MSI is already built up to handle the scenarios below. You'll find that creating a composite solution of an MSI-based install coupled with unzipping installed file will lead to a poor customer experience in some common scenarios like uninstall, upgrade, patching, and repair.
Customers expect an MSI file to contain all the resources necessary to install their app and also expect the repair, patching, upgrade, etc... scenarios to "just work". With the unzip solution, you'd need to create your own repair and uninstall logic. MSI can handle the different subsets of files you'd like to install via features and would even have some nice UI which allows users to select the features they'd like to install, add more at a later time, or remove some at a later time. Also, the versioning is automatically handled by MSI as well. So long as you keep the component guids stable over time (which isn't that hard) and just update the files, pushing out new releases does exactly what you'd expect by replacing the older versions with newer ones. Also, similar to how you currently have several different zip files, you could create several different cab files if that was useful - each containing different subsets of data. In terms of difficulting producing the initial authoring and guids, etc... you may want to take a look at heat - it allows you basically author a directory containing your application easily into a wxs source with all the guids and other goo auto-generated. Then you can easily hand-modify the sources for updates necessary after that point (including breaking things up into features and adding/removing files in future updates to your product). Derek -----Original Message----- From: Daniel Goldman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 12:39 PM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [WiX-users] customaction runs unzip? I don't know what you mean by "fishy". The wix package itself is distributed by zip, so zip can't be that bad. I can deal with patches by just sending a new full distribution, or just sending the file(s) that need replacing. When you say "associate cabinet files with an msi rather easily", are you referring to the Directory, Component, and File tags (which I wouldn't call easy in this case), or something else? Let me try again. Is it possible to use customaction to run unzip on an installed zip file? Is there example syntax? *** Here's long-winded background why I want to use unzip: I need to distribute a C# .NET application family. It is a series of data analysis softwares, with preloaded data (eg, Texas birth data). Each customized version has different data files, different auxillary files, etc. There are many customized versions. The application was previously in C using curses. Distribution was pretty simple. For each customized version (there could be several on a CD), I put a zip file, a batch file, and the unzip executable in it own directory on a cd. To install, the batch file unzipped everything into several hard-coded directories, copied some icons to the desktop, and displayed some messages. The old installation mechanism looked "clunky", but worked great. I'd like more professional-looking install mechanism, with ability to add an item to start menu. I'd rather not keep track of versions. If a user installs a new version, I'd like to simply overwrite any existing files. There is no need for them to keep the "old version". I'd like to avoid the complexity of having to deal with hundreds of different version numbers and GUIDs. I'm concerned that some mistake may make it fail to upgrade. *** End of long-winded background I've read through the wix tutorial. I'm trying to reduce the great complexity I'm sensing from windows installer, figure out a simple, attractive install mechanism. Thanks, Daniel Derek Cicerone wrote: > This type of question normally indicates something fishy - why would you > want to unzip a zip file when you can associate cabinet files with an msi > rather easily? It's much better to keep files under MSI control because > then they will be patchable - otherwise you'll expose customers to a > security threat by having unpatchable files. > > Derek > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Daniel Goldman > Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 12:31 AM > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [WiX-users] customaction runs unzip? > > Can I use customaction to run unzip on an installed zip file? > If yes, could someone please give an example syntax? > > If yes, is there a way to show a "progress meter" during unzipping? > > Can I delete the zip file after installation? Or can customaction > unzip from the cdrom? > > Thanks, > Daniel Goldman > > > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? > Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job > easier > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
