I'm a fan of WiX and InstallShield..... doesn't make me too popular on either mailing list. :-)
That said, I personally no longer attempt to encapsulate MS Sql Server installation. It's just too complicated with too many choices and too many ways to fail. IMO if you have a server product you should have a DBA ( or atleast someone who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night ) install SQL server per the standards of your organization. If it's a client workstation that just needs a datasource, I'd suggest there are better alternatives. >From there you have to decide if the installer has any interaction with the data tier or if it's all handled post installation via a first run configuration pattern. If you go with the latter, the BA UI gets a lot simpler. (That sexy VS BA hardly asks any questions at all. Nor does the WiX BA.) If you go with the former, you're going to need a story for interviewing and validation connection string information and then passing that to the installer to execute SQL scripts and/or modify config files with connection string. If you dump the need for silent bullet proof and highly customized installation of MSSQL, I think this is merely a moderately complex installer. If you drop the installers interaction with SQLSERVER then it becomes a simple installer. Otherwise it's highly complex. Labor estimates depend highly on skill and experience. Maybe one day we'll have reusable code that handles all the messy details and snaps into a custom BA. Blair could comment on whether that is possible. ---------------------------------------- From: "Blair Murri" <os...@live.com> Sent: Friday, November 15, 2013 9:46 PM To: "General discussion about the WiX toolset." <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Question re WIX other MSI installer tools... The in-box BAs do not provide most of that experience but burn totally supports it. All the pieces to manage mapping burn variables to MSI properties and controlling application of each item in the chain are clearly present. A domain-specific UI AND domain-specific processing of gathered information will cost you development effort no matter which underlying toolset you choose to use. In my opinion what you have described would be easier to implement on burn than on IS, as the interface can be understood with some study and experimentation and debugging, past the first bootstrap, is actually easier than the other implementations I've seen that can approach what you describe. I think you are either underestimating the effort required to do what you want with other systems, are overestimating the effort required with burn+custom BA, or you don't quite see the difference between burn and the stdba. -Blair StevenOgilvie <sogil...@msn.com> wrote: Burn does NOT allow you to collect information from the user and then pass that information to the MSI's it is a tool to allow you to install pre-requisites and handle your software installer... To create a user experience that collects information it would require a CUSTOM BA... Steve -- View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/Question-re-WI X-other-MSI-installer-tools-tp7590687p7590690.html Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- DreamFactory - Open Source REST & JSON Services for HTML5 & Native Apps OAuth, Users, Roles, SQL, NoSQL, BLOB Storage and External API Access Free app hosting. Or install the open source package on any LAMP server. Sign up and see examples for AngularJS, jQuery, Sencha Touch and Native! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=63469471&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- DreamFactory - Open Source REST & JSON Services for HTML5 & Native Apps OAuth, Users, Roles, SQL, NoSQL, BLOB Storage and External API Access Free app hosting. Or install the open source package on any LAMP server. Sign up and see examples for AngularJS, jQuery, Sencha Touch and Native! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=63469471&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DreamFactory - Open Source REST & JSON Services for HTML5 & Native Apps OAuth, Users, Roles, SQL, NoSQL, BLOB Storage and External API Access Free app hosting. Or install the open source package on any LAMP server. Sign up and see examples for AngularJS, jQuery, Sencha Touch and Native! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=63469471&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
