I'll fill in some background information before the question. (/smile) I started working on a custom updater application that essentially needed to perform the following tasks:
1) Get latest version information for application from a remote location 2) Display release notes and latest version information to the user 3) Download the setup package (currently with WCF via TCP or directly via HTTP) 4) Install the setup package I was able to set this up fine without any issues. But I wanted to extend it and provide actual progress and status to the user through the updater application instead of just opening the MSI file after downloading it. The Bootstrapper Engine already provided this logic, so why reinvent the wheel? We already are using WiX with a custom Bootstrapper UI for our installer. I ended up integrating the updater logic there as well so that we could ensure that users always had the latest package before installation. Then I started wondering whether or not I could just use the Bootstrapper UI post installation as my updater application instead. I could just pass in various command line arguments to accomplish the flow that I wanted. The big problem is that there is a circular dependency. The Bootstrapper bundle needs the final MSI and the updater needs to be included in the MSI to ensure that it is installed with the application. So I have a few questions that I haven't found any definitive answers to: 1) Is it possible to "install" the executing Bootstrapper application into the application's folder? Is there some variable exposed? (This is probably a long shot since the MSI knows nothing of the Bootstrapper) 2) Is it possible or in the works to externalize a MSI package in a bundle chain? Can I use the DownloadUrl property or somehow hook into a Boostrapper engine event that allows me to download the MSI package for the bundle at run time (The DetectUpdateBegin event comes to mind). 3) Is it possible to create a "fake" bundle with a "fake" MSI that can be used to just build the Bootstrapper application? Then, would I able to ignore the bundle completely and use an event like DetectUpdateBegin to force the Bootstrapper application to install a package not listed in the bundle? I want to get these questions answered to determine whether or not it's worth it going down this rabbit hole. Thanks in advance! -- View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/Updater-application-using-Bootstrapper-UI-Bundle-tp7596581.html Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Slashdot TV. Video for Nerds. Stuff that matters. http://tv.slashdot.org/ _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
