I appreciate your responding, but it doesn't answer my simple question. Is it possible to use customaction (or some other wix mechanism) to run unzip on an installed zip file?
I can figure out if it will lead to a "poor customer experience". I'm just trying to figure out what wix does (and does not do). I've never needed repair. I've handled patches quite easily by sending a new cd or just the files needing replacement. I don't need the user to install different features. Please don't try to sell me on something I don't need. Just please answer my Q. As I explained in the Background below, there is a family of softwares, each customized for a different data set and geography, so using heat and editing things by hand is out of the question. I would love to use wix to specify each file. I understand the philosophical advantages. But in this case, it would be much simpler and more reliable just to zip or xcopy the contents of a directory. Is that possible from within wix? Thanks, Daniel Derek Cicerone wrote: > 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
