Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives
QuietExec is nice for those occasions where you *must* call an EXE during the install but in general I avoid doing that in the first place. I prefer to write my own code for interacting directly with the underlying API so that I can have better error handling and control of the process. When you call an EXE you typically lose a lot of this control and have few options for rollback. --- Christopher Painter, Author of Deployment Engineering Blog Have a hot tip, know a secret or read a really good thread that deserves attention? E-Mail Me --- On Tue, 5/10/11, Umeshj wrote: From: Umeshj Subject: Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 11:47 PM A general solution to avoiding 'ugly DOS windows' is to use CAQuietExec from WixUtilExtension. -- View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/InstallUtil-exe-alternatives-tp6349071p6350583.html Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives
A general solution to avoiding 'ugly DOS windows' is to use CAQuietExec from WixUtilExtension. -- View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/InstallUtil-exe-alternatives-tp6349071p6350583.html Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives
Not quite. It has to be a static class with a static method that takes the Session class as an argument. The blog post I mentioned explains how it all works but there is an update. Since then WiX added a C# Custom Action project type to Visual Studio under WiX. Use that to generate your project and you'll see how it all comes together. And yes, Binary, CustomAction, Sequence and so on as shown here: http://blog.deploymentengineering.com/2009/02/msi-tip-how-to-reuse-customaction-for.html --- Christopher Painter, Author of Deployment Engineering Blog Have a hot tip, know a secret or read a really good thread that deserves attention? E-Mail Me --- On Tue, 5/10/11, vatson wrote: From: vatson Subject: Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 3:26 PM Hi, Thanks for your response. The DTF option looks pretty interesting, based on your blog post. If my understanding is correct, can i simply replace the RunInstaller attribute that I currently have in my assemblies with the CustomAction attribute, and then use DTF to convert it into CA's the MSI can use? Also I'm not quite clear as to how to integrate this with the MSI. Do I have to follow the regular way and add the DLL (after MakeSfxCa has been run) to the binary table and then add CA entries in the CA table to execute the custom actions? Is there an example you could add in the post? Thanks, -Srivatson -- View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/InstallUtil-exe-alternatives-tp6349071p6349406.html Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives
Hi, Thanks for your response. The DTF option looks pretty interesting, based on your blog post. If my understanding is correct, can i simply replace the RunInstaller attribute that I currently have in my assemblies with the CustomAction attribute, and then use DTF to convert it into CA's the MSI can use? Also I'm not quite clear as to how to integrate this with the MSI. Do I have to follow the regular way and add the DLL (after MakeSfxCa has been run) to the binary table and then add CA entries in the CA table to execute the custom actions? Is there an example you could add in the post? Thanks, -Srivatson -- View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/InstallUtil-exe-alternatives-tp6349071p6349406.html Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives
DTF is a direct replacment of InstallUtil. Also I'm not sure where in the post it was stated what exactly the InstallUtil classes were doing. ( e.g. Registry ) Although my experience tells me that whatever it is they are doing, it's generally not good. --- Christopher Painter, Author of Deployment Engineering Blog Have a hot tip, know a secret or read a really good thread that deserves attention? E-Mail Me --- On Tue, 5/10/11, Skildum, Mathew wrote: From: Skildum, Mathew Subject: Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives To: "General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset." Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 2:14 PM There is no runtime or build time solution to replace installutil.exe. The only options are to extract the registry entries that are created and include them in the project or running installutil.exe at runtime. The best option is to extract the registry either by having InstallUtil create a registry file or use the WIX tools. Mat Skildum -Original Message- From: Srivatson Tirumalai [mailto:srivatson.tiruma...@citrix.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 2:00 PM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives Hi, Is there a good alternative for installutil.exe in general available in Wix? We have a number of places in our installers where we have to invoke installutil.exe via a custom action for running the installer components in the assembly. One of the main problems in invoking InstallUtil.exe via a custom action is that it results in the ugly DOS windows appearing in the middle of setup. I do not want to use heat/tallow etc. I am looking for some kind of Wix extension. Is there any good solution available in Wix for this? Thanks, -Srivatson -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives
Two things: 1) You should never have custom actions for things that Windows Installer can do natively. If you have install actions for creating and starting services, that is wrong. Use the ServiceInstall/ServiceControl tables instead. Same goes for registering Dll's, creatin shortcuts, writing to the registry and so on. I've seen these anti-patterns to the worst degree ( at one point we had 1500 custom actions ) and they were all typically because the developer didn't understand the declarative nature of MSI or they were using tools ( VDPROJ ) that didn't expose the underlying capabilities. 2) When the time comes that you really need custom actions, the .NET replacement for InstallUtil is Deployment Tools Foundation and is included in WiX 3.5. http://blog.deploymentengineering.com/2008/05/deployment-tools-foundation-dtf-custom.html --- Christopher Painter, Author of Deployment Engineering Blog Have a hot tip, know a secret or read a really good thread that deserves attention? E-Mail Me --- On Tue, 5/10/11, Srivatson Tirumalai wrote: From: Srivatson Tirumalai Subject: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives To: "wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net" Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 2:00 PM Hi, Is there a good alternative for installutil.exe in general available in Wix? We have a number of places in our installers where we have to invoke installutil.exe via a custom action for running the installer components in the assembly. One of the main problems in invoking InstallUtil.exe via a custom action is that it results in the ugly DOS windows appearing in the middle of setup. I do not want to use heat/tallow etc. I am looking for some kind of Wix extension. Is there any good solution available in Wix for this? Thanks, -Srivatson -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
Re: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives
There is no runtime or build time solution to replace installutil.exe. The only options are to extract the registry entries that are created and include them in the project or running installutil.exe at runtime. The best option is to extract the registry either by having InstallUtil create a registry file or use the WIX tools. Mat Skildum -Original Message- From: Srivatson Tirumalai [mailto:srivatson.tiruma...@citrix.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 2:00 PM To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [WiX-users] InstallUtil.exe alternatives Hi, Is there a good alternative for installutil.exe in general available in Wix? We have a number of places in our installers where we have to invoke installutil.exe via a custom action for running the installer components in the assembly. One of the main problems in invoking InstallUtil.exe via a custom action is that it results in the ugly DOS windows appearing in the middle of setup. I do not want to use heat/tallow etc. I am looking for some kind of Wix extension. Is there any good solution available in Wix for this? Thanks, -Srivatson -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users -- Achieve unprecedented app performance and reliability What every C/C++ and Fortran developer should know. Learn how Intel has extended the reach of its next-generation tools to help boost performance applications - inlcuding clusters. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devmay ___ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
