We recently did the following (for each product in our product suite): Core MSI (nothing localized at all goes into the core MSI) with NO MSI-UI and has ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT set. Loc MSI (only localized components goes here) with NO MSI-UI and has ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT set.
Bootstrapper that supplies all UI. One of the "products" in the suite is an executable (basically the bootstrapper) that is installed "legacy-style" into Add/Remove Programs. Since each product is written in MUI-style, we can then add languages post-release without having to recompile any MSIs already released, and we can identify and patch just those that need changes without patching the whole world because some egregious misspelling had occurred in just one language (even if that language was English). If we had moved to requiring MSI 4.5, we could have eliminated re-shipping the "ARP applet", but we didn't want to take on that tax (too many XP users and we are sensitive to the size of our downloads). -----Original Message----- From: Michael Bednarek [mailto:michael.bedna...@eu.citrix.com] Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 1:48 AM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.; d...@tramontana.co.hu Subject: Re: [WiX-users] launching page localization Hi Blair, Originally, our Package @Language attribute was specified by a WiX localization variable (i.e. it would be different for every language). Our installer approach was as follows (from what I gather I think this is pretty standard): - Build MSIs for each language - Use torch to generate transforms for each language, using the English MSI as a base - Package the base English MSI, together with the language transforms, into a self-extracting bootstrapper However, it turns out that transforms are not able to modify the summary information stream of an MSI. So our base MSI, which had a @Language attribute of "1033" (English), would continue to have that value in its summary information stream, even after a transform was applied. This is why we decided to make the language value "0" (neutral), so that it would be "correct" for all languages at run-time. Just a gotcha to watch out for. Mike -----Original Message----- From: Blair [mailto:os...@live.com] Sent: 16 September 2009 16:55 To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.'; d...@tramontana.co.hu Subject: Re: [WiX-users] launching page localization Some practical considerations: Both the Module and the Product elements contain a required @Language attribute. If the Package element's @Language attribute is missing, the parent's Language value will be used instead. Since Heath suggests always making sure both language values are the same, to prevent inconsistent values (once the package is opened), that would suggest that you place the language you built the package with in the Product/Module's @Language and that you don't supply the Package's @Language attribute (unless building a merge module and you truly support more than one language with that one MSM, a rarity). Unless you really don't have any text in your installer (also a rarity) you will usually want a specific language that matches your .wxl file as your language (otherwise the system-supplied text will be in the system's language and your text will be in whatever you used, such as English). You can use any localized string or any binder variable (e.g. "!(loc.LCID)" or "!(bind.fileLanguage.File1)") where you supply the correct value (for the loc var, make sure that the <String Id="LCID">1033</String> is translated in each .wxl it appears). You will need to supply this, since the WiX-provided translations in the UI extension don't include this string. It is always assumed that the user understands the language of the system they are running AND the language of the MSIs that they run. It is up to you to enforce the latter via the way you provide the packages, and to assume the former. -----Original Message----- From: Michael Bednarek [mailto:michael.bedna...@eu.citrix.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 8:24 AM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.; d...@tramontana.co.hu Subject: Re: [WiX-users] launching page localization Hi Gábor, Our product's installer originally suffered from the same problem as Lian - that the dialog text displayed in English on all systems. While researching the problem, I stumbled across the blog post that Blair mentions below, and that's what lead me to experiment with the summary information stream. We now use "0" in our product installer and have tested this successfully on English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese, on Windows 2003 and Windows 2008. We did get one report of the "Cancel" button on the dialog still being displayed in English on a Japanese system, even though the rest of the text in the dialog was Japanese. I haven't bothered to investigate that one yet... Hope this helps, Mike -----Original Message----- From: Blair [mailto:os...@live.com] Sent: 16 September 2009 16:18 To: d...@tramontana.co.hu; 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' Subject: Re: [WiX-users] launching page localization This is the blog entry I was referring to last night: http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2006/10/25/how-windows-installer-uses-l anguages.aspx. You will notice he refers to two places where language is identified in the MSI files, and where each of those two settings takes effect. -----Original Message----- From: DEÁK JAHN, Gábor [mailto:d...@tramontana.co.hu] Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 5:45 AM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: [WiX-users] launching page localization On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:07:55 +0100, Michael Bednarek wrote: Mike, > value of this attribute is "1033" then the text will always display > in English, even on non-English systems. If you want the text to > display in the system language, you can set the value of the > attribute to "0" (language neutral). Interesting. If others could confirm that this is so across various Windows versions and Windows Installer versions, I'd add it to the tutorial. I only have English opsystems so I can't try this one myself... Bye, Gábor ------------------------------------------------------------------- DEÁK JAHN, Gábor -- Budapest, Hungary E-mail: d...@tramontana.co.hu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry® Developer Conference in SF, CA is the only developer event you need to attend this year. Jumpstart your developing skills, take BlackBerry mobile applications to market and stay ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9-12, 2009. Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconf _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
