[mapguide-internals] About the WiX installer

[Jackie Ng]

An update on the current situation:

- All the required files *seems* to be packaged in the installer. Need to do
more checking.
- The httpd.conf has been templated with special names, that will be
substituted with proper values via a custom action.

And here is where I've hit the first fork and roadblock in the road. There's
3 known ways to do custom actions.

1. External/Inline VBScript/JScript
2. A managed (.net) custom action dll
3. An unmanaged custom action dll

I initially tried #1 but I couldn't get even a simple "Hello World" script
to execute (Error message: "A script required for this install to complete
could not be run"). However, if this was inlined code, it will run. But I
have no idea to interrogate MSI with inlined script.

So I tried #2 and once again I could not get the thing to execute. (Error
message: "A dll required for this install could not be run")

So I am currently on #3. but the WIN32 api is sooooooo inelegant and
difficult to comprehend! All I want to do is read a file, replace some
strings and write back out the result. This is so easy in other languages,
but in C++ I am just scratching my head. Somehow I am predicting that after
all the head-scratching and hair-pulling is done, I will get the same result
with #2 

So I guess I really need some pointers here. Ideally, I want to use #1 or
#3, since that would mean the installer doesn't *explicity* require the .net
Framework to be present. 

If there's an approach that doesn't involve custom actions, I'd like to hear
it.

- Jackie


Jackie Ng wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I'm trying to grok the WiX installer files. When trying to build the wix
> installers, it is erroring out because it can't find a whole load of
> files. 
> 
> Given a checkout of the mapguide svn trunk, what do I need to do to ensure
> the wix installers build without problems?
> 
> - Jackie
> 

-- 
View this message in context: http://n2.nabble.com/About-the-WiX-installer-tp2339047p2422654.html
Sent from the MapGuide Internals mailing list archive at Nabble.com.