For option one: you require either some side-effect from the UI sequence OR a public property that you can cryptographically (or otherwise) verify from the execute sequence was correctly set from the UI sequence. Correct?
Side-effects that are not part of the installation transaction can have unintended consequences and will need to be very well thought out. Depending on what you do they could lead to inability to uninstall, denial-of-service, inability to upgrade, or other issues. Crypto verification could be thwarted by anyone with enough motivation to dissect your code and discover your keys or other basis for validation. If you could pull it off, or otherwise validate from your server "quickly" that a key handle is valid (use the key handle instead of the key itself and return the key handle as your public property for the execute sequence) that would lead to a cleaner package that doesn't limit your other choices/actions (and will probably be more robust and more secure as well). For option two: <Product...> ... <Condition Message="Must use full-UI to install">Installed OR UILevel=5</Condition><!--5 = INSTALLUILEVEL_FULL--> [...] </Product> -----Original Message----- From: Dan Giambalvo [mailto:danie...@microsoft.com] Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 7:36 PM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Blocking install if property isn't set So he problem here is that the CustomAction cannot be allowed to run twice. It actually connects to a server, and decrements a server-side count. So, we only want to do that once per install. So, the way I see it, I have two options: 1) The UI Sequence runs the CA, and sets some *private* flag that cannot be passed from the command line like KeyValid. The InstallExecuteSequence checks that that is valid, and then only runs the CA if it is not set based on a public PRODUCTKEY flag. The key here is that I need to be able to pass that value from the UI to the Execute sequence, but it cannot be command-line passable. If it is, someone could just run the install silently and pass KEYVALID="1". 2) We somehow disallow silent installs completely. We are completely 100% fine with this, if there is some way to do it. I would just want to be sure silent uninstall is possible (for the upgrade scenario.) One might suggest we only run the CA in InstallExecute only, but that doesn't work because we want a flow where we verify the key and the user has a chance to correct it in the UI. -Dan -----Original Message----- From: Blair [mailto:os...@live.com] Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 6:06 PM To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Blocking install if property isn't set You still validate it and fail the install if it doesn't pass that validation. If someone runs the MSI silently your UI never runs anyway. The commandline is how they would pass what they would have typed into the UI. -----Original Message----- From: Dan Giambalvo [mailto:danie...@microsoft.com] Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 5:32 PM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Blocking install if property isn't set If I make it public, can't someone just pass it in from the command line then? Doesn't that similarly defeat the purpose? -----Original Message----- From: Blair [mailto:os...@live.com] Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 5:22 PM To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Blocking install if property isn't set If you have a custom action that validates your property and returns failure if it doesn't validate, run that custom action as Execute="immediate" and schedule it in both InstallUISequence AND InstallExecuteSequence (so it runs up to twice). Make sure that the property you check is a "secure" property, which means it also must be a "public" property, so that it can be passed from the UI sequence to the execute sequence so it doesn't fail then. Condition that action in both sequences on "NOT Installed" so it doesn't block uninstalls/upgrades/repairs/etc. -----Original Message----- From: Dan Giambalvo [mailto:danie...@microsoft.com] Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 12:37 PM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [WiX-users] Blocking install if property isn't set Our installer has some UI which requests and validates a product key from the user during InstallUISequence. I want to add an additional checks so that if some clever user tries to silently install our msi to bypass the UI (and hence the validation UI) that they install will fail. I have a private property in the installer which I can check to know if we've successfully validated a key, I'm just not sure how to make the entire InstallExecute sequence contingent on it (and only so on clean installs, but not uninstalls/upgrades/repairs/etc.) I'm guessing there's a right way to do this. Can anyone tell me what it is? Thanks! -Dan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) 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/devconference _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) 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/devconference _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) 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/devconference _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) 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/devconference _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) 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/devconference _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Come build with us! The BlackBerry(R) 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/devconference _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
