Due to my lack of expertise in installers, I think I got into a bad situation with the wrong installer arrangement and I’m wondering what the best way out of it is. I’m using WiX 3.0, but this is a more general install problem so let me know if it’s not appropriate to ask here.
I have an installer that installs two components A and B both within the same feature. Component A is a device driver and some associated software. Component B is a third-party library comprised of two DLLs and is used by the driver/software. This third-party library requires a per-unit license. We distribute this on CD with the device and so by counting the CDs we can keep track of the licenses. We began including the library on the CD last year. But there are older owners of the device who would want to download the new version. We cannot put this installer on the web for download because we can’t count or track those licenses. So the problem is, we want to upgrade Component A with bug fixes and make it available for web download. But we can’t include component B for license reasons---because older users shouldn’t get it for free. But if I leave component B out of the upgrade, I believe the upgrade process will remove B from the hard disk of legitimate owners of it. (I know if I had at least made component B as a separate feature, I could specify that it not be removed and do a major upgrade. But it’s too late at this point.) My best workaround idea so far is for the upgrade to include dummy DLLs for component B that have a lower version number than the real ones. So when an upgrade happens, the real DLLs already on hard disk will be left alone. And for older users who don’t have the license to the library, they will just get the dummy DLLs installed. It’s messy, and I hate to think I have to do this for the life of the product. Is there a better way? I think for the future I will put component B completely in its own installer and put that only on the CD. But that doesn’t help the current problem. Thanks for any help, Jim ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EditLive Enterprise is the world's most technically advanced content authoring tool. Experience the power of Track Changes, Inline Image Editing and ensure content is compliant with Accessibility Checking. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ephox-dev2dev _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
