For our installs (about 200 Assemblies in about 15 installers spread through 8 solutions); I manage the contents manually, using project references and inside the WiX, I have a component for each binary file that represents the Assembly and its .PDB file. It took a little work getting it setup, but it is crystal clear what is installed where.
Each solution has a series of WiX Libraries, with the Binding turned on; this is so the library solutions build and report errors immediately, and everything is visible within the solution when someone is working on it. Then we have a separate solution that does nothing but assembly all of the various WiX Libraries into a series of installers; this solution takes about 20 minutes to build, so we keep it out of the way of all of the developers while they are development and only build it as part of testing. We had started down the path you are describing, but decided that we wanted complete transparency from a version control perspective as to what changes in each installer, including the file contents. John -----Original Message----- From: Castro, Edwin G. (Hillsboro) [mailto:edwin.cas...@fiserv.com] Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 11:01 AM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Project reference question I think I understand what you are describing. I think we have a similar setup. We have a lot of solutions that follow this pattern (please let me know if this does not accurately describe what you are trying to describe): The solution has one or more assembly projects, each with many file references for dependencies. The solution has one project for the windows service host with one or more project references to other projects in the solution and file references to all required dependencies. The solution as one wix project for the msi with a project reference to the windows service host project. In the wix source you use $(var.WindowsServiceHostProjectName.TargetDir) to locate all of the files that need to be packaged. I believe this is a convenient way to locate all required files for your MSI as the windows service host project requires all of these files for dev testing anyway. Edwin G. Castro Software Developer - Staff Digital Channels Fiserv Office: 503-746-0643 Fax: 503-617-0291 www.fiserv.com P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail > -----Original Message----- > From: Brownfield, Cory [mailto:cbrownfi...@aeci.org] > Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 6:51 AM > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [WiX-users] Project reference question > > My team has decided to add only the top-level project reference to the > WiX project in each solution. We typically have simple builds where > each solution has one WiX project that builds a single MSI. So if we > have a service solution, we will be adding a single project reference > to our WiX project for the Windows Service Host. Since that project > gets a copy of all other project and library DLLs when built (we will > be making sure of that), we will just be referencing the DLLs from this > top-level build directory in the WiX script. > > This seems to be wrong, but I can't come up with a compelling argument > as to why. What problems might be introduced by using this method? > If this is a perfectly valid method, let me know. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > -------- Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from > a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, > databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day > Free Trial. > Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monitor your physical, virtual and cloud infrastructure from a single web console. Get in-depth insight into apps, servers, databases, vmware, SAP, cloud infrastructure, etc. Download 30-day Free Trial. Pricing starts from $795 for 25 servers or applications! http://p.sf.net/sfu/zoho_dev2dev_nov _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keep yourself connected to Go Parallel: DESIGN Expert tips on starting your parallel project right. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
