I have started to use WIX to deploy a WPF application. I have created the .wxs file with the desired interface features etc...
My questions is how to distribute the required .Net files that support my WPF executable? Not the .net framework or sql server express, but the dependencies needed to run my executable.
Should the process include building a msi with VS Installer, then including that msi into my WIX script and running that inside of my WIX msi?
Or, what is the correct process for distributing a WPF executable with WIX?
I don't think your question pertains to WiX or WPF at all. What you need to ensure is that you package up the necessary dependencies along with your installer, whatever they may be. Referencing your dependency files in your installer script should be sufficient.
Here's the process that I follow for any application.
1) Start with a clean VM that represents the least common denominator of a machine I want to target. Let's say WinXP SP2 32bit.
2) Deploy my application by hand and record all of the steps in a word document. Then try those steps on other OS's to make sure you didn't miss anything.
3) Take each of the steps in my document and implement them in WxS. Keep in mind that Windows Installer and Windows Installer XML is a declarative programming language not an imperative programming language. You don't tell it to xcopy files from dir a to dir b, you describe the directory structure and the installer takes care of it.
BTW, of the things you mentioned, your asking for help with what I consider the simple stuff and excluding the harder more complicated stuff.
As an alternative way, you might see also this post Embedding dlls in a compiled executable to embed all the dll needed (like the interop ones for example) using Costura.Fody. Using WIX there is no more need to add any dependent dll as components in the .wsx file.
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I've made a simple application using windows forms that uses SqlLocalDb 2012, I want to create an installation file using InstallShield that should check wether SqlLocalDb 2012 is installed or not, if not I want to silent-install it to the client machine.
I couldn't figure out the way to check and include the SqlLocalDb msi(es) to my installation project.
It's the first time I use InstallShield and I couldn't find any tutorial that would guide through the process. Any suggestions?
Thank you in advance.
The approach I would suggest depends on your project type, but the first approach below fits most cases pretty well.
For Basic MSI projects or InstallScript MSI projects, I would suggest creating and using an InstallShield prerequisite. (This assumes you have at least the Professional edition, or requires finding a .prq file that someone else has created.) Armed with the name InstallShield prerequisite, you should be able to find a tutorial on creating and using them.
If you are using an InstallScript project, you could implement the check and application launch manually, or if your version of InstallShield supports prerequisites in InstallScript projects, just use the same approach.
In later versions of InstallShield with Advanced UI projects or Suite/Advanced UI projects, you can import the previously created prerequisite (or possibly create an equivalent) as a dependency package.
In all cases you will need to know how to detect the package; for .msi packages this is typically pretty straightfoward, but it may depend on the vendor's servicing mechanisms whether you should look for a product code, an upgrade code, or some other artifact.
I'm developing a small WinForms program for home use - I have no intentions to releasing it anywhere.
Running it on my development machine, where I have Visual Studio and .NET and whatever else installed, works but deploying it on my PC, where I might not have all those frameworks, doesn't. I'm using some library written in C++ so I'm assuming I'm going to need some version of Visual C++ Redistributable, but I'm not sure which? And I'm not sure if that would be all. So, how can I determine an application's software prerequisites?
I used Dependency Walker and I got a message IEHIMS.DLL - Error opening file. The system cannot find the file specified (2), but that's all I could make out; there is so much information I'm having trouble make sense of it all. Besides, according to a quick google, IESHIMS.DLL has something to do with Internet Explorer, so it shouldn't really matter.
Thanks in advance to anyone taking to the time to consider my question.
Kind regards
For framework you can set the prerequisites for your application by going to project properties -> Publish -> Prerequisites. So now, if the required framework is not installed on the deployment machine, the setup will prompt for an install.
Now, for other dlls you are using, copy those dlls to your bin folder of the project and add the files while creating setup. This will solve the problem.
Does anyone know how to specifically include a winforms setup project to be included in the code_drop folder generated when running UppercuTs zip.bat? With the default settings my web applications and WCF services are included, as are the dll's for the solutions core, but not my winforms application/installer
I was just playing around with UppercuT last night, and I ran into the same question.
One tip I found for putting console apps and windows services into the code_drop is to use this Nuget package in your console/windows service projects:
http://nuget.org/packages/publishedapplications
See this for more info:
http://devlicio.us/blogs/rob_reynolds/archive/2011/03/22/published-applications-aka-publishedapplications.aspx
Using this will cause your console/windows service projects to be "published" similary to how a web app is published in the code_drop. However, this isn't what you're asking for, just wanted to point it out if its useful. This also doesn't work for installers.
If your installers are using the default Visual Studio setup projects (.vdproj projects), I haven't tried that, so I can't help there. I do know that MSBuild refuses to build those types of projects (not sure why...), so you might be better off using WiX or another installer technology. You can do an automated build on a vdproj if you run the build by calling devenv.exe directly from the command line, but you can't build those with MSBuild. I did try adding a WiX setup project to my sln, and UppercuT will build the Wix setup project and drop the .msi in the "build_output" folder, but it doesn't copy it over to the code_drop. My thought would be to add a custom post build step to just copy that file over from build_output to code_drop. I haven't had a chance to figure out the logic in the build scripts to see how it chooses which files to copy from build_output to code_drop. If I figure anything out, I'll update this answer.
I have a WPF C# desktop application that will need to be deployed as MSI (Windows Installer deployment, not ClickOnce deployment) in VS2010. My application will generate SQL CE database in run-time, manipulate Excel Workbook, and receive/transmit data from/to COM Port - so I don't know what is the appropriate way to deploy such an application.
I am looking at Windows Installer Deployment Tasks which doesn't help me to get started.
Could anyone show me some resources that give instructions on how to deploy an application as an MSI installer?
If you don't want ClickOnce, then you'll probably need to create your own MSI. In that case, you can use:
The built-in Setup project type in Visual Studio. It does a decent job but has limitations. Works very well if you don't have many dependencies or custom actions.
A commercial tool like InstallShield
WIX (Windows Installer XML)
I've tried both 1 and 3. While WIX has a little bit of a learning curve, it is a very rich way to do what you want to do. There is a fair bit of documentation available and some very nice "out of the box" wizard sequences to handle your standard install scenarios (licenses, feature selection, dependencies, etc). WIX does have some VS integration that works quite well.
You can find out more on WIX at http://wix.sourceforge.net/
Note:
The VS setup project can do custom actions, and install dependencies, but you have to use custom actions. If you want to parameterize the custom actions, then you'll need to find the not-so-intuitive instructions on that topic.
The other limitation of the VS setup project is that the setup project can only be compiled to an MSI by VS (devenv.exe). That means that the MSI cannot be compiled on a build server unless you install Visual Studio there too. This was a show stopper for me, so I switched to WIX and was very happy with the result.
For those like me who found this post after searching high and low for how to deploy an MSI these days, you now need an extension as the visual studio team removed the built in startup project functionality. You now need to download the Visual Studio Installer Projects extension.
See this user voice post for discussion of the removal, and here is a link to the extension.
Useful for people looking for a quick solution to generating an MSI through Visual Studio rather than getting deep into Wix (although if you need more advanced deployment options, definitely go that route).
Configure your WPF application to publish as a ClickOnce application. You can do that in the 'Publish' tab of the project properties.
If you use the 'Publish Wizard' (by clicking on the aptly named button on the properties page) you can specify (on the second page) that the user will install 'From a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM'. This option will produce a setup.exe file in the publish sub-folder of your project output directory. This setup.exe program when launched by your user will install the WPF application. You may choose to include an update functionality (but you don't have to).
The ClickOnce settings also allow you to include additional files (e.g., your SQL CE database file) and pre-requisites if necessary.
I was wondering if anyone has any advice for obfuscating a DSL?
Background - We have created a DSL which we will putting into the Visual Studio Gallery as a VSIX file.
We already use dotfuscator for our obfuscation on other projects but I would like to know if there are any best practices or issues when packaging a DSL for deployment as a VSIX
Disclaimer: I am a developer at PreEmptive Solutions, the makers of Dotfuscator.
As long as your DSL assemblies are managed code you can use Dotfuscator on them. The 4.6.1005 release of Dotfuscator Professional provides support for .NET 4.0 Beta 2 assemblies. As long as your support contract is current, PreEmptive will provide support in the event you run into any issues.
The only external process you will need to implement is one to update your VSIX file either manually or via a script that will replace the unobfuscated assemblies in the original VSIX with the obfuscated ones output by Dotfuscator. See http://blogs.msdn.com/quanto/archive/2009/05/26/what-is-a-vsix.aspx for details on the structure of a VSIX and how to work with them.
While the 4.6.1005 version of Dotfuscator has been significantly updated to accept and emit XAP files, ClickOnce manifests and directories we have not yet implemented the ability for Dotfuscator to natively process VSIX assemblies. I have put this enhancement on our request list :) .