Hi all, I'm reviewing the design of one of my clients' web application. One thing in their system that stood out was a very long document that explains every manual step of setting up their web app on a clean server. They currently have an MSI for the web app built using a VS deployment project, plus a lot of other batch scripts for installing SQL databases, creating shared folders, configuring file/folder permissions, etc. I'm thinking if things can become cleaner and more centralized by building one MSI that handles everything. Then later, they can build uninstallable MSPs to service their applications instead of sending their customers some zip archives with updated scripts and DLLs. Since WiX exposes a lot of the power in MSI, I'm thinking that WiX might allow such an all-in-one installer to be built.
However, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if that's the right approach. Is it really good practices for a WiX-authored MSI to do the following? - Install and configure SQL databases: I see that there's support in WiX to run SQL scripts. However, I don't fully understand how to handle the "uninstall" scenario - I have to produce a set of complementary scripts to undo the original SQL scripts, right? Similarly, if I am to create an MSP for adding a row in a database table, I need to make sure the MSP will remove this record on uninstall, even though it might no longer be there. - Share folders and configure file/folder permissions: are there native support in WiX to do so or do I have to write custom actions? - Configure IIS: is it easy to configure IIS through WiX MSI, such as setting up a site/virtual directory, configuring SSL and Windows authentication, etc? - Deploy SQL Server related material such as Reporting Services reports and report models. It's easy to script them, but I know that it's evil to use script custom actions. I'm new in WiX so my apology if the questions above sound stupid. I just want to see if there's something I can/should do to improve my client's set-up story. Thanks a lot for reading my message! Kind regards, Anthony ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
