Ah, excellent. Glad to know it's planned. Good codename too, fits well with the theme. :)
I'll keep fiddling around for a workaround in the meantime, but I do have one more related question: 3. Is it possible to launch an embedded .exe file (namely DotNetFx35ClientSetup.exe) using a custom action if WiX determines that the level of .NET framework is not sufficient (i.e. do the bootstrapping manually)? What I'm thinking is extract that file to a temp directory, then execute it using a custom action (qtexec) and wait for it to complete, continuing if it was successful. The problem is that I don't know how to write such a custom action, because clearly it cannot be written in .NET (if I'm using this for a bootstrapper), and I'm afraid I have never written a native module before. So I'm just wondering if anyone has ever done this, or would know how to, and if so could you help me out? Actually I just had another thought... the .NET framework isn't actually needed for the installation, only the running of the installed program. So let's say I actually INSTALL the bootstrapper, then launch it using its installed path after the installation is successful. I know this is sort of backwards from how it's normally done, but can anyone see any problem with doing it that way? Ideally I should still like to be able to launch my application after the install is complete, so this would have to happen after the bootstrapper completed. Thoughts? Rob Mensching wrote: > 2. The WiX bootstrapper is codenamed "burn" and it will be built in WiX > v3.5. The lack of a bootstrapper in the WiX toolset is a huge problem and > based on feedback, people wanted a stable WiX v3 before a bootstrapper could > be added. Thus that's the plan we're executing on. > > -----Original Message----- > From: A. Logan Murray [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2008 07:22 > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [WiX-users] .NET Bootstrapper, Self-Extracting Executables > > Hi group; I'm new to WiX and have a couple questions that I couldn't > immediately find answered anywhere. > > First of all, I'm looking forward to working with WiX as I like complete > control over what I build, but in a simple manner, and it looks like > that's the whole point of WiX, so I'm pretty excited about it. > > 1. > Anyway, I'm developing a .NET app (3.5 sp1 client profile), and > therefore need to include a bootstrapper. While I managed (by reading > the wix.chm help file) to get the bootstrapper hooked up by editing the > project file, I'm not thrilled with the results. First of all, it > results in a lot of crap being added to the final output directory, > rather than to the msi file itself, making deployment that much more > difficult (see my next question). But worse, it doesn't actually work at > all. The setup.exe file will launch the .NET bootstrapper fine, which > runs and seems to work properly, but then when that completes I get an > error telling me that setup cannot locate the file "...MyInstaller.msi". > It gives me the full path (I hope this isn't being hardcoded), but even > if I copy and paste that path into explorer, it finds and launches the > msi fine. So why it cannot find it I do not know. > > Ideally I would actually like to avoid having to create a bunch of extra > and separate files in the output directory. I already have > DotNetFx35ClientSetup.exe--can't I just add this file to the installer > as a custom action (that only executes if needed--that's another > problem, it seems to run/install every time even if I already have the > framework installed) rather than having to create a bootstrapper? Or > will that not work for some reason? > > If not, I'm also wondering how I might change the command-line arguments > used to invoke the bootstrapper from the setup.exe. I tried editing the > C:\Program Files\Microsoft > SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35Client\en\package.xml > file, but that didn't seem to do a thing. > > 2. > This is one area I feel rather at a loss in, because it seems everyone > knows something I don't. When you generate an installer, it results in > an msi file, but as the above question illustrated, this is not always > the only thing generated. How am I supposed to deploy my program as a > single file on the web, if the installation is split up into a bunch of > files and folders? > > The only way I've known to do this is to use a "self-extracting > executable maker" to pack all the different parts into a self-extracting > .exe that can extract to a TEMP dir and launch a file from the extracted > archive. My question is does WiX come with this kind of thing built-in, > or am I forced to use some third-party tool? Or is there something I'm > totally missing that makes this unnecessary? It seems all the tutiorials > and manuals only go so far as to generate the .msi, but not how to > deploy it over the web. > > If WiX doesn't have such a feature, is this not something that would be > valuable to add to the project? I've yet to find the perfect > self-extracting installer maker (please tell me if you have), and it > would make things much easier if this were actually part of the WiX > project or a sub-project. > > > Thanks for your help, I hope WiX will be able to give me the control I > want over my application's installation process. > > Logan > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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
