I have a Outlook add-in installer made using visual studio installer. I wish to add vsto runtime into my installer package so that user is not required to install it manually. Any suggestions?
I believe this runtime is installed as part of the main Office installation? It looks like the runtime is just needed for server installations: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178739.aspx (have a good read of this link and its linked sub-pages).
Apart from that, if you require more advanced installer features you should seriously consider switching to using the WiX toolkit (free and open source, here are some quick start suggestions) or something easier and faster to learn such as the free version of Advanced Installer. There is a "Prerequisites" view in Advanced Installer with several versions of the runtime that can be added. There is a free version of the tool, but I am not sure what features are available for use without a license.
Related
I've created a program and would like to release it, but am currently struggling with dll dependency issues. How can I create a msi installer package that will properly install .dlls? Every solution I've found online so far has created msi packages that only include the exe.
Short Answer: Generally, the most common runtimes are: Java, Visual Studio C/C++ Runtime, .NET Framework. Try installing these on a clean virtual and try launching your application. Debugging application launch check-list.
Modern Deployment: Many Microsoft runtimes that we used to deploy are now part of Windows. An exception is the Visual Studio C/C++ runtimes. I am not sure why they are not just included in Windows at this point. In general you should not pick single dll files to deploy, you need to locate a merge module, a setup.exe or an MSI to deploy the runtime. Commercial tools have features to help you download such bundles.
Setup: The basic, general steps to create a setup are described here: How to create a windows installer for multi language program with outside dependencies?
Specific Runtimes: One can generally determine runtime requirements by looking at the application files (experience - trained eye), looking at the application GUI (visual clues), checking dependencies using dependency scanner tools, talking to the developers of the application, checking file properties of files you find to depend upon (Company name is a good clue), etc... Then you verify and test this on a clean, virtual machine. You keep installing runtimes manually until your application works. In the section "The Complexity of Deployment" here you can find a listing of common runtimes and technologies.
I work on WIX installer, I want the auto-update system that ClickOnce provide. I upload the new version on server and the end client can check online to see if there is a newer version available.
Can WIX do this?
Thanks.
You need to write something yourself to check for updates and download the new installer. Once you have the new installer, WiX can handle upgrading the version installed on the end user machine. Typically people have a secondary executable embedded within the main program which is responsible for launching the downloaded installer, so that the main program can close during the update process.
In the past, I've handled checking for and downloading updates with NAppUpdate, which is easily extensible for however you want it to behave. I'm sure there are plenty of other open source alternatives to handle this as well.
Wix does not have the capability to do so.
You can read the diffrences between ClickOnce and Wix (Windows installer) from:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973805.aspx
I think you can wrap MSI in ClickOnce and use both.
Also you have Squirrel (Like clickonce) that is based on PowerShell but may not work on all target machines.
I am currently making an Outlook addin in Visual Studio 2012,
i create an Installer for my project, but in order for my addin to work on my clients computers i also need to add the SharePoint Foundation (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=21786) dll’s,
but when I try to add them from my C:\Windows\assembly folder to the WiX msi base installer Project\References - (by right clicking and pressing add Reference), I get the following error “A reference to [filepath] could not be added. Please make sure that the file is accessible, and that it is a valid WiX reference.“
Do you know what I can do ?
thanks a lot for your help!
You need to add the files to Product.wxs - see http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix3/wix_learning.htm . You only add .wixlib and other projects via references.
Another approach would be to use a WiX 3.7 Bootstrapper project. The bootstrapper engine is often called "Burn" so you might see that in discussions.
A bootstrapper project allows you to install dependencies using their own installers, such as the "SharePoint Foundation 2010 Client Object Model Redistributable" you linked to. A nice example of a bootstrapper is the WiX 3.7 installer itself but most projects can be much simpler.
Installing dependencies using vendor provided installers has the advantage of avoiding having to re-implement any necessary logic yourself and allows them to managed and upgraded by the user.
I'm developing a Windows service in VS2012 and the setup/deployment part has been removed. So I'm not able to create a setup project. I would like to hear what you guys could recommend for a good easy to use the installer. I need to take some inputs, only strings, under the installation of the service. I've been looking at WiX but that seems a bit complex, and I only got 1 or 2 days to make this installer.
So what installer should I use other than Wix?
I've had really bad experiences with InstallShield LE (the one that comes with Visual Studio 2012), especially for Windows Services. The features that you need to install a service (custom actions, etc), don't come with the light version.
What I'm planning to do for the current Windows service I'm working on is to build it with Topshelf, which (amongst other things) means installing your service is as simple as running MyServiceApp.exe install. I'm sure even InstallShield will let you run your app once it's installed, and then your app/Topshelf can install the service component.
If InstallShield doesn't work for you, I've had good results before with NSIS. Simple, powerful, free, decent documentation. It looks a bit clunky.
Here is a list of setup tools which can get you started:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_installation_software
If you don't have a lot of time for creating the installer, I recommend using a commercial tool like Advanced Installer or InstallShield. You need a license, but they are focused on usability (do more in less time).
You can do it with InstallShield LE... You can add custom actions "After Register Product" for install and for "After System Changes". These custom actions can run an EXE on the machine.
Make sure you run the command line tools "in system context"
After Register Product run the version of InstallUtil to your version of .NET
eg.
path=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
command=InstallUtil.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\XXX\YYY\ZZZ.exe"
replacing XXX YYY and ZZZ to match your install
After System Changes to delete your service name run
e.g.
sc delete "servicename"
Note you need support for the custom actions within your own service executable (you needed this in earlier VS too).
You can find more information about SC here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/251192
To add an installer for a service, you just need to right-click on the designer for the service and click "Add Installer".
Here's the walkthrough:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zt39148a.aspx
It seems like it's still not possible to build .vdproj on a build-server without having Visual Studio installed. However, using Wix seems to be a lot more complicated.
Are there any other options to do the following task:
Visual Studio 2010 Solution with multiple projects (.csproj)
Many loose content files (not inside assemblies)
Installer must be built on Build-server without Visual Studio on it (devenv.exe / devenv.com)
Installer must create Registry keys
Installer must associate file extensions with installed product
Installer must support upgrades (version upgrades)
Installer should be able to register COM components
Installer should be able to pre-JIT assemblies
My goal is:
Effort to maintain installer is low
Minimal changes if new project (assembly) is added to solution
Ideal: no changes if new content files are added to any of the projects
Maybe I just did not get the point with Wix, but including project output (like in .vdproj) seems very complicated.
Any suggestions very much appreciated!
OK I decided to go with Wix. Found out that using Votive it's possible to include project output like in .vdproj (Binaries, Content, Symbols and even Source Code).
If I run into more complicated situations where this isn't sufficient, I could fall back to some kind of harvester (Heat, Paraffin).
See some more Links in comments below (too little reputation to post more than 1 link in this post).
Check out InstallShield 2010 Limited Edition ( Free for Visual Studio 2010 users ). It has pretty much all the functionality that VDPROJ ( being retired btw ) has and supports silent builds. You can get one license for your dev box and one license for your build machine pretty easily.