Hence why I said native was well suited to vendor extensions. The "take a dependency" argument goes back a long ways. An example would be the Excel approach vs the VS/DevDiv approach. It would make a good blog provided that you cover the pro's and con's of each approach.
FWIW, DTF custom actions can easily be decompiled, examined, tweaked,recompiled and reapplied to an MSI. Try doing that with native. :-) ---------------------------------------- From: "Rob Mensching" <r...@robmensching.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 10:27 AM To: "Christopher Painter" <chr...@iswix.com>, "General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset." <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Is using Powershell script as a Wix Custom Action a good idea? Before NETFX 4.0 came out it was not possible to build assemblies that targeted NETFX2.0 and beyond. That means, any packages with old managed custom actions in them that are not updated can fail to install by default on newer operating systems (where NETFX2.0 is not on by default). It is difficult to predict what happens with NETFX5.0 or if there is an NETFX5.0. For example, WiX v2.0 is still used today and it's custom actions continue to work on current operating systems as well as they did back then. You can provide mitigations (like make sure your install/repair/patch/uninstall always happens via a bootstrapper) to get your NETFX in the correct state before your MSI with managed custom actions runs. IMHO, the best way to avoid all the issues is to build native code custom actions with as few dependencies as possible. Really, the "native" part of that is just saying "fewer dependencies". Do as you wish. <smile/> DTF exists for those that want to write managed custom actions and it will help you do so *correctly* in environments you control. But if you are doing anything platform-like (such as the WiX toolset <smile/>) keep in mind the depth of your dependencies because the world out there is mean and nasty and setup is supposed to fix it. I really should turn this into a blog entry. <smile/> On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 8:08 AM, Christopher Painter <chr...@iswix.com> wrote: CA's can be built to target CLR 2.0 and beyond. The dependency / fragility concerns are overblown. .NET just offers too much to be ignored. For vendor extensions and performance sensitive (UI control event DoActions) then native is worth it. ---------------------------------------- From: "Rob Mensching" <r...@robmensching.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2013 9:59 AM To: "General discussion for Windows Installer XML toolset." <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Is using Powershell script as a Wix Custom Action a good idea? My personal point of view: write custom actions in native code, statically link the CRT and have as few dependencies on the machine as possible. Actually, best option is to have no custom actions. <smile/> On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 9:57 PM, Hoover, Jacob <jacob.hoo...@greenheck.com> wrote: Which is fine as long as you don't mind the added dependency of .Net. I seem to remember some issues with newer os's not liking the standard .net installer as it is an optional feature of the OS. On Mar 11, 2013, at 9:57 PM, "Christopher Painter" <chr...@iswix.com> wrote: > Check out C# / DTF for managed custom action support instead of PowerShell. > > > I have millions of successful installations logged and failure caused by > DTF are extremely rare in WiX 3.6 / 3.7. In WiX 3.5 there was a bug that > resulted in a 1% failure rate. > > ---------------------------------------- > From: "Hoover, Jacob" <jacob.hoo...@greenheck.com> > Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 8:29 PM > To: "Raghu" <raghu_ti...@yahoo.com>, "General discussion for Windows > Installer XML toolset." <wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net> > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Is using Powershell script as a Wix Custom Action > a good idea? > > I wouldn't, simply because some of the difficulties others have reported as > well as introducing another dependency to your installer. A simple C++ CA > DLL can be compiled for a minimal footprint and has no dependencies. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Raghu [mailto:raghu_ti...@yahoo.com] > Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 8:05 PM > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [WiX-users] Is using Powershell script as a Wix Custom Action a > good idea? > > Hello Wix users, > > I have a very simple custom action something on the lines of validating a > key as part of setup, the min requirement that the setup to run is on > Win2k8 R2+. Now I can achieve the same thing in a dll but I feel its an > overkill and is easily achieved in a script, for a while I was pondering > over using vbscript until I read the warning in > http://blogs.msdn.com/b/robmen/archive/2004/05/20/136530.aspx and decided > against vbscript. Could folks point out if doing the same in powershell is > ok? > Thanks., > Raghu > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > -- > Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester > Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and "remains a good choice" in the > endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to > tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > -- > Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester > Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and "remains a good choice" in the > endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to > tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester > Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and "remains a good choice" in the > endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to > tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and "remains a good choice" in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and "remains a good choice" in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Symantec Endpoint Protection 12 positioned as A LEADER in The Forrester Wave(TM): Endpoint Security, Q1 2013 and "remains a good choice" in the endpoint security space. For insight on selecting the right partner to tackle endpoint security challenges, access the full report. http://p.sf.net/sfu/symantec-dev2dev _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
