To report the status of a PCM-spawned application installation or deinstallation, a package command status MIF file must be created in the Windows directory. The MIF file name must be unique so that multiple installations in a single session can report their status without a conflict in the name of the package command status MIF files.
Additionally, the creation date and time stamp of the MIF file must be set to a time after PCM started to run the job. In this way, PCM knows that the MIF file was placed there by your setup program and will update the SMS database with the values the file provides. The same rules apply to the package command status MIF file for deinstallation and maintenance.
It is important to note that PCM looks for package command status MIF file(s) after the setup command that PCM launched completes. Thus, your installation must write the MIF file(s) before the original process launched by PCM exits. If your installation runs one command, and that command spawns another command that actually writes the MIF file(s) after the first command has terminated, PCM will not recognize that the second command has written a package command status MIF file, and the MIF file will not be reported to SMS.
Package command status MIF files for applications that run on localized versions of SMS must be in the appropriate format: ANSI format for European languages; DBCS format for Far East languages. Additionally, the description string reporting the success or failure of the installation must be localized.
SMS 1.2 provides two DLLs to assist ISVs in writing package command status MIF files:
Programs started by a package command can call a function (InstallStatusMIF) from these DLLs that reports the status of the job corresponding to the package command. This function creates a package command status MIF file in the Windows directory with the correct date and time stamp.
SMS also provides a tool, ISMIF, that writes a generic status MIF file from information given through a command line and/or a dialog box.
For more information, see the following:
InstallStatusMIF Function Parameters
Sample Code to Call InstallStatusMIF
Sample Package Command Status MIF File
Status MIF File Creator (ISMIF)