I have the WiX's Product Id="*" and AllowSameVersionUpgrades="yes", so I can have 1 installer with different features (different sample images, but same .exe).
And I want to be able to install the multiple versions in the same machine so only the new features are added and the old features remain in the folder. But the old features are always being deleted. Is there a way to handle the correct way, maybe using Custom Actions?
For anyone with a similar problem the solution I've found was create a property:
<Property Id="DELFILES" Secure="yes"/>
Secure="yes" is very important otherwise the property's value won't be read when running the installer.
And then add this condition for the custom action:
<![CDATA[(REMOVE = "ALL") AND (DELFILES = "TRUE")]]>
Finally to install I just call the .msi and pass the parameter:
MsiExec.exe /x MyInstaller.msi DELFILES="TRUE"
Related
I'm using WiX 3.8 (the latest stable release, I think), and I can't seem to get a config file to not get uninstalled-and-reinstalled during a major upgrade.
There are lots of questions about this on SO -- a lot of answers point to this site as a good answer. However, the suggestion given doesn't work (for me).
What the site says is to place each config file in its own component and mark the file as the key path of the component. Something like this:
<Component Id="config.xml"
Guid="*"
Directory="folder_where_config_file_lives">
<File Id="config_file"
Source="$(var.Project.ProjectDir)bin\Release\configFile.xml"
KeyPath="yes"/>
</Component>
Great. Next it says to schedule RemoveExistingProduct after the InstallFiles action, like so:
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<RemoveExistingProducts After="InstallFiles"/>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
Problem is, when I compile, I get this error:
The InstallExecuteSequence table contains an action
'RemoveExistingProducts' that is declared in two different locations.
Please remove one of the actions or set the Overridable='yes'
attribute on one of their elements.
This person also had that problem, but he seems to have solved it. What fixed it for him was adding a scheduling attribute to the , which effectively got rid of the "two different locations" declaration problem (I guess):
<MajorUpgrade Schedule="afterInstallInitialize"
DowngradeErrorMessage="A newer version of [ProductName] is already installed."/>
So when I substitute the schedule change attribute (which contains a attribute itself, I guess), not only does it not work -- the config file gets removed and replaced during the upgrade -- it causes even more weirdness. My project has a bootstrapper with a lot of MSIs, and although I get log files for the installation of all of the MSIs that are after the MSI that contains the config file, they aren't installed.
Let me repeat that: the logs say that the MSIs are installed, but they aren't. There's probably a rollback somewhere that I can't find in the log files, but reading the MSI log files it looks like the installation went swimminly.
Does anyone know a way for a config file to not be removed-and-reinstalled during a Major Upgrade in Wix 3.8? What I've mentioned above is the best info from the interwebs that I could find, but I've tried pretty much everything on SO to no avail.
The MajorUpgrade element has everything you need, including where the RemoveExistingProducts action is scheduled. Don't add a RemoveExistingProducts into a sequence as well.
RemoveExistingProducts shouldn't be after InstallFiles. It's not clear where that comes from, but the documentation doesn't say that's a choice:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa371197(v=vs.85).aspx
When RemoveExistingProducts is sequenced early (such as after InstallInitialize or InstallValidate) it means that you are effectively uninstalling the old product followed by an install of the new product upgrade, and that means uninstalling the config file and installing the one in the upgrade. The way to retain the config file is to schedule REP afterInstallExecute. This results in an upgrade that is basically a version-rules install of the new product over the older installed one. The version rules mean that if you want updated binaries you must update their file versions. The good news about data files (your config file) is that updated data files won't be replaced:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa370531(v=vs.85).aspx
The older product then gets uninstalled, retaining the resulting set of files.
So sequencing of REP afterInstallExecute in the MajorUpgrade seems to be what you want. A caveat is that you need to follow component rules, which should happen automatically if you have auto-generated * guids in WiX.
IMO, Windows Installer was invented before XML caught on and the component rules don't handle it well. What I prefer to do is to not fight this behavior. Write your application so that one config file is owned by the installer and can always be safely overwritten and another config file that holds your user configuration data and that MSI doesn't know about. This second file should take override the first file.
I have an installer that is created with WIX and modifies a config via XmlFile, however I believe that the Wix Util Extension does not perform these actions on repair. This is causing problems when trying to perform a self-healing installer. Is there any way to accomplish what I am looking for
By piecing together a bunch of sources I came up with the following:
<Property Id="REINSTALLMODE" Value="amus"/>
<SetProperty Id="REINSTALL" Value="ALL" After="AppSearch">
<![CDATA[Installed AND REMOVE<>"ALL"]]>
</SetProperty>
Which forces a REINSTALL = ALL if it is not a remove or install
I have a similar scenario. Properties can be edited by the user through the UI, which are stored/loaded via the Registry and written to configuration files. Beyond Justin's answer, Secure="yes" must be set on each property, or MSI will ignore it (the log will show "Ignoring disallowed property").
I am trying to configure Wix to build my msi to only perform build versions (1.0.x) of my product in conjunction with the REINSTALL property, my problem is that when I run the command line: MSIEXEC.exe /i my.msi /l*vx build-inst.log REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=vamus it fails to do anything.
I have checked the msi log and found that it is looking for the existing product in the default folder (.\program files (x86)...\myproduct) yet when I installed it the first time I actually used a custom path (c:\myproduct). It was my impression that using REINSTALL the installer would use the installed path of the original product.
Is this actually the case? Should I be specifying the INSTALLDIR on my command line? I would rather not as this is meant for use by clients and I cannot guarantee I will know where the product was installed.
This method of performing "build" upgrades has been suggested in a couple of places but I can not find anything explaining any need to specify the INSTALLDIR
Is there any way to configure this in Wix?
Thanks
Kieran
The easiest solution would be to store the installation directory in the registry and look it up upon reinstalling.
To look up your registry value, you'd use something of the sort:
<Property Id="INSTALLDIR">
<RegistrySearch Id="InstallLocation" Root="HKCU"
Key="SOFTWARE\Company\Product" Name="Location" Type="raw" />
</Property>
If the registry value isn't found, the INSTALLDIR property will be set to your directory structure.
Rob has a complete solution on his blog for when you specify such a property from the command line.
Normally the original entries in the directory table are stored for reinstall without that you store them yourself.
So there is something "special" in your MSI, if this doesn't work. If you have a custom action which sets directory properties like INSTALLDIR, you should not use it. E.g. give them a condition "Not Installed".
I found out that the problem was due to using a wildcard for the product id, so every time a new msi was built it created a new product id.
By fixing this it seemed to resolve the problem, though I have also implemented the registry key option as it will help for upgrades where I do want to change the product id.
Thanks
Is it possible to use WIX to install side by side versions of the same IIS website. Including the ability to upgrade them individually? I've searched high and low and can't find anything on the internet for this.
Also why is using heat to harvest files automatically with each build such a no no? Having to manually update the file structure in WIX when it's already handled in VS and source control is such a pain if you're adding views, models, controllers a lot during development.
I'd like to be able to publish the site during a TFS build and then harvest the output for the installer.
Is there a better way than WIX to do this? A deployment tool like Octopus or Web Deploy isn't an option though as it needs to be an installer. A paid for option is also out.
Windows Installer supports installing multiple instances via instance transforms. Essentially, you can install the package with new product code upgrade codes, and the different products can be managed individually.
You add an InstanceTransforms element to your package, and add a child Instance element for each custom instance you want to support in addition to the default instance:
<InstanceTransforms Property="INSTANCEID">
<Instance Id="P1" ProductCode="GUID1" UpgradeCode="GUID2" ProductName="My App P1" />
<Instance Id="P2" ProductCode="GUID3" UpgradeCode="GUID4" ProductName="My App P2" />
</InstanceTransforms>
This allows you to install up to three copies: the default instance, plus instances P1 and P2. To install each, use one of these commands:
msiexec /i MyApp.msi
msiexec /i MyApp.msi MSINEWINSTANCE=1 TRANSFORMS=":P1"
msiexec /i MyApp.msi MSINEWINSTANCE=1 TRANSFORMS=":P2"
Then on your non-file components, add the Component/#MultiInstance="yes" attribute. This will create a new component guid for each transform, so you can install multiple copies of the component (one for each transform).
This blog post "Revisited: Multiple Instance installations and patches" describes using the InstanceTransforms element and the Component/#MultiInstance attribute in more detail.
I'm using a bootstrapper to check for the existence and if needed install a set of 3rd party product installs. It then installs my product. I would like to include an uninstall shortcut for the full install and not just my product. However, to do that, I need to be able to set the product code for the bootstrapper and then reference it in my uninstall shortcut:
<ShortcutId="UninstallShortcut" Name="Uninstall My Product"
Description="Uninstalls My Product"Target="[System64Folder]msiexec.exe"
Arguments="/x [MyBootStrapperProductCode]" Icon="MainApp.ico"/>
I'm using the standard Wix bootstrapper, but I don't see anything within the Bundle element that will let me set the product code.
Alternately, can I prevent the bootstrapper from leaving references to itself in Add/Remove Programs? The 3rd party components are permanent deployments.
The Bundle doesn't work the same way as Product. It does not use msiexec to unistall, atleast not publicly.
In order to create UNISTALL shortcut for BUNDLE, you need some clever tricks. Disclaimer: only for developmental/internal use.
First; you need to pass UpgradeCode to your MSI, using this approach:
Passing command line args to MSI from WiX bundle
After that, in your MSI file, you could try searching registry value BundleUpgradeCode which equals to your UpgradeCode. If you have found the folder where value lies, you can extract UnistallString and execute it directly(using CustomAction).
It will be something like this: "C:\ProgramData\Package Cache{my GUID}\ExchangeBootStrapper.exe" /uninstall
I personally haven't implemented it yet, but couldn't find any other workaround for this problem and came up with this one.
I am late, but at least for the record. As I understand the products in the Chain of Burn are handled independently. So the uninstalls does. It means that you don't need the code for the whole bundle. Codes of the individual Msi files in the bundle chain will be used for the un-installation. As for permanent installation of 3d parties there is corresponding Permanent attribute. This all is quite well described in last two chapters of WiX 3.6 Guide by Ramirez N.