Help!
I have a legacy .Net 2.0 application (C# plus some C++ COM controls) that is
currently deployed using a Visual Studio 2005 Setup project. The Setup project
uses a Custom Action written in C# (a subclass of
System.Configuration.Install.Installer) to install or upgrade a SQL Server MSDE
database (with backup and rollbacks) depending upon version information in a
table in the database. This works fine, but the Setup project is fairly
painful to maintain, and it can't be built unless Visual Studio 2005 is
installed on the build server.
We'd like the convert the whole thing to use WiX 3.0, but I'm having trouble
figuring out how to describe my Custom Action via WiX. I've tried the WiX
documentation, but everything still refers to WiX 2.0, and only recommends C++
for Custom Actions. I've tried the WiX Wiki, but again, everything refers to
using C/C++ for implementing custom actions. I've read Rob's blog where he
says that using Managed Code for Custom Actions is a Bad Thing and will not be
supported.
While I'm sure that one answer would be to go through and implement all of the
database-specific logic in Transact-SQL that would be a time-consuming project,
given that the existing scripts are 13,500 lines (creating a database) and
11,500 lines (upgrading existing databases) and growing, and I'm not at all
sure that the backup / rollback would work with a SqlExtension (which the Wiki
states shouldn't be used for creating databases).
Another answer would be to incorporate all of the database creation / upgrade
logic into the application, but that has its own problems too -- I'd pretty
much have to create an application launcher that was responsible for upgrading
the database and then launching the application (or dying if the upgrade fails).
A third answer would be to launch my custom C# DLL with msiexec, but I haven't
found any examples that describe how to do this.
The best answer for me is one where I don't have to rewrite a bunch of code
that already works, but still allow me to use the WiX toolset going forward.
Any recommendations?
- Craig -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express
Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take
control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now.
http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/
_______________________________________________
WiX-users mailing list
WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
