I am trying to make a wix installer.
i have two features defined. I want to be able to install each feature in a different location.
<Feature Id='ServerInstallation' Title='Engine' Level='1' ConfigurableDirectory='TARGETDIR'>
<ComponentGroupRef Id='ServerFileSystemGroup' />
<ComponentGroupRef Id='RegistryGroup' />
</Feature>
I want to be able to put this anywhere on disk, with the default value c:\Program Files\ProductName\Feature1
<Feature Id='ClientInstallation' Title='Moduletitle' Level='1' ConfigurableDirectory='INSTALLLOCATION'>
<ComponentGroupRef Id='ClientSystemGroup' />
<Feature Id='Subfeatureid' Title='Subfeature' Level='1'>
<ComponentGroupRef Id='SubfeatureSystemGroup' />
</Feature>
</Feature>
I want to be able to put this anywhere on disk, with the default value c:\Program Files\ProductName\Feature2
But the two feature should be able to be installed in any non-related location.
I tried to define a root directory TARGETDIR and on the same level an INSTALLLOCATION but i get an error
The Directory with Id 'INSTALLLOCATION' is not a valid root directory. There may only be a single root directory per product or module and its Id attribute value must be 'TARGETDIR' and its Name attribute value must be 'SourceDir'.
How can i setup this properly?
It might help to see your <Directory> structure, but in any case, you can't use TARGETDIR as a configurable directory. TARGETDIR can only be used at the root, and everything goes inside.
I think yours should look something like this:
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="ProductFolder" Name="ProductName">
<Directory Id="INSTALLDIR1" Name="Feature1" />
<Directory Id="INSTALLDIR2" Name="Feature2" />
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
Then you can use INSTALLDIR1 and INSTALLDIR2 for your ConfigurableDirectorys.
See also
http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2010/1/26/stackoverflow-what-does-namesourcedir-refer-to/
http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/Configurabble-Install-Directory-td5351039.html
Related
I recently tried to create an installer for my application using Wix. When I uninstalled the application all my folders and files were deleted except some created at run time by the application. After some research I found out that the reason was because those folders and files were created after the install proccess. I also found out that what I wanted to use would be the element RemoveFolderEx. Unfortunatly, I am having some trouble to use the tag. This is my current code that doesn't work:
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="App" Level="1">
...
<ComponentRef Id="deeletappdata" />
</Feature>
<Component Id="deeletappdata" Guid="*" Directory="AppDataFolder">
<util:RemoveFolderEx Id="RemoveAppDataAppContent" On="uninstall" Property="AppDataAppFolderDir" />
</Component>
<Directory Id="AppDataFolder">
<Directory Id="AppDataAppFolderDir" Name="$(var.Application)"/>
</Directory>
How can I use the element RemoveFolderEx?
I am trying to create a start menu shortcut for an application using WiX, the problem is that I am receiving an Ice64 error stating that the parent directory of the shortcut directory is not in the RemoveFile table.
I do not want to remove this parent folder (organisation folder) on uninstall as other applications may have shortcuts in other children of it.
My code looks like
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="MyApplication" Level="1">
<ComponentGroupRef Id="Components" />
<ComponentRef Id="ProfilesShortcut"/>
</Feature>
<Fragment>
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="OrgDir" Name="OrganisationName">
<Directory Id="AppDir" Name="MyApplication" />
</Directory>
</Directory>
<Directory Id="ProgramMenuFolder">
<Directory Id="ProgFilesOrgDir" Name="OrganisationName">
<Directory Id="ProgFilesAppDir" Name="MyApplication" />
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Fragment>
<Fragment>
<DirectoryRef Id="ProgFilesAppDir">
<Component Id="ProfilesShortcut" Guid="*">
<Shortcut Id="ApplicationStartMenuShortcut"
Name="MyApplication"
Description="My Application"
Target="[#MyApplication.exe]"
WorkingDirectory="AppDir"/>
<RemoveFolder Id="ProgFilesAppDir" On="uninstall"/>
<RegistryValue Root="HKCU" Key="Software\Organisation\MyApplication" Name="installed" Type="integer" Value="1" KeyPath="yes"/>
</Component>
</DirectoryRef>
</Fragment>
Feel free to add the remove file element to your shortcut component.
Remove an empty folder if the parent component is selected for installation or removal.
The RemoveFolder element will only remove empty folders so if your product is not the only part of that suite installed it will leave the parent folder alone since other products will have put files/folders there. Consider the scenario where your product is either the only one installed (should remove the folder) or is the last one to be uninstalled from the suite (should remove the folder). In these two cases the folder should get removed. The order of RemoveFolder elements get defined might matter so I would test putting the ProgramFilesOrgFolder remove element before and after ProgFilesAppDir remove element just to see if one of them fails.
Alternatively you can just suppress ICE64 but then you will leave a folder behind once all the products are uninstalled. Not a huge deal really but might be annoying to some users.
I've been banging my head against this one for a while and I've finally caved (after a lot of searching) and have come to stack overflow for help.
As the title suggests I am trying to create an installer that can carry out a per-user install without requiring any elevated permissions.
However the following code generates a lot of ICE38 and ICE64 errors, as well as ICE91 warnings at compile time.
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="AppDataFolder">
<Directory Id="AppRootDirectory" Name="[Manufacturer]">
<Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="[ProductName]" />
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="ATestProject" Level="1">
<ComponentGroupRef Id="modules" />
</Feature>
"modules" refers to the contents of a heat.exe generated .wxs file whose components install directory is "INSTALLFOLDER"
The solutions available on the internet indicate a lot of editing of my modules.wxs file in order to get this to work, this is not acceptable - There are well over 1000 files in this release process and anything that cannot be automated (done on the command line at build time or with a script) is entirely out of the question.
Thanks in advance!
You can set up a per-user install that, by default on windows 7 and later, installs to %localappdata%\Programs by doing the following;
<Property Id="ALLUSERS" Secure="yes" Value="2"/>
<Property Id="MSIINSTALLPERUSER" Secure="yes" Value="1" />
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="AppRootDirectory" Name="Manufacturer">
<Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="ProductName" />
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
<!-- ... -->
<!-- ... -->
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="ATestProject" Level="0">
<ComponentGroupRef Id="modules" />
</Feature>
Basically Setting the two properties at the top configures the installer to a "per user" install, which is UAC friendly and does not need elevated permissions.
See This for a detailed explanation.
Please also note that ProgramFilesFolder becomes %localAppData%/programs - Microsoft's default storage place for per-user applications and installing to a users profile rather than C:\Program Files (x86)\
I have this fragment to define my directory structure:
<Fragment>
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="COMPANYFOLDER" Name="MyCompany">
<Directory Id="APPLICATIONFOLDER" Name="HDSS.Net">
<Directory Id="EN" Name="en"/>
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
<Directory Id="DesktopFolder" Name="Desktop"/>
</Directory>
</Fragment>
I have this component group with my application components:
<Fragment>
<ComponentGroup Id="ProductComponents" Directory="APPLICATIONFOLDER">
....
</ComponentGroup>
</Fragment>
in my feature definition I refer to this group:
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="HDSS.Net" Level="1" ConfigurableDirectory="APPLICATIONFOLDER">
<ComponentGroupRef Id="ProductComponents" />
...
<\Feature>
My problem is that upon installation only the application folder 'HDSS.Net' is created in Program Files and the application folder is not created inside of the 'MyCompany' folder as I would have expected. How can I ensure that this happens?
Thank you.
The setup code you provided thus far looks correct.
Some other part of your installation must be changing APPLICATIONFOLDER so that it ends up resolving to [ProgramFilesFolder]HDSS.Net. Search around for other references to APPLICATIONFOLDER.
Alternatively, take a look at a verbose log file. It should show you when APPLICATIONFOLDER is being overridden.
I have an issue with some existing installers which I have repeated in a simple test case as follows:
Installer1 installs App1 and LibraryA(v1).
Installer2 installs App2, LibraryA(v2) and LibraryB. LibraryA(v2) requires LibraryB, which is why LibraryB is now installed. LibraryA(v1) had no such dependency. LibraryA(v2) should overwrite LibraryA(v1).
If I run Installer1 then Installer2, then uninstall Installer2, LibraryB gets removed, but LibraryA remains at v2 (sensible - I wouldn't expect it to revert to a prior version).
Forgetting my existing problem and imagine I was starting from scratch, how would you suggest I construct my WiX project to cope with such a situation? In my case, all of the libraries are defined as merge modules - something I'm not in a position to change (wixlibs are out of the question).
I have tried, to no effect, to use a Dependency element to create a dependency between the LibraryA(v2) merge module and the LibraryB merge module - it just seems to issue a linker warning if I forget to reference LibraryB in the installer, rather than creating an actual dependency.
The .wxs scripts in my test case look something like this (they all install to the same folder for ease of testing):
LibraryA(v1).wxs:
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="MergeRedirectFolder">
<Component Id="LibraryAComponent" Guid="d98dd742-c3d3-4aee-8d84-87f2b3c837dc">
<File Source="v1\LibraryA.dll" />
</Component>
</Directory>
</Directory>
LibraryA(v2).wxs:
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="MergeRedirectFolder">
<Component Id="LibraryAComponent" Guid="d98dd742-c3d3-4aee-8d84-87f2b3c837dc">
<File Source="v2\LibraryA.dll" />
</Component>
</Directory>
</Directory>
<Dependency RequiredId="LibraryBMergeModule.DD524F28_EAE0_47B8_A895_3AF2F7A7361A" RequiredLanguage="1033"/>
LibraryB.wxs:
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="MergeRedirectFolder">
<Component Id="LibraryBComponent" Guid="46e6e0da-2a99-4f0d-bed2-e764e16b9eed">
<File Source="LibraryB.dll" />
</Component>
</Directory>
</Directory>
App1.wxs:
<Media Id="1" Cabinet="media1.cab" EmbedCab="yes" />
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" DiskId="1" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="WiXTest" Name="WiXTest">
<Merge Id="LibraryAv1" Language="1033" SourceFile="LibraryAv1.msm" />
<Component Id="App1Component" Guid="93D11AFF-5307-4355-B261-0096775B6A89">
<File Source="App1.exe" />
</Component>
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
<Feature Id="Libraries" Title="Shared Files" Level="1">
<MergeRef Id="LibraryAv1" />
</Feature>
<Feature Id="App" Title="Application" Level="1">
<ComponentRef Id="App1Component" />
</Feature>
App2.wxs:
<Media Id="1" Cabinet="media1.cab" EmbedCab="yes" />
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" DiskId="1" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="WiXTest" Name="WiXTest">
<Merge Id="LibraryB" Language="1033" SourceFile="LibraryB.msm" />
<Merge Id="LibraryAv2" Language="1033" SourceFile="LibraryAv2.msm" />
<Component Id="App2Component" Guid="173C71B6-E403-4AC1-894D-06799C6782A4">
<File Source="App2.exe" />
</Component>
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
<Feature Id="Libraries" Title="Shared Files" Level="1">
<MergeRef Id="LibraryB" />
<MergeRef Id="LibraryAv2" />
</Feature>
<Feature Id="App" Title="Application" Level="1">
<ComponentRef Id="App2Component" />
</Feature>
I'm guessing that this is entirely the wrong way to go about things and am looking for some pointers to bring me back on track. It feels like you need to have a PhD in Windows Installer in order to use WiX correctly.
I am no WIX expert but yes for MSI you need at least a PhD. At first you should know the rules about MSI components:
What Every Developer Should Know About MSI Components
From painful experience I do know that if several MSIs bring in the same components it is no good. If possible I would strive for the single source principle so that your libs are installed always by the same MSI (let it be a infrastructure MSI). Your application MSI´s then simply check if the infrastructure has been installed and that was it.
Coming back to your question what you should do with your merge modules. I would create for each merge module an extra msi (yes customers do not like crowed installed software catalogs) to be sure that if you are in need to service the libraries you have full freedom.
I do not know your software structure but it could be that you will need LibraryA v1 and v2 at the same time so you should think about deploying your libraries to the WinSxS cache or if they are managed the GAC. Or you come up with something similar in your folder structure or file name convention.