As per Rob's suggestion, here's a letter to the SQL team RE: the SQL Express installer. ------------- Dear SQL Server Team:
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition has become a platform that many developers have come to count on in building applications. It provides a flexible, redistributable database engine, suitable for the creation of database applications. One problem many developers face is in the deployment of their solutions. Currently, there is no way to seamlessly integrate the setup of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition into the setup of a developer's application. The developer is forced to either install silently, providing the user with no progress feedback during the installation; install with minimal UI, which displays a non-integrated progress meter for a suboptimal end user experience; or to force the user to install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition as a separate install prerequisite. None of these options are palatable for developers wishing to provide a smooth, integrated installation experience for their users. The .NET Framework redistributable had much the same problem until version 3.0. Beginning with the 3.0 version, the framework bootstrapper responds to an argument passed on the command line (the /progress switch) which allows the developer to register for progress messages transmitted back to his code via a named pipe. A whitepaper describing how developers can take advantage of their approach is available on the MSDN website (found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa663365.aspx at the time of this writing). Implementing a similar solution for the SQL Server Express Edition installer would go a long way toward helping developers who need to use the product, but would like to present their users with a custom setup UI. Looking toward the future, the WiX toolset is looking to add a custom bootstrapper in a future version. Without a progress reporting solution in place, consumers of that bootstrapper will not be able to seamlessly integrate SQL Server Express Edition into their setups. Please consider this a request to implement what should be a low-cost, low-risk feature into the SQL Server installer. Sincerely, Jim Evans, Numara Software -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rob Mensching Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 1:25 PM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Proposed adjustments the WiX v2 and WiX v3 roadmap. If you write it, I'll add my name. I'd even be happy to try to find the right people to send it to. <smile/> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Evans, Jim Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 10:16 To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Proposed adjustments the WiX v2 and WiX v3 roadmap. RE: SQL Express installer progress: I only recently learned of the .NET Framework's installation progress solution, and am planning on using it. As near as I can tell, SQL Express does not provide a similar solution, so I guess we should start working on that letter. <grin/> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rob Mensching Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 1:13 PM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Proposed adjustments the WiX v2 and WiX v3 roadmap. There is a feature planned to provide progress to parent processes of the bootstrapper. The .NET Framework does this already, we'll probably do the identical thing (presuming it is rich enough). I don't know if SQL Express does the same... if not, then the progress for that component will be dismal and we should all collectively send a letter to the team to ask them to implement a solution like the .NET Framework. <grin/> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Evans, Jim Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 10:02 To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Proposed adjustments the WiX v2 and WiX v3 roadmap. Bob Arnson wrote: > It's unlikely to change the date when the bootstrapper becomes > available. Working on it in the v4 branch gives us the flexibility to > ship it in stages and not be "forced" to do a more limited release just > to ship v3. Also note that there's nothing that ties the bootstrapper to > a particular build of WiX; you can easily use v3 to build your setups > and v4 for the bootstrapper. Fair enough. I'm at the point in my project where I was hoping that I didn't have to build my own bootstrapper. I guess I'll refactor when the bootstrap framework is available. > What aspects of the design are you interested in? The biggest piece is > all internal: e.g., how the worker thread handles installations and > communicates progress with the UX thread. Communicating progress is really one of the things I struggle with. How do you communicate progress with "wrapped" package installations? In other words, if I wanted to bootstrap a prerequisite package that the manufacturer distributes only as an executable setup.exe (not a standalone MSI file)* to provide my user with a unified installation experience, how does your design propose to allow me to do that? *Examples of said packages are the .NET Framework installer and the SQL Server 2005 Express installer. Both are common prerequisites for applications, both are MSI-based installs, but do not provide standalone .MSI installers. Unifying the installation experience for applications that install these packages is difficult-to-impossible. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It's the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It's the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It's the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It's the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It's the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
