|
Based on the information provided below, you’ll
likely want to look into using the WixIIsExtension, WixSQLExtension, and
WixUtilExtension (for some additional service configuration and xml
manipulation custom actions). You’ll need to decide to use either
WiX 2.0 or 3.0. We’re currently only encouraging adoption of 3.0
for groups shipping in 2007 or later. This is because 3.0 is under active
development and you’ll avoid the intermediate bugs and schema changes
associated with that if you stick with 2.0. If you use WiX 3.0, you’ll get some
help with creating the initial installation by using a tool called
heat.exe. It can create WiX authoring from type libraries, self-reg dlls,
directories, web sites (partial support – no app pools yet), and assembly
RegistrationServices. A tool in WiX 2.0 performs similar functions –
it’s called tallow.exe. It does not support type libraries or web
sites (it was the predecessor to heat). There has been a bit of a debate raging
here lately about the Installer classes. WiX and MSI actually have no
formal interaction with the installer classes and the WiX team advises against
using them because they do not provide a complete rollback experience in the
case of installation failures. Full disclosure however: there are some
people that prefer them because they are easy, but you’ll often find that
going the easy route in setup is a bit more dangerous (as is the case
here). Ideally we need to add some additional logic to heat.exe to
convert Installer operations into simple Registry and File operations since
that is the most robust and declarative installation method possible with MSI. Your plan for the upgrade sounds
good. You would likely need some sort of executable “bootstrapper”
to save off the config settings, perform the uninstall, and install the new MSI
file. Derek From: Rick Glos [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] First off. Thanks for the warm
welcome. Second. Thanks for the quick
response and ideas by all three of you (Derek, Richard, and Bob). Answers to your questions Derek:
Based on what the 3 of you have said, it sounds
like perhaps what I should consider for the upgrade is save off the current
settings/data (web.config, sql databases, and any custom files they’ve
added to the web sites) then perform an uninstall. Then let the windows
installer do an install and then restore those settings/data and then
they’d be go to go for future upgrades using the windows installer.
Does this sound reasonable? Would I be able to do this within the context
of the windows installer (msi)? Or would I have our customers run a
‘Setting Saver’ app. Run the uninstall app. Then run
the new windows installer (msi) and then run a ‘Setting Restorer’
app. That seems like a lot of steps but I’m thinking aloud
here. Perhaps this could all be handled within the context of the msi. Anyway. Thanks for reading this far
if you made it and thanks for the advice. Hope to keep the discussion
going. Rick From: Derek Cicerone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] First off, welcome! There’s some information that can
help guide our answers for you:
To answer some of your questions: I’m not sure how the upgrade story
would work – it all depends on how you currently handle uninstall and
upgrade scenarios. Is there something you’d need to run to perform
an uninstall on the previous version (would it be managed code)? Once you
get all customers on an MSI deployed setup it should be easy to have them all
use the same technology after that point. Thanks, Derek From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rick Glos Hello, I’ve spent the last two days getting familiar with
WiX, the windows installer, and going through the great tutorial on WiX (http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/).
I especially liked the article posted a year ago (http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnwingen/html/wixsetup.asp)
that talks about doing the installer during the development cycle and not at
the end of it. We are badly in need of doing this. I have a question however. How do we migrate from our
current installer to the Windows Installer for existing customers? We just released version 5.0 of our product. Spending
6 weeks updating our installer (we have a custom C# installer). I can see
our new customers instead using a
new .msi for later versions (5.5, 6.0, etc). What do I do about our
existing customers when they wish to upgrade? They’ve never
installed originally with a Windows Installer. How do I get them on the
same track? Thanks for any advice, Rick Glos |
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