My company uses Wix 2.0 in the build chain.
When our users try to install a later build over an older one, the old build is replaced IF the major version number is the same. Otherwise, we let them have a side-by-side install so they can evaluate the new version before buying (no charge for minor version number updates).
However, I'd like to offer the user the choice of replacing any previous version.
From what I know of Wix, this would mean making the OnlyDetect attribute of the UpgradeVersion element dynamic somehow.
Is this possible without a custom action that hacks the table? The msi will be launched from a .exe gui so I can set properties and the like.
You don't want to use OnlyDetect. You author the Upgrade element (or use the helper MajorUpgrade element if using WiX v3.5+) to do the upgrade and then condition the RemoveExistingProducts action. No hackery necessary.
Related
I have a WIX Bootstrapper Burn bundle which contains 4 MsiPackages and has been released in production. Our latest version of the bundle is to no longer ship one of the packages and should uninstall the package should it exist. What is the best way to uninstall the MsiPackage without providing the entire msi in the bundle?
I have tried:
Removing the PackageGroup from the chain entirely - This leaves the product behind.
Adding the MsiPackage and setting the installlevel to 0 - This needs a very large payload as the msi that is being removed is large.
I also tried using product search to find the state
<util:ProductSearch Id="AppX" UpgradeCode="XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXX" Result="state" Variable="APPXSTATE" />
but tried to hook it up to an ExePackage to run msiexec /x UpgradeCode but I figure is the wrong way to uninstall.
Whats the best way for me to purge msi with UpgradeCode X if it exists in this newer burn installer?
Thanks
Note: I am not aware of any auto-magic constructs to use in collaboration with util:ProductSearch to uninstall existing MSI
installations.
Upgrade Table: I assume the four different products have different upgrade codes "per family"? If so - and if you are positive it will never need to be installed again - then I suppose you could specify that it should be uninstalled via a major upgrade for one or more of the packages you will keep delivering. Note: It might be possible to uninstall even if all setups share the same upgrade code, but that requires a lot more care and testing.
This solution involves adding the upgrade code for the MSI you want to remove to the upgrade table of those MSI setups you want to preserve with a version range specified that will uninstall all "known prior editions". Technical details for how to do this can be found here: Adding entries to MSI UpgradeTable to remove related products. As stated it is enough to do so for one of the products that will remain, but you can do it for all of them to be sure. No errors should result if the product has already been uninstalled. I might want to set a tighter range than what is shown in that technical sample for the versions targeted.
ExePackage: It should be possible to uninstall as you have suggested by using an ExePackage instead. It could run msiexec.exe directly I suppose, or maybe launch a VBScript, Powershell script or even a batch file or your own EXE file compiled from C++ or C# (the latter with unfortunate runtime requirements). I have never tried this approach.
Please note that you do not uninstall by upgrade code in the fashion you do with msiexec.exe /x UpgradeCode - at least I have never been able to make that work (not tested for a while). Instead you need to uninstall via product code (How can I find the product GUID of an installed MSI setup?), OR you can use VBScript and MSI API automation to uninstall by using the Installer.RelatedProducts function and then kicking off uninstall that way as shown here: Powershell: Uninstall application by UpgradeCode. This is similar to what happens when Windows Installer processes the Upgrade Table. All releated products - those sharing the same upgrade code - are enumerated and you can handle them as you do so.
Some Links:
Powershell: Uninstall application by UpgradeCode
WIX (remove all previous versions)
Wix upgrade goes into maintenance mode and never does upgrade
We are using the WIX Toolset among other things to automate a long installation process. A big part of this is installing lots of prerequisites that change based on what version of the product the customer wants to install.
e.g. there is a filter pack (.msi file) involved in the installation that only needs to be installed with a certain type of the product, so it is impossible to simple chain it into a bundle because we cannot know in advance which version the customer chooses.
Is there any way to solve this problem without having to create 4 different installers or installing all prerequisites regardless of version?
Thanks in advance.
The easiest and most maintainable (imo) method for implementing this is to use a burn bootstrapper and have a separate msi install for each version of the product the user could install.
The burn boostrapper would also contain all the prerequisite packages needed but only install the ones required by the specific version the user chooses to install.
You say you can't include the filter pack in the chain because you don't know until runtime whether or not the customer wants it but that's the whole point of the bootstrapper. Your bootstrapper should gather the information at runtime and set variables accordingly. Using the InstallCondition on the MsiPackage element you can determine whether or not you need to install the msi or not.
The bootstrapper process is to run Detect, do the UI, Plan, Execute. During Plan you will figure out which packages will be run and installed during the installation. The bootstrapper application has the authority to set any package to install or uninstall, overriding whatever the engine decides to do.
You could also include all the msi version stuff in one MSI and control it via feature groups which would allow you to use one MSI fo all the versions of your product but this can get bloated and complicated with multiple 'duplicated' components from different versions of your product so I think this would become a maintainability hell later on.
You can add a custom dialog which has checkboxes where the user can choose what to install.
These checkboxes set a variable to 0 or 1. You can use these variables in the installcondition.
I believe you can even conditionally show checkboxes(say 2 off the 5 are already installed, you would not want to give the user the option to install the already installed 2)
I'm struggling with my Custom Bootstrapper Upgrade issue. By following this thread, I'm using LaunchAction.Install.
This does Upgrade the Product as well as Boostrapper, but older Bootstrapper remains there, as shown in following screen shot.
If I invoke ver 1.0.0.0 from here, it would display Dialog to Install, but would do nothing. However, invoking ver 1.0.1.0 would give me the option to Uninstall the product. However, upon Uninstall, it would only remove itself, and "My Product" is left behind.
I also tried with
_bootstrapper.Engine.Plan(LaunchAction.UpdateReplace);
and
_bootstrapper.Engine.Plan(LaunchAction.UpdateReplaceEmbedded);
but it has no effect.
Question: How to upgrade older installation without falling in above situation? Can anyone please provide a working example of CustomBA upgrade?
Regards
Check the PlanRelatedBundle event. Its where you can tell the Engine what to do with the old bundles.
If you want a Bundle to replace the old one the UpgradeCode should be the same for both. In this case it will uninstall the old bundle as default.
Also the old bundle needs to support quiet uninstallation since it will be called with the argument /quit after installing the new one.
You can check it in the BootstrapperApplication.Command.Display property. It should be "Embedded" if its called from another Bundle. The BootstrapperApplication.Command.Action is set to "Uninstall" in this case.
If nothing of this works check the logs that are created in the AppData\Temp folder.
I also experienced this problem. I had to write my own managed bootstrap application. I had a bug where I was kicking off the Plan() phase before the Detect() phase finished.
Hence the old bundle was not uninstalling as it should have.
It is good practice to implement a handler for every event that the Bootstrapper offers. Write a log entry in every handler listing out the arguments supplied to the handler. It makes chasing down errors a lot easier.
In my case I was migrating from InstallShield 2009 to WiX 3.10 and I had to write my own managed bootstrapper because I had to conditionally install SQL Server express based on user inputs from a fancy WPF boostrapper.
In the wix major upgrade, I have a set of features and the end user has the option to install either typical, custom or complete features.
In case of wix patch release, is it possible to give the user the same option of typical, custom or complete installation type.
Else during the deployment can wix patch detect which features to be deployed based on the installation done in a system. i.e if a system is installed with typical installation then the wix patch update only those components that belong to typical installation. and if a system has a custom installation with only feature X then the patch update should update only those components that belong to feature X.
Thanks for help in advance.
No, it is not possible to let the user select the features again. That would be a MajorUpgrade with the msidbUpgradeAttributesMigrateFeatures attribute and showing the Custom Setup dialog.
In a Minor Upgrade / Patch the original feature installation states are remembered. If you need something wierd like an EXE/DLL is installed but during the patch uninstalled, you'd need to look at the concept of "puncturing" components using the msidbComponentAttributesTransitive attribute.
I maintain two flavors of an application. Only one should be installed on each machine.
Let's say that I got application A installed on a machine. Now the user wants to install application B. The installer should replace A and install B.
Is it possible to tell the windows installer via WIX to silently replace another application?
You can actually do this via the same mechanism that supports a major upgrade. Give each MSI a unique UpgradeCode. Then add an Upgrade element that detects the other MSIs UpgradeCode. Then add an UpgradeVersion element that will detect the other MSIs version correctly (could be the version number). You can use the Property attribute from the UpgradeVersion element to display special UI or otherwise condition stuff in your MSI to say, "Hey, I detected the other application".
I would suggest using the WiX bootstrapper functionality called Burn. You can create a bootstrapper (setup.exe) containing the logic for what packages need installed/removed.