I hear you, the SQL installer is just about the worst installer I have ever used; unfortunately the other options are not appropriate for our desktop application and our end users are not savvy enough to install SQL themselves.
The conditions aren't too bad but I like your idea about a helper that may make things easier. Neil -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Painter [mailto:chr...@iswix.com] Sent: 23 September 2013 16:51 To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Package Dependency Provider Neil, FWIW, I personally no longer attempt to auto-magically, silently install MSSQL. Not even "express". IMO that product has grown to a level of complexity that just makes it impossible. You might get it to work 90% of the time but that last 10% is, well, impossible. For your exact problem, have you considered a Helper.exe to act as one target of an ExePackage and then do it's own detection and branching? The main problem I have is depending on your configuration there are hundreds of conditions to check for to predict failure before calling the SQL install. Yikes... For server apps that need a "real database", I let the DBA install MSSQL and merely validate the connection in the install. For desktop apps that just need "some database" I push the developers towards MS SQL CE or MS LocalDB. Chris ---------------------------------------- From: "Neil Sleightholm" <n...@x2systems.com> Sent: Monday, September 23, 2013 9:29 AM To: "wix-users (wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net)" <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: [WiX-users] Package Dependency Provider I have a SQL 2012 SP1 Express install that has to support 3 scenarios: 1. Clean install, 2. Upgrade from SQL2008, 3. Upgrade from SQL2012 without SP1. Due to the way the SQL installer works these require 3 different command lines. To achieve this I have 3 ExePackages defined and only scenario 1 has the Uninstall defined. Each of these packages has the same Provides element e.g.: <dep:Provides Key="SQLServer2012Express,$(var.InstanceName)" Version="11.0.3000.0" /> This seemed to be working well but recently I have had reports of the SQL install being removed on upgrade. Looking in the logs I can't see why this is happening, in fact the logs contain entries like "Will not uninstall package: Sql2012Express, found dependents: 3". Does the way I have authored this sound correct? Is my Provides element correct? Does the DisplayName play any part in the dependency? I have noticed that the value in the registry can vary depending which scenario is installed as it uses the package DisplayName, should the DisplayName be set in the Provides key? Thanks Neil Neil Sleightholm X2 Systems Limited n...@x2systems.com<mailto:n...@x2systems.com> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- LIMITED TIME SALE - Full Year of Microsoft Training For Just $49.99! 1,500+ hours of tutorials including VisualStudio 2012, Windows 8, SharePoint 2013, SQL 2012, MVC 4, more. BEST VALUE: New Multi-Library Power Pack includes Mobile, Cloud, Java, and UX Design. Lowest price ever! Ends 9/20/13. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=58041151&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LIMITED TIME SALE - Full Year of Microsoft Training For Just $49.99! 1,500+ hours of tutorials including VisualStudio 2012, Windows 8, SharePoint 2013, SQL 2012, MVC 4, more. BEST VALUE: New Multi-Library Power Pack includes Mobile, Cloud, Java, and UX Design. Lowest price ever! Ends 9/20/13. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=58041151&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ LIMITED TIME SALE - Full Year of Microsoft Training For Just $49.99! 1,500+ hours of tutorials including VisualStudio 2012, Windows 8, SharePoint 2013, SQL 2012, MVC 4, more. BEST VALUE: New Multi-Library Power Pack includes Mobile, Cloud, Java, and UX Design. Lowest price ever! Ends 9/20/13. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=58041151&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
