Installing in Silent (Unattended) Mode

Install PowerBuilder from a Command Prompt window or script, without displaying messages or windows during the installation process.

Prerequisites

Complete installation planning.

  1. Accept the license agreement.

  2. Specify the SQL Anywhere or PostgreSQL engine.

  3. Configure the silentinstall.bat file.

  4. Run silentinstall.bat to install PowerBuilder.

Accepting the License Agreement

Accept the Appeon license agreement before running the silent installation.

Edit the silentinstall.bat file located in the installation package and change the value of AgreeToAppeonLicense from false to true.

set AgreeToAppeonLicense=true

Specifying the database engine

Specify the location of a database engine (SQL Anywhere, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server) before running the silent installation.

Edit the SilentInstall.ini file located in the PowerBuilder IDE installation package and set the value of szDBClientToolDir.

For example, for SQL Anywhere:

szDBClientToolDir=C:\Program Files\SQL Anywhere 17\Bin64

For PostgreSQL, you will also need to specify the IP address, port number, user name, and password of the database.

szDBClientToolDir=C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\12\bin

szIP=127.0.0.1
szPort=5432
szUserName=postgres
szPassword=$Password$

Setting up the IIS server

Set up the IIS server before running the silent installation.

Edit the SilentInstall.ini file located in the PowerServer Toolkit installation package and set the following values.

Specifies whether to install IIS automatically. For example, if the value is set to true, the IIS will be installed automatically.

bAutoInstallIIS=true

Specifies options for website. For example, if the value is set to 1, an existing website will be selected. If the value is set to 2, a new website needs to be created. And if the value is set to 3, the website will be specified later.

nWebsiteOption=1

Specifies the site name, binding port and physical path for the website that is selected by the user or will be created later. For example:

szSiteName=Default Web Site
szSitePort=80
szSiteRootDir=C:\inetpub\wwwroot

Silent Install Commands

This topic describes the silentinstall command syntax for PowerBuilder.

To run the silent installation from a Windows Command Prompt, run this command in the installation package:

silentinstall.bat
[ "opt=product" "dir=directoryName" "log=logFileName" ]
[ { help | /? } ]

The parameters can be listed in any order and are case insensitive. Parameter values are also case insensitive.

Silent installation parameter

Description

opt

Specifies the name of the products to install.

  • All Installs PowerBuilder IDE, PowerBuilder Runtime, PowerBuilder Utilities, PowerServer Toolkit, SnapDevelop IDE, .NET DataStore, and PowerScript Migrator.

  • PB Installs only PowerBuilder IDE

  • PBRT Installs only PowerBuilder Runtime

  • PBU Installs only PowerBuilder Utilities

  • PSTK Installs only PowerServer Toolkit

  • SDEV Installs only SnapDevelop IDE

  • DWEXP Installs only .NET DataStore

  • MIGR Installs only PowerScript Migrator

Multiple products can be separated by a slash ("/"), for example, opt=<All/PBRT/PB/PBU/PSTK/SDEV/DWEXP/MIGR>.

dir

Indicates the main installation directory. If you omit this parameter, silentinstall installs the product to the sysDriver\Program Files\Appeon\productName directory, where sysDriver is the main computer drive, and productName is PowerBuilder.

log

Names the log file for the installation. If you omit this parameter, the log file is written to the system Temp directory with the file name, silentinstall.log.

help or /?

Displays command syntax and parameters instead of running the command.


Following are examples for the silent installation command.

In Windows Command Prompt (run as an administrator):

set AgreeToAppeonLicense=true
silentinstall.bat "opt=all" "dir=C:\appeon\pb220" "log=C:\appeon\install.log"

In Windows PowerShell (run as an administrator):

#1: Add --% before the parameter(s):

$Env:AgreeToAppeonLicense = "true"
.\SilentInstall.bat --% "opt=all" "dir=C:\appeon\pb220" "log=C:\appeon\install.log"

#2: Or add the escape character (`) before each quotation mark of the parameter.

$Env:AgreeToAppeonLicense = "true"
.\SilentInstall.bat `"opt=all`" `"dir=C:\appeon\pb220`" `"log=C:\appeon\install.log`"

When installing PowerBuilder, the silent installation writes warnings to its log file if the computer does not have the correct version of any of these items:

  • SQL Anywhere, PostgreSQL, or SQL Server

  • Microsoft .NET Framework

  • Microsoft .NET Framework SDK