Personally I use InstallShield for this type of stuff. It's pretty simple to create a merge module project, dump the components into it and do a COM extract at build. Then just dark the resultant MSI and refactor into a fragment.
Oh, and I recently saw an MSDN email go out talking about InstallShield's free download eval version.... :-) Regards, Chris Christopher Painter, Author of Deployment Engineering Blog Have a hot tip, know a secret or read a really good thread that deserves attention? E-Mail Me --- On Thu, 4/16/09, Jose Enrique Bolanos <j...@glaxstar.com> wrote: > From: Jose Enrique Bolanos <j...@glaxstar.com> > Subject: [WiX-users] Problem installing COM components > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 7:34 PM > Hello, > > I have a problem trying to register some COM components > using WiX. Hopefully > you can help me find the correct solution > > We need to create an MSI with WiX for Windows Vista and XP > which, aside from > installing some files, must register: > 1- a COM dll > 2- a COM server (.exe), > 3- and a Windows service. > > These three components are built in ATL C++. So they are > normally registered > like so: > 1- regsvr32.exe THE_COM_DLL.dll > 2- THE_COM_SERVER.exe /RegServer > 3- THE_WIN_SERVICE.exe /Service > > According to our research, there are a number of ways in > which we can deploy > and register these components with a WiX generated MSI, all > of which have > failed for us: > > *1- Call the previously mentioned commands explicitly as > custom actions, > setting them in the ExeCommand with a relative path to the > installation > folder.* > > In Vista these actions must run with elevated privileges, > which is > supposedly achieved by making the action deferred and with > the > no-impersonate flag set. > > We have tried making the custom actions deferred and not > deferred, set the > Impersonate flag to both "yes" and "no", and so on, but the > custom actions > fail with code 1721 and a result value of 3. > > *2- Create custom actions using the FileKey attribute and > passing the > argument (e.g. "/RegServer") in the ExeCommand attribute.* > > Same result, code 1721 and result value 3. Seems like the > commands need to > run with elevated privileges, but as we mentioned we have > marked them as > deferred and no impersonate and the result is the same. > > *3- Set the SelfRegCost flag to 1 in each File tags in the > WiX file for each > component.* > > This only applies to the COM dll, but it does not work > either. We set the > KeyPath="yes" attribute and tried some other attribute > combinations but the > result is the same. > > In addition, seems like self-registration is strongly > discouraged by > Microsoft. > * > 4- For the service, use the ServiceInstall and > ServiceControl tags in WiX.* > > This way we were able to register the service, but it fails > to start because > of permissions. > > *5- Lastly, a solution was to use tallow/heat to recreate > the registry > entries.* > > Neither heat nor tallow alone are able to determine all the > registry entries > necessary to register the services. Supposedly it does work > for the COM dll. > > So we tried the following, based on a recommendation we > found: > - Monitored registry modifications after each component's > registration with > a tool called RegSpy2, which generates a list of registry > entries, and saved > each one to a .reg file. > - Using tallow we created a WiX fragment for each component > which has all > the detected registry entries. > - Using WixCop we converted the Registry tags to > RegistryKey and > RegistryValue tags, because we are using WiX 3. > - Then we replaced the hardcoded paths with [INSTALLDIR], > which points to > the installation folder in the target machine. > > The installation runs fine with this procedure, but the > components do not > work: the service does not appear in the services list, and > the com objects > cannot be instantiated. > > > Given this scenario, which would be the correct way to > register these > components using WiX 2/3? > > Thanks in advance > > -- > Jose Enrique Bolaños G. > Software Developer > Glaxstar Ltd. > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside > and > around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and > save > $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San > Francisco. > 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. > Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
