Are you using Burn to deploy your install? If so it seems like you'd want to create a patch for your A install and distribute it with the B bundle. Even if the feature isn't currently selected, the patch would update it such that if they went to modify A and chose to add the feature that it would install the updated versions. The one thing you won't be able to prevent, is if they install B before A. If the files are shared components it shouldn't be a problem as the newer version would win out over the older version, but then the A install wouldn't be installing the component as a newer version would be detected.
It's not good practice for installer B to try to modify installer A's files. Are these truly shared components or are they just the same files used by two applications? Do they require COM/registry settings? -----Original Message----- From: Parkes, Kevin [mailto:kevin.par...@wacom.eu] Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 11:24 AM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [WiX-users] Shared components problem Due to lack of foresight and inexperience when I was new to WiX, I've gotten myself the following problem: I have 2 product installers, A & B. Each contains 2 DLLs, X & Y. A always installs both X & Y to folder M B (optionally) installs X to M and Y to another folder, N A is a released product and I cannot change its installer anytime soon I am working on an update (major upgrade) to B and the new versions of X & Y are incompatible with the old versions. This means that if A is already installed, I need B to update Y in *both* folders. I've added a ComponentSearch to B to find the component Id corresponding to Y in A (and install a 2nd copy of Y if found). This seems to work OK if I simply install A then B. However, if I install B without X & Y, then install A, then re-run B to add X & Y, the copy of Y in M (A's copy) is not updated. I think the following from the log file may be relevant (COMPONENT_Y is conditional on COMPONENT_Y_PATH, which, it appears, isn't be set): MSI (c) (50:78) [16:52:05:868]: Doing action: AppSearch Action 16:52:05: AppSearch. Searching for installed applications Action start 16:52:05: AppSearch. AppSearch: Property: COMPONENT_Y_PATH, Signature: COMPONENT_Y_search MSI (c) (50:78) [16:52:05:868]: Note: 1: 2262 2: Signature 3: -2147287038 Action ended 16:52:05: AppSearch. Return value 1. ... Component: COMPONENT_Y; Installed: Local; Request: Null; Action: Null ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Want fast and easy access to all the code in your enterprise? Index and search up to 200,000 lines of code with a free copy of Black Duck Code Sight - the same software that powers the world's largest code search on Ohloh, the Black Duck Open Hub! Try it now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bds _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Want fast and easy access to all the code in your enterprise? Index and search up to 200,000 lines of code with a free copy of Black Duck Code Sight - the same software that powers the world's largest code search on Ohloh, the Black Duck Open Hub! Try it now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bds _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
