Hi Chris
I can only second your opinion. It's almost unbelievable, how difficult even
the most common, primitive task is.
One has this long-honed professional developer instinct that constantly
tells you "there must be an easier way, I just have to find it". Believe me:
in case of MSI there is none! Stop wasting your time searching for any sign
of logic, design or even common sense.
And it took me a while to realize, that WiX is only a wrapper. No
abstraction whatsoever. So dont't blame WiX, except maybe for not making the
"thin wrapper catch" clear from the beginning.
It helps to cross the custom action / custom dialog barrier. Don't even try
without, even if you think your application is plain vanilla!
There has to be an awful lot of (pre-)historical bagagge that crippels MSIs
"design" (to insult that word). I guess its a cross-breed between
declarative and imperative princibles terribly gone wrong and awfully
neglected since.
Survival guide:
0. switch off your expectations
1. learn how to write custom actions and use them liberally
2. learn how to write custom dialogs and use them liberally
3. forget minor and small updates - use major upgrades only
4. realize that they only really thought of files and registry entries!
Shortcuts, .ini-file entries, in some cases even directories, etc. were
seemingly "tacked on later" and are terribly crippled because they have to
somehow "piggy back" either on a file, directory or registry key; use the
ugly hacks in the internet and don't waste your time searching for elegance
5. realize the power of properties set through custom actions
6. realize the power of conditions (often you can't dynamically change even
the simplest things, like i.e. the name of a shortcut. But you can switch
OFF one component and switch ON another - sometimes that helps)
6. isolate everything in your application that remains absolutely static
once it's deployed
7. then only(!) setup that static part with MSI/WiX
8. setup everything else (such as initial configuration, initial databases,
etc.) either with a custom action or with your application (first run)
9. expect problems - this "technology" (to insult that word too) is gagging
for trial and error (and shot deadlines)
Hope that helps a bit.
-Mark
_____
Von: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Im Auftrag von Chris
Mumford
Gesendet: Montag, 12. Mai 2008 06:13
An: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Betreff: [WiX-users] yep - back to being 100% frustrated
Man:
I can't believe how much making Windows Installer based installs suck - I
mean really sucks! Did we just invent this technology to make us hate our
lives?
And WiX doesn't make it any easier.
I'm calling it a night.
Peace out man...
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