I just moved a project from IS 12 to WIX, other than what has been pointed out below, here is what I did:
1. Created my IS 12 generated msm's 2. Ripped out all the IS tables in the .msm's with ORCA 3. Ripped out all the IS custom actions, binaries, properties, etc... in the .msm's with ORCA 4. Ran dark.exe on the now gutted merge modules and diffed them against the IS generated ones 5. Checked in my .wxs files that generate my .msm's 1. Created my IS 12 generated .msi, without merging in all my .msm's, just wanted the bare .msi 2. Ripped out all the IS tables in the .msi 3. Ripped out all the IS custom actions, binaries, properties, etc... in the .msi 4. Ran the now gutted install to make sure it still worked 5. Ran dark on the now gutted .msi's 6. compiled and tested with my merged modules 7. modified my build scripts to use WIX instead of IS to build This was just finished, and it seems to be working OK. WIX files are so much easier to maintain, and you can simply check the WIX folder into your source tree and your entire development/QA team can create installations without having to have IS installed. However, here is what you will lose, in my opinion, and you need to be ready for this: 1. the niceness that IS provides, like being able to just point it at a directory tree and telling the install to go gather up all the files and folders and add them to the install. My dev team almost choked on that, so I had to role my own implementation of dynamically picking up files from a directory (but not recursively) and making sure that all the files were assigned only one GUID. There are tools for this, like Heat.exe, Parafin, Tallow, etc... but I was unable to find one that would allow me to just use a wix include file to insert multiple files under a single component (and GUID). This could be user error/ignorance on my part. 2. UI changes - If you need to modify the UI of your installer, you have lost that nice interface you get with a GUI based install tool like IS 3. Still can't figure out how to embed the cab files into the .msi with WIX 3.0, even though it is supposed to be simple. I am sure this is user error. -----Original Message----- From: Rob Mensching [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2008 7:49 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Moving from InstallShield 12 to wix Sorry, caught the end of this thread. 1. You need to maintain Component/@Guids according to the Component Rules. It doesn't matter what tool you use to create the MSI. Once you ship, you must maintain the GUIDs appropriately. 2. ProductCodes and UpgradeCodes need to be updated following the Windows Installer rules for upgrades. Major upgrade? Change the ProductCode... etc. 3. Dark.exe can help get all of your authoring and it will preserve all the GUIDs for you. Technically speaking, you should be able to switch at any time and rebuild a functionally identical MSI file (although it may be a little smaller since WiX tries very hard to only add the things you need). -----Original Message----- From: Michael Owings [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 18:01 To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: [WiX-users] Moving from InstallShield 12 to wix I'm currently in the process of moving from an InstallShield 12 (which I loathe) project over to wix. I'd ideally like to be able to update the next version of this project via wix. I'm wondering if I use the the same product and component IDs if I'd be in good shape as far as an upgrading goes. Any gotchas I should be aware of? Thanx in advance -- m -- Teleoperate a roving mobile robot from the web: http://www.swampgas.com/robotics/rover.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
