Using the functionality Blair described below you could have your project build multiple versions of the same MSI, bundle them all with a bootstrapper & have the bootstrapper launch the correct one depending on the users locale language settings. I haven't taken time to look at burn yet but you could do this in under 10 minutes using dotnetinstaller once your MSI's are built.
If you don't embed your CAB file in the MSI's you should only need one CAB regardless of how many localised MSI's you have (since they all install the same files) thus keeping the file size of the complete package down. Unless your MSI's are ridiculously complex they should only be a few MB each. I expect this is how InstallShield or other similar products would approach this if they were using MSI's to achieve this. The advantage of having the same MSI built using different languages is that if you wanted to patch it you should only need to issue one MSP as the dialogs etc are used from the original MSI (unless you were patching something in your MSI which has localised text not just the payload of your MSI) so when patching the user would see the same language used during the original install. Major upgrades should also be uncomplicated in this scenario & afford you the possibility of adding more languages which weren't available with earlier releases which can be switched to automatically by your bootstrapper (e.g. Russian language user installs version 1 English language MSI. Version 2 has Russian localised MSI available, bootstrapper runs this for our Russian user which automatically upgrades version 1 using Major Upgrade functionality even though the English language MSI was used for version 1 installation). Good Luck. Palbinder Sandher Software Deployment & IT Administrator T: +44 (0) 141 945 8500 F: +44 (0) 141 945 8501 http://www.iesve.com **Design, Simulate + Innovate with the <Virtual Environment>** Integrated Environmental Solutions Limited. Registered in Scotland No. SC151456 Registered Office - Helix Building, West Of Scotland Science Park, Glasgow G20 0SP Email Disclaimer -----Original Message----- From: Blair [mailto:os...@live.com] Sent: 21 October 2009 01:11 To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Beginner's Question on Multi Language Installer It looks for the strings in all of the .wxl files sorting them in order of Culture, based on the order of the -Cultures parameter followed by the order the wxl files appear in the commandline. Example without using cultures, but placing the wxl files in numbered order: One.wxl: ...<String Id="one">This is the override</String>... Two.wxl: ...<String Id="one">This is an override</String>... ...<String Id="two">This is the second</String>... ...<String Id="four">This is the fourth</String>... Three.wxl: ...<String Id="one">This is the original</String>... ...<String Id="two">This is another one</String>... ...<String Id="three">And yet another one</String>... Then: <Property Id="ONE" Value="!(loc.one)"/> <Property Id="TWO" Value="!(loc.two)"/> <Property Id="THREE" Value="!(loc.three)"/> <Property Id="FOUR" Value="!(loc.four)"/> Results: ONE: This is the override TWO: This is the second THREE: And yet another one FOUR: This is the fourth If each of the above .wxl files had a culture of "en-US" and you added a fourth .wxl file with a culture of "en-HK" containing the following: ...<String Id="one">Welcome to Hong Kong</String>... ...<String Id="three">Please come again</String>... And then rebuilt using a -Cultures:en-HK,en-US parameter Results: ONE: Welcome to Hong Kong TWO: This is the second THREE: Please come again FOUR: This is the fourth In other words, in culture-order, search each WXL that exactly matches that culture until you find a matching string. Any given single MSI in the end understands just one "language", based on the ProductLanguage tag (comes from produ...@language) and the content (a single value for each and every string). Everything else we do is intended to change that MSI's content so that a different language becomes apparent. That is where we re-link with different languages in order to generate the transforms that set our base MSI to those different languages. At that point, you can vary just the Cultures parameter and all WXL files that don't match the culture are ignored, so the command-line variation between the different links is minimal and easily controlled for. -----Original Message----- From: Markus KARG [mailto:markus.k...@gmx.net] Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 3:01 PM To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Beginner's Question on Multi Language Installer Blair, thank you for your kind help. To sum up, multi-language support actually (or: "officially") is not possible with a single .msi (or at least, not without either patching or transforming it before installation). What I do not understand under this circumstances is: Why can I add a LIST of cultures to light.exe? I mean, what does it actually do with all the cultures if actually always taking just the first in the list? Thanks Markus > -----Original Message----- > From: Blair [mailto:os...@live.com] > Sent: Dienstag, 20. Oktober 2009 21:53 > To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Beginner's Question on Multi Language > Installer > > You get German since that is the first one in your list of Cultures. > > MSI has never officially supported the scenario you describe directly. > You > are perfectly free to create per-language transforms and use an .EXE > file to install your MSI with those transforms (the supported way). > There are some who have had success with embedding those same > transforms based on a particular naming convention and having them > auto-selected by the OS (not supported, but I'm told it works). There > may or may not be issues with generating working MSP files if you use > those transforms (you may have to mess with the transform > applicability rules of the patch-supplied transforms depending on what > the original language transforms did). > > You may be able to use the instance transform related tags in WiX, but > I have never tried that so I don't know what gotchas you may find that > way. > Otherwise you may be able to link each language separately into > .wixout files, generate your transforms from those, and bind the "baseline" > wixout > into the MSI you subsequently apply each MST to. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Markus KARG [mailto:markus.k...@gmx.net] > Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:06 PM > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [WiX-users] Beginner's Question on Multi Language Installer > > Hello Everybody, > > > > I am new to both, MSI technology in general and the WiX product in > particular, but I have some experience with some old InstallShield > products (pre-MSI-age). > > > > InstallShield allowed me to simply add translated strings for lots of > languages, so one single setup.exe contained the installer in multi > languages. This was very smart since I was able to send the same > setup.exe to any country of the world. > > > > Now I want to write an installer with WiX that is also multi language > (I don't want to have lots of setup.msi files, but only a single one). > > > > I wrote several .wxl files and linked them together using a line like > this > one: > > > > light.exe -cultures:de,neutral;fr,neutral;en,neutral;neutral -loc > de.wxl -loc fr.wxl -loc en.wxl -loc neutral.wxl Setup.wixobj > > > > (While actually told nowhere, it seems that neutral.wxl must contain ' > .culture="". ' [i. e. empty string] to indicate that it is the neutral > culture. I found out that by trial and error when adding the neutral > fallback to each culture). > > > > What I expect to get from light.exe is one single .msi file containing > all four language packs: German, French, English and Neutral. Light > provides a single .msi so "from the outside" it seems to work. > > > > My target is that the Windows Installer at install time picks German, > French or English strings automatically, depending on the user's > current "Region and Language Settings" or instead picks neutral > strings when the current user's local setting is neither German, > French nor English (for example, "Polish" / "Poland"). > > > > While light v3 accepts the above line and does not complain in any way > (not even ICE warnings), the Windows Installer picks Germany *always* > when running the resulting .msi file on my laptop -- despite the > current setting of "Polish" / "Poland" in the "Region and Language > Settings" control panel. > :-( > > > > Can anybody tell me what my fault is? > > > > Thanks > > Markus > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > - > ----- > -- > 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
