Thank you Jacob for your reply; I appreciate that.
Let me give a bit more background and clarify my quandary. Perhaps this will help with more specific suggestions. Here it goes. I have a Wix setup that works exactly the way I wanted. The installation is for a Web Application Project (WAP) and everything is based on Visual Studio 2013. - The Wix setup harvests all the published WAP files with a pre-processor command and builds the MSI output. - The MSI does everything I wanted – with a number of Custom Dialogs complemented with Custom Actions (CAs) code for such tasks as checking if an SQL instance exists; creating a database; listing existing websites so that the user can choose which website to install to as a web application; allowing the user choose an alternative installation directory; modify config.web as required, etc., with registry search and directory search are also used as part of XML programming. So, as far as a single MSI goes, I am quite confident to tackle the wix setup programming successfully as highlighted by my MSI resume listed in the preceding lines. - Then I needed Administrator elevation for my MSI installer as most of the configuration tasks require privileged access for per-machine installation (IIS, SQL, folders, etc). One way to do this is to start a Command Prompt with Admin privilege and then run MSI. In fact, I included a conditional message (based on the Privileged Wix built-in variable) to guide the user as such if MSI is clicked at Windows level. This approach didn’t look elegant and setupbld.exe provided an easy answer – an exe version was generated that prompted the user to run as an administrator (for instance the right-click Run As). - To sum up, so far everything was great with no problems, that’s up to Wix v3.7. - Then came wix v3.8 but then setupbld.exe was laid to rest. With v3.8 I couldn't obviously do the setupbld.exe simple transformation I did in v3.7. But I was prepared to learn the equivalent of setupbld.exe with Burn Bootstrapper as I can see the many benefits with the Bootstrapper approach (installing prerequisites, multiple MSI, and so on). - This could now be a wrong assumption, but I assumed I could _reuse_ my wix setup experience to do the equivalent of setupbld.exe, such as bringing the custom dialogs in MSI (highlighted above) to the bootstrapper front-end -- hence the premise for my original question of if Custom Dialogs and localized strings can be used here as in wix setup. - In summary, attempting to emulate a rather simplistic setupbld.exe transformation of my MSI seems to be presenting itself as a huge programming adventure, or am I missing something obvious? If more effort is required for this, I can always go back to v3.7 for an existing installer but I really want to learn (be it as a side-line) how to replace setupbld.exe in the scenario I have just described. I should I approach this? Please forgive the rather lengthy prose – this is in the interest of clarifying my problem with some detail. Dan > From: jacob.hoo...@greenheck.com > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 03:28:09 +0000 > Subject: Re: [WiX-users] Help with BA Programming > > A BA is code in your control that interacts with the engine. As such, you > have full control over the UI and full control over the process. As for > WixStdBA, it's a lean and mean BA, so it doesn't have a lot of the feature > rich environment you might be looking for. There are no "custom actions" and > limited UI modifications that can be done with WixStdBA. Neil had originally > ran with WixExtBA, but has recently back ported what he could as new themes > to WixStdBA as well as BA functions. > > So in short: > 1) Yes. Both WixStdBA and the Wix installer itself are examples of BA's. > The former is C++ and the latter is C#. > 2) WixStdBA has localization built in. I don't know if the Wix BA has it, but > if not you can certainly write it. > > When it all comes down to it, you'll need to look at your installer > requirements. If you are already going to need .Net installed for the final > application, there is a lot more eye candy and infrastructure there for you > to build your BA from. If your goal is the smallest possible installer, or > your destination application doesn't need the .Net framework, then I'd > suggest studying WidStdBA and Neil's contributions (WixExtBA). If you decide > to extend upon the existing codebase, join wix-dev's and attend some weekly > meetings. From my personal experience, Rob/Bob/Neil/Etc are all more than > willing to help evolve an idea if it can be done in such a way that helps us > all. > > Jacob > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dan Watson [mailto:dan.wat...@outlook.com] > Sent: Monday, March 17, 2014 5:20 PM > To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net > Subject: [WiX-users] Help with BA Programming > > As a new late comer to Wix Bootstrapper programming -- but familiar with MSI > side of things -- I am not making much progress I'd hoped I would. Perhaps I > was making some wrong assumptions about the Bootstrapper programming. I have > gone through the online documentation and I can follow what is described > there but I need more. > > 1) Is it possible to implement Custom Dialogs in BA to collect user inputs as > is the case with MSI? For DisplayInternalUI to be set to "no" for better user > experience I am assuming that the equivalent must be done in BA. If this is > possible, can you please direct me to some examples if any? My search didn't > turn up much. > > 2) How about localized strings? Does this work in exactly the same way as for > MSI (say, add localised string file to project as Strings-en-us.wxl and refer > to defined strings therein as "!(loc.DefinedLocalizedString)") ? If a > different approach how is it done for BA? > Is it perhaps I should explore more of MBA rather than BA if the latter has > limitations? > > Dan > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is the > definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written by > three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now available. > Download your free book today! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book > "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their > applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, > this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech > _______________________________________________ > WiX-users mailing list > WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
