Components are special categories that you can define in order to group related files together. You can have as many components in a package as you want. Each component has a name, an optional description, a unique custom variable that determines whether the component is installed or not, and a file list that of course indicates the files grouped into the component.
Components can be created, removed or edited using the component manager (list on the left) from the file manager window:
 Packages must at least contain one component called "Main". This component cannot be removed nor renamed; when a new project is created, it always contains the "main" component. However working with the "main" component is optional: you do not need to add files to this component (it only needs to exist). |
Components are useful if you want to group files together (for example you can group of picture files into a component called "Pictures") or in case you want to let end users decide the components that should be installed on their computer.
Another example: if you have specific files that should be only installed on a Windows NT-like platform, you can group these files into a "WinNTOnly" component and set the properties of the latter so that files inside it will be extracted only if users run Windows NT.
| If you do not want to create additional components, just use the "main" component to specify your package files. |
Component Properties
To edit the properties of a given component, highlight its title in the component list and press the Properties button 
(or double-click on the icon). The following window will appear:
This window contains three tabs: "Global Properties", "Component Variable" and "Selection Dialog".
Global Properties
Paquet Builder supports linking a component to a source folder. This means that the contents of the source folder will be considered as the contents of the component; in other words, all files found in the source folder will be automatically added to the component's file list, and all files not found will be removed from the file list (optional) when the component is refreshed. It is a synchronization.
This feature is useful if you want Paquet Builder to automatically manage its file lists according to the contents of the source folders. For instance, if you add files to a source folder, you do not need to also add these files to the component file list manually: just click on the "Live-Update" 
button and let Paquet Builder synchronize the file lists for you.
Clicking on the "Live-Update" button causes Paquet Builder to refresh all source-linked components. But you can also only refresh one component using the mouse context menu: select the component to be refreshed and right-click to display the context menu, then use "Live update this component".
You can also configure Paquet Builder to automatically live-update your components when the project is loaded at startup.
Live update always adds new files, but it can also remove files from the lists if the source files do not exist anymore. You can disable this behavior in the Environment Options.
Note: Paquet Builder displays a missing icon when a file is not found.
Storing Path Information
If your source files are coming from different source folders, then the path in addition to the filename of each file should be stored within the archive. When a file is unpacked, the folder corresponding to the stored path is first created and then the file is placed in it.
Paquet Builder already provides global path information storing properties but if your files come from different folders, you may override these global settings using "local" ones related to the component.
By default, the "Use the default settings..." option should be turned on. Recommended most of the time (and for beginners).
If you do not want any path information to be stored (only filenames), then select the second option "Do not store path information". In this case, ensure you will never have source files with the same filename!
"Keep path information relative to the following root folder" is the last option and works exactly as the "relative paths" option in the Compression Options page. Except that the root folder can be different. Use this option if the source files of the component come from the same folder (or its sub-folders); in this case, you can use this folder as the root folder.
Component Variable
| Be sure to read the help topics related to variables before continuing. |
Each component has a unique Boolean custom variable that can be set to either "1" (true) or "0" (false). When a component should be installed (i.e. its files may be extracted), the variable of that component is set to "1" (true). Otherwise the variable is set to "0" (false) and no file is extracted.
Component variables should always begin by "VCOMP", and once a component is created, its associated variable is automatically listed in the Variable Manager.
The value of a component variable can be set by end users thanks to the "Select Components" dialog or by the package itself thanks to custom actions (especially with the "perform operation on a variable" action type).
This option indicates whether the component should be installed or not by default: if the option is enabled, the component variable will be initialized to "1" (true) so, unless you change the variable's value yourself, the component will be installed. If you disable this option, the component will normally not be installed unless you change the value of its associated variable.
By default, always leave this option turned on unless you do not plan to use the component ("main" for example) in your package.
Selection Dialog
This tab contains properties related to the component selection dialog box only. If you do not plan to use this dialog box in your package, then you do not need to configure these options.
The component selection dialog displays a list of check boxes that let your users select the components they want to be installed on their computer. They can read a description of a given component and decide whether the latter should be installed or not by turning on/off its checkbox as you can see below:
The component title may be different from the component name (which identifies the component and will never be displayed to end users). The component title appears near the check box and consists in a short sentence that describes the group of files belonging to it, such as "Help files", "Additional Movies"...
The component description may be used to provide end users with a further description of the component and its files. "This will install the help system files and additional documentation files." is an example of what you can enter.
| Resource strings are allowed for these two fields. |
If you disable this option, then the component will not appear in the selection list at all. End users cannot consequently decide whether the component will be installed or not.
If you want your end users not to change the state of the component (whether it will be installed or not) and that the component remain in the selection list (the option above is not turned off), then enable this option. In this case the check box related to the component will be disabled (grayed).
You can see on the previous screenshot that the "Main Files" component is required.
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