It's better that you use a separate MSI. To determine the correct installation locations, you can use a ComponentSearch to find some component for your other product that determines the installation location, and then use a type 51 custom action (<CustomAction Property="TARGETDIR" Value="*appsearch property from compsearch*" .../>) to set the TARGETDIR.
Patching new components in can be difficult and doesn't provide you with a separate baseline. What if you need to patch those files? How do you avoid other customers from installing that patch that shouldn't have it? It is applicable, after all. Adding new components to existing features also poses another problem: http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2008/02/18/adding-new-components-to-existing-features-installs-the-feature-tree.aspx . Shipping a separate product lets you service only that product. When you have large products or multiple editions, this has the additional of not having to build all those layouts just to patch a small subset. You can have this product show up as a child node if you define ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT=1 in your add-in's Property table, and for your ARP registry values in the Registry table, write ParentKeyName and ParentDisplayName, where ParentKeyName is the name of the registry key for the product (just the key name itself, as a child of the Uninstall key) and ParentDisplayName is the same name as the product (by default, Windows Installer uses [ProductName] if ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT is not defined). Note, however, that defining ARP yourself can yield some interesting problems. See http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/tags/ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT/default.aspx. On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 3:57 AM, Olivier Cochelin <ocoche...@notocord.com>wrote: > Hi all, > > I am wondering what is the best solution to solve the following problem. > I hope the Windows Installer experts wandering to this list will provide > interesting input. > > I want to deliver a main product and a complementary product, the latest > being reserved to a limited set of customers. The complementary product > is a kind of add-in for the main product, it cannot work if the main > product is missing. > > For commercial reasons, we want these two products to be in different > installers (.exe or .msi/.msp). > For technical reasons, the complementary product must be bound to a > specific version of the main product. I mean if the main product is > updated the complementary product must also be updated. > So, I would like to obtain the following behavior: > - The complementary product installs if and only if the appropriate > version of the main product is already installed > - When the main product is uninstalled, the complementary product is > also automatically uninstalled (if present of course) > - The complementary product can be uninstalled alone, the main product > remains installed > - Finally, it would be nice if, in ARP, the complementary product could > appear as a child node of the main product like Windows security updates > for instance. > > What is the best way to do this ? > - Create a patch for the main product > or > - Have another product and manually (don't know how) create the > dependencies between main and complementary products. > or > - Something else I didn't think about > > > Olivier Cochelin > Notocord Systems > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Register Now & Save for Velocity, the Web Performance & Operations > Conference from O'Reilly Media. Velocity features a full day of > expert-led, hands-on workshops and two days of sessions from industry > leaders in dedicated Performance & Operations tracks. Use code vel09scf > and Save an extra 15% before 5/3. http://p.sf.net/sfu/velocityconf > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > -- Heath Stewart Deployment Technologies Team, Microsoft http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The NEW KODAK i700 Series Scanners deliver under ANY circumstances! Your production scanning environment may not be a perfect world - but thanks to Kodak, there's a perfect scanner to get the job done! With the NEW KODAK i700 Series Scanner you'll get full speed at 300 dpi even with all image processing features enabled. http://p.sf.net/sfu/kodak-com _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
