I have extensive experience working in industries similar to what you describe (national security) and we had very formal controls as well. Our ETRB ( external technology review board ) had us jump through a few hoops when we said we wanted to start using WiX. Rob Mensching will probably recall a few emails I sent regarding fortify security scan results that were performed. But all the approvals were obtained to use the DTF libraries and the WiX extension custom actions in our shipped product. I also use DTF in my IsWiX tool to enable reflecting the attributes for a Dependency element by selecting 1:many MSM files. ( Dependency table view ) I don't have any problems taking that dependency since it's CPL code. I also take a dependency on some XmlEditor controls that are part of SharpDevelop and licensed as LGPL.
As for the status of DTF, I'd say the important parts are rock solid and work as-is. I wish the LINQ to MSI portions had developed fully and that many of the sealed classes had interfaces for mocking but other then that I've never hit a major wall while developing or supporting a deployed system. If I did, the source code is available if needed and it's actually one of the easier pieces of WiX to build yourself. ---------------------------------------- From: "Wilson, Phil" <phil.wil...@invensys.com> Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 6:46 PM To: "General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset." <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Querying the package and installed productarchitecture I'm not suggesting using the code in that way, only that any complete example is a roadmap of how to perform a task in terms of the APIs that are called and in what order. What's the status of DTF these days? Does Microsoft support it? Because whether DTF rocks or not is irrelevant when a company has rules that severely restrict or prohibit distributing 3rd party code or Dlls. Two companies I've been involved with both prohibit any 3rd party code: these are environments where the SDL (security) process matters, where 3rd party code must have a support contract and pass security audits and so on. It's ok to use these types of tools for internal development but shipping them to customers is not allowed. So knowing how to P/Invoke or use native Win32 APIs is necessary. Phil W -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Painter [mailto:chr...@iswix.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 3:10 PM To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.; General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Querying the package and installed productarchitecture Ok, let's pretend I'm a .NET developer who doesn't know anything about MSI and I follow you're advice of reading through WiExport.vbs to understand the flow of exporting an IDT file. First problem I'm going to hit is trying to add a reference to WindowsInstaller.Installer. Last time I checked the interops (it's been years) won't generate correctly. So I'm going to be writing all kinds of COM Interop wrappers or worse using a ProcessInfo class to shell out of process to the VBscript. Laugh, but I see it done all the time. Or I can just add a reference to Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller and write: using(Database database = new Database("foo.msi", DatabaseOpenMode.ReadOnly)) { database.ExportAll(@"C:\"); } It's really that easy and as clean as can be. For extra bonus points the using statement will automatically call the Dispose() methods which will in turn clean up all those pesky unmanged handles. For the summary information stream I just say: using( var summaryInformation = new SummaryInfo(@"foo.msi", false)) { summaryInformation. // Intellisense kicks in . } I can now easily see that summaryInformation exposes Author, CharacterCount, CodePage et al. The point is, managed code and DTF rocks. DTF isn't just about writing custom actions, it's an all purpose interop assembly for anything needing to interact with Windows Installer and I find it really, really useful for writing build automation tasks and applications / utilities. If you are writing managed code you should be using it. If you are doing unmanged C++ then use the MSI API. If someone is still writing VBScript instead of PowerShell and VB6 instead of C#/VB.NET I really have to scratch my head and ask..... Why?? I'm not a "purist" I'm just pointing out the fact that the VBS files are 12 years (at least) old and were only samples. Sadly I've seen far too many people treat them as production libraries in their solutions. ---------------------------------------- From: "Wilson, Phil" <phil.wil...@invensys.com> Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 4:44 PM To: "General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset." <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Querying the package and installed productarchitecture I think the sample VBScripts in the SDK are useful to the extent that they describe the flow for folks that aren't familiar with how to use the APIs. Exporting an MSI table with no guidance at all is a pain, but I can see from WiExport.vbs that I open the database, do an OpenView with a Select query, do a View fetch, and then get each record's string data. In this particular SummaryInfo case, WiSumInf.vbs is quite instructive on how to get the SummaryInfo for the Platform. I'm not a language purist to the extent that I'll ignore a working example, whatever language it might be! Phil W -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Painter [mailto:chr...@iswix.com] Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 5:56 PM To: g...@gocek.org; General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.; General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Querying the package and installed productarchitecture It's nearly 2012 and I'd much rather use C# and DTF. Perhaps in 1999 those VBScript files were interesting and useful. I can understand the msi.h / msi.lib is still good for the unmanaged C++ guys out there and is certainly the foundation for DTF but the whole VBScript / ActiveScript / COM / Automation Interface world can RIP for all I care. Same goes for the POS Win32_Product class. ---------------------------------------- From: "Gary Gocek" <g...@gocek.org> Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 7:28 PM To: "General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset." <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Querying the package and installed productarchitecture There are tools in the Windows SDK (I am currently using v7) that can query an MSI database. Look especially at the vbs scripts, you can invoke them with SQL to query properties and tables. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa372865(v=vs.85).as px Gary > -----Original Message----- > From: Alex Ivanoff [mailto:aivan...@vmware.com] > Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 11:19 AM > To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Querying the package and installed > productarchitecture > > > I need to be able to do it programmatically. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: McCain, Jon [mailto:jon.mcc...@inin.com] > Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 07:31 > To: General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset. > Cc: McCain, Jon > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Querying the package and installed product > architecture > > 1. Open the install in Orca > 2. Click View -> Summary Information > 3. The architecture type is listed under Platform. > > Jon > > -----Original Message----- > From: Alex Ivanoff [mailto:aivan...@vmware.com] > Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 6:17 PM > To: 'General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset.' > Subject: [WiX-users] Querying the package and installed > product architecture > > Is there a way to query the MSI package and/or installed product > architecture (x86 vs. x64)? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Ridiculously easy VDI. With Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, you don't need a complex infrastructure or vast IT resources to deliver seamless, secure access to virtual desktops. With this all-in-one solution, easily deploy virtual desktops for less than the cost of PCs and save 60% on VDI infrastructure costs. 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