Re: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
VDPROJ has been dead for a few releases now. For proof, TFS doesn't even work with it at all (so you can't use it on build servers). I've had to use WiX for the last few years, to ensure that build servers at client sites could dump out .msi files at the end. -David Burela On 6 October 2012 13:56, Stephen Price step...@perthprojects.com wrote: Watching this thread, and having had to do some Wix stuff last week I've come to the conclusion that installing software is way too complicated. I'm liking how Windows 8 apps are deployed. ie single file package. Lets hope it catches on. On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Greg Keogh g...@mira.net wrote: Hi Ian, I followed some of your links and browsed around for a vdproj to WiX converter (or msi to WiX converter). The PowerShell script looks too primitive. Dark.exe is impressive but it produces lots of warnings and reams of output that I’d have to trim down. ** ** I think the safest thing to do is just learn to write WiX files from scratch and get nice clean results. I’ll report later on how it goes as a warning to others. ** ** Greg
RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
That's the hope. :) From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Price Sent: Friday, October 5, 2012 8:57 PM To: ozDotNet Subject: Re: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects Watching this thread, and having had to do some Wix stuff last week I've come to the conclusion that installing software is way too complicated. I'm liking how Windows 8 apps are deployed. ie single file package. Lets hope it catches on. On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Greg Keogh g...@mira.netmailto:g...@mira.net wrote: Hi Ian, I followed some of your links and browsed around for a vdproj to WiX converter (or msi to WiX converter). The PowerShell script looks too primitive. Dark.exe is impressive but it produces lots of warnings and reams of output that I'd have to trim down. I think the safest thing to do is just learn to write WiX files from scratch and get nice clean results. I'll report later on how it goes as a warning to others. Greg
RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
Greg You may not be as badly screwed as you thought. There's always someone wanting to write a conversion program - just spend a few minutes on search + assessment: it may have been done . It seems that there have been people wanting to convert vdproj to WiX since 2007. _ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Greg Keogh Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 4:20 PM To: 'ozDotNet' Subject: RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects Basically, your screwed. Technically, it looks like your evaluation is accurate. I was going to try InstallShield Limited, but when it started the 60MB down I cancelled it. I'm sick of their quirky proprietary stuff anyway. Do they still have their own weird scripting language? I tried using VS2012 devenv.exe to build the vdproj file from the command line, but it can't be tricked. I spent 20 minutes reading the WiX documentation and it looks like that's the way out of this dead-end. I will have to convert the vdproj files to WiX XML and replace my Custom Action code with theirs (luckily a lot of it looks like standard extensions to WiX). Sadly I know it will take dozens of man-hours of spare time to get fluent in WiX. Downloading now... The lack of vdproj support really took me by surprise. I just never saw anyone mention this matter anywhere (not that I was looking). I'd be angry about this normally, but I think I'm becoming desensitised, it's hard to not be disappointed these days Greg
RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
One of the first that I found - courtesy of Chris Oldwood, UK - a PowerShell script: http://www.chrisoldwood.com/win32/vdproj2wix/vdproj2wix.html _ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Ian Thomas Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 6:25 PM To: 'ozDotNet' Subject: RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects Greg You may not be as badly screwed as you thought. There's always someone wanting to write a conversion program - just spend a few minutes on search + assessment: it may have been done . It seems that there have been people wanting to convert vdproj to WiX since 2007. _ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Greg Keogh Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 4:20 PM To: 'ozDotNet' Subject: RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects Basically, your screwed. Technically, it looks like your evaluation is accurate. I was going to try InstallShield Limited, but when it started the 60MB down I cancelled it. I'm sick of their quirky proprietary stuff anyway. Do they still have their own weird scripting language? I tried using VS2012 devenv.exe to build the vdproj file from the command line, but it can't be tricked. I spent 20 minutes reading the WiX documentation and it looks like that's the way out of this dead-end. I will have to convert the vdproj files to WiX XML and replace my Custom Action code with theirs (luckily a lot of it looks like standard extensions to WiX). Sadly I know it will take dozens of man-hours of spare time to get fluent in WiX. Downloading now... The lack of vdproj support really took me by surprise. I just never saw anyone mention this matter anywhere (not that I was looking). I'd be angry about this normally, but I think I'm becoming desensitised, it's hard to not be disappointed these days Greg
RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
Something else, with VS2012 installs: It appears that it is rather more difficult to get the Lite InstallShield to make an installer for services, under VS2012. It is probably worth following up with Chris Painter's blog (as I recall, he has been very active with WiX for 4+ years, and also used the various InstallShield products extensively), as the following stackoverflow question indicates he has worked out a solution - Visual Studio 2012 .vdproj project migration http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12571268/visual-studio-2012-vdproj-projec t-migration There is a mini-tutorial about services projects under VS2012 + InstallShield Limited Edition in that answer. _ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Ian Thomas Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 6:41 PM To: 'ozDotNet' Subject: RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects One of the first that I found - courtesy of Chris Oldwood, UK - a PowerShell script: http://www.chrisoldwood.com/win32/vdproj2wix/vdproj2wix.html _ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Ian Thomas Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 6:25 PM To: 'ozDotNet' Subject: RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects Greg You may not be as badly screwed as you thought. There's always someone wanting to write a conversion program - just spend a few minutes on search + assessment: it may have been done . It seems that there have been people wanting to convert vdproj to WiX since 2007. _ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia From: ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com [mailto:ozdotnet-boun...@ozdotnet.com] On Behalf Of Greg Keogh Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 4:20 PM To: 'ozDotNet' Subject: RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects Basically, your screwed. Technically, it looks like your evaluation is accurate. I was going to try InstallShield Limited, but when it started the 60MB down I cancelled it. I'm sick of their quirky proprietary stuff anyway. Do they still have their own weird scripting language? I tried using VS2012 devenv.exe to build the vdproj file from the command line, but it can't be tricked. I spent 20 minutes reading the WiX documentation and it looks like that's the way out of this dead-end. I will have to convert the vdproj files to WiX XML and replace my Custom Action code with theirs (luckily a lot of it looks like standard extensions to WiX). Sadly I know it will take dozens of man-hours of spare time to get fluent in WiX. Downloading now... The lack of vdproj support really took me by surprise. I just never saw anyone mention this matter anywhere (not that I was looking). I'd be angry about this normally, but I think I'm becoming desensitised, it's hard to not be disappointed these days Greg
RE: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
Hi Ian, I followed some of your links and browsed around for a vdproj to WiX converter (or msi to WiX converter). The PowerShell script looks too primitive. Dark.exe is impressive but it produces lots of warnings and reams of output that I'd have to trim down. I think the safest thing to do is just learn to write WiX files from scratch and get nice clean results. I'll report later on how it goes as a warning to others. Greg
Re: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
Watching this thread, and having had to do some Wix stuff last week I've come to the conclusion that installing software is way too complicated. I'm liking how Windows 8 apps are deployed. ie single file package. Lets hope it catches on. On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Greg Keogh g...@mira.net wrote: Hi Ian, I followed some of your links and browsed around for a vdproj to WiX converter (or msi to WiX converter). The PowerShell script looks too primitive. Dark.exe is impressive but it produces lots of warnings and reams of output that I’d have to trim down. ** ** I think the safest thing to do is just learn to write WiX files from scratch and get nice clean results. I’ll report later on how it goes as a warning to others. ** ** Greg
Re: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
it seems to be the case, see blog below from Visual Studio ALM http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckh/archive/2011/03/17/visual-studio-setup-projects-vdproj-will-not-ship-with-future-versions-of-vs.aspx Visual Studio 2012 Compatibility http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh266747.aspx Some people have suggested as an alternative to keep VS2010 around to build .vdproj setup files, but I think this is only s short term solution. On 5 October 2012 09:12, Greg Keogh g...@mira.net wrote: I have been sanity checking that VS2010 projects will open and build in VS2012. I have stumbled across that fact that ‘vdproj’ setup projects are no longer supported. I heard nothing about this and it’s quite a shock. I have dozens of setup projects that with custom actions to install web sites, services and desktop apps. ** ** Web searches so far hint that I can convert the vdproj files into InstallShield Limited Edition projects (I’ve never used them), or I’m supposed to use WiX (huge learning curve?). THIS linkhttp://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckh/archive/2011/03/17/visual-studio-setup-projects-vdproj-will-not-ship-with-future-versions-of-vs.aspxsays: ** ** Future versions of Visual Studio will not include the Visual Studio Installer project templates. To preserve existing customer investments in Visual Studio Installer projects, Microsoft will continue to support the Visual Studio Installer projects that shipped with Visual Studio 2010 per the product life-cycle strategy. For more information, see Expanded Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy for Business Development Productshttp://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=197493. ** ** However, the link leads to a generic Support page with nothing about setup projects. ** ** What am I supposed to do with all my vdproj files? This is a small disaster for migration to VS2012. ** ** Greg ** **
Re: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
You can’t open this project in Visual Studio 2012 RC because it doesn't support that project type. We recommend that you use InstallShield Limited Edition for Visual Studio (ISLE), a free deployment solution that directly supports most Windows platforms and application runtimes. ISLE also supports importing data and settings from Visual Studio Installer projects. For more information, see Windows Installer Deployment. On 5/10/2012 9:33 AM, Donald wrote: it seems to be the case, see blog below from Visual Studio ALM http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckh/archive/2011/03/17/visual-studio-setup-projects-vdproj-will-not-ship-with-future-versions-of-vs.aspx Visual Studio 2012 Compatibility http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh266747.aspx Some people have suggested as an alternative to keep VS2010 around to build .vdproj setup files, but I think this is only s short term solution. On 5 October 2012 09:12, Greg Keogh g...@mira.net wrote: I have been sanity checking that VS2010 projects will open and build in VS2012. I have stumbled across that fact that ‘vdproj’ setup projects are no longer supported. I heard nothing about this and it’s quite a shock. I have dozens of setup projects that with custom actions to install web sites, services and desktop apps. Web searches so far hint that I can convert the vdproj files into InstallShield Limited Edition projects (I’ve never used them), or I’m supposed to use WiX (huge learning curve?). THIS link says: Future versions of Visual Studio will not include the Visual Studio Installer project templates. To preserve existing customer investments in Visual Studio Installer projects, Microsoft will continue to support the Visual Studio Installer projects that shipped with Visual Studio 2010 per the product life-cycle strategy. For more information, see Expanded Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy for Business Development Products. However, the link leads to a generic Support page with nothing about setup projects. What am I supposed to do with all my vdproj files? This is a small disaster for migration to VS2012. Greg
Re: VS2012 doesn't support setup projects
** ** ** What am I supposed to do with all my vdproj files? This is a small disaster for migration to VS2012. ** ** Basically, your screwed. Need to convert all the installers to something else. That's what we did, but only has one installer. In the short term, you can use VS2012 and the other projects will remain backwards compatible with VS2010, so you can build the install package in VS2010. But you can't use any new project types. Craig
