rest of the script must be enclosed in <WARPIN> and </WARPIN> tags. We will call that the WARPIN "element" or "block" from now. See the description for the WARPIN element for details.

  3. Inside the WARPIN element, the packages in the archive are listed using PCK elements. For each package in the archive, you must write one PCK element. Since there must be at least one package in the archive, there must be at least one PCK element.

    The PCK elements can become quite complex, but the basic syntax is simple. See the description for the PCK element for details.

    You must specify:

    1. with the INDEX attribute, the decimal index of the package in the archive, which must be the same as the package index given to WIC.EXE when creating the archive;

    2. with the PACKAGEID attribute, a unique package ID for the package, which will be stored in the WarpIN database;

    3. with the TITLE attribute, a short title of the package, which is displayed to the user on the "Container" page and later in the database;

    4. with the TARGETPATH attribute, a proposed target directory for the package.

    Inside the <PCK> ... </PCK> tags, you must specify a DESCRIPTION block with a more detailed description of the package. This appears in a tooltip control ("fly-over help") when the user moves the mouse over the package title.

  4. Still within the WARPIN block, the pages to be displayed to the user must be described using PAGE elements.

    The pages have decimal indices as well (even though, as opposed to packages, these have no representation in the archive). This is needed to navigate through the pages with the "Next" and "Back" buttons which are displayed by WarpIN.

    There are several types of pages. You define the type of a page with the TYPE attribute to the PAGE element. "Text" and "Readme" pages allow you to display a welcome message and licence agreements. The "Container" page displays all packages in the archive to the user and will usually allow the user to change the target directories where files are later unpacked to. The "Configure" page allows the user to select which changes should be made to his system and to create a response file for future installations.

    See the description for the PAGE element for details.

    On the last page, if the "Next" button is pressed once more, WarpIN's installation routines will take over and process files and system configuration according to the data which was collected from the script and the user.

A minimal sample script with a single package and the usual page descriptions can be found here.