installer shootout

Wise for Windows Installer 6

BY ROB HARROP

For a long while now I have been slightly obsessed by installer and deployment tools in all their formats. The reason, I think, that I like installer tools so much is that I hate deployment time. Without a tool to automate all the loathsome deployment steps, I would be spending much of my time inside a nice padded room. The reason for this fantastic boost in productivity is that Wise Solutions has really reduced all the grunt work. Many more tasks are automated in version 6 and it is now much easier to wander off the beaten track and add your own customizations to the installer. I think part of the reason this edition is so good, and what impressed me most, is that Wise has really listened to peoples requests. I remember that whilst I was doing the review of version 5 I asked the team about a couple of features and I am pleasantly surprised to say that all the features I asked for have been included obviously other people asked for these features as well. Studio.NET can now be found in Wise for Windows Installer 6. This makes it the ideal solution for development teams working across a variety of platforms. In my team we use Wise for Windows Installers Visual Studio integrated editor when building a.NET-based solution, as we can benefit from the tight integration between the two products. However, when we are building an application in C++ or Delphi then we use the stand-alone Wise editor. You also might find it useful if you dont have Visual Studio.NET on every development machine those developers without it can still benefit from the power of Wise for Windows Installer 6.
To my joy, when using Wises version 5 it was possible to build a quality installer in under an hour. In my eyes, this was an hour very well spent and was certainly justification for building an installer, rather than deploying manually. Now, with Wise for Windows Installer 6, it is possible to build the same quality of install in half or even a quarter of the time.
The problem in the past with some installer tools is that building an installation often took much longer than simply deploying the program by hand. Now of course for commercial, off-the-shelf applications this up-front effort is required, but for custom, enterprise applications the decision to use an installer tool is not so clear-cut. Often, the feeling with an enterprise application is that the amount of effort required to deploy manually is much less than that required to build the installer in most cases this is incorrect.
Integration with Microsoft Visual Studio.NET
The first obvious thing about version 6 is that you actually get two products that Wise previously sold separately, Wise for Windows Installer and Wise for Visual Studio.NET, in the same box. Wise for Windows Installer is Wises.MSI tool that operates stand-alone; Wise for Visual Studio.NET was very similar to Wise for Windows Installer except that it was integrated into the Microsoft Visual Studio.NET IDE. Now, all the functionality that was in Wise for Visual

SQL Server Support

Wise for Windows Installer has particularly nifty SQL Server integration. You can configure your installer to run arbitrary SQL Server code against a SQL Server in the target environment. You can substitute values in the SQL Server script with the values of Windows Installer properties, which you can set using custom dialogs. I find this useful for configuring default security within an application. I can prompt the user at install for the default security configuration and then inject this into the SQL Server code that creates the application database.

Wise for Windows Installer provides a great feature for replicating an entire database out of your installer. You simply point the tool at a database, choose which tables, procedures and views you want and it will generate the appropriate SQL Server script to re-create the database including all the data if you so choose. I find that the SQL Server features are best coupled with other features to get the best effect. Typically, I will create a SQL Server dialog to grab the connection string. I then use this connection string to install and configure the database, and insert the connection string into the application configuration file so that my application knows which database to connect to. All in all, that takes about three minutes doing it by hand would take much longer!

figure 1

Better IIS Configuration Handling
Perhaps the most improved area of Wise for Windows Installer is the support for Microsofts Internet Information Services (IIS) configuration. In the previous version you had limited control over the Virtual Directory into which your Web application was installed now you can control the full IIS target installation from within your installer. Configuring multiple Web applications with multiple Virtual Directories is done with a few clicks. However, the coolest feature is the ability to have Wise for Windows Installer generate the appropriate installer logic and dialogs so that the IIS settings can be configured at install time. This is especially useful, because IIS is very particular about the order in which things are configured, and the product takes care of all of this automatically.
If your application requires specific configuration settings for the.NET Framework, then you can have your installer configure these settings on the target machines automatically. This works in a particularly intuitive way by allowing you copy the code groups from your development machine to the target configuration. All I need to do when I want to include the security configuration in my installer is copy the exact configuration from my development environment.

Configuring.NET Security

As if that wasnt enough, you can generate an installation that is clever enough to use Virtual Directories instead of a website on systems that only support single Web sites such as Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional (figure 1). I find this useful because it allows the same installer to be used for deploying to development, test and production machines.
Support for.NET Configuration Files
A brand new feature in version 6 is the ability to manipulate the contents of a valid.NET web.config file. By navigating to the web.config file in the Files or Web Files view, you can choose to enable the file for dynamic content. By doing so you can then selectively assign dynamic expressions to the values of any tag or attribute within the web.config file. This is most useful when you couple it with a Windows Installer property and a Custom Information dialog. Say you want configure the mail server for your application and you have a property in the web.config file. You can create a Custom Information dialog that obtains the mail server address and stores it in the [SMTP_SERVER] property and then assign the value of that property to the appropriate section in the web.config file. This is my favorite addition in the new version and was one of the features I found most lacking in version 5. In the past, this could take anywhere up to an hour to get working correctly now it takes less than a minute.
Unique to Wise for Windows Installer Enterprise Edition is the Wise Software Repository. The Wise Software Repository is a shared, centralized repository for all the software within your enterprise. It not only stores information about applications that you build yourself, but also for commercial applications as well, providing a full view of all the software components in your company. Using it provides some unique benefits for the enterprise settings not available in using other tools. First, Wise Software Repository acts like an inventory of all the software in your corporation. Using the Software Manager you can query this inventory to ensure that your application is not using shared components that will clash with other applications deployed to your users. If you find that your application is using a different version of a shared resource than is already deployed into your environment, Wise for Windows Installer can replace the version in your application with the version in the Wise Software Repository. Using this functionality allows you to identify issues at design time rather than at deploy time, saving time, money and headaches.
Wise for Windows Installer in the Enterprise
Secondly, using the Software Manager, you can generate a vast array of reports about the resources contained in the Wise Software Repository. I find these reports to be really useful for giving developers an idea of just what shared resources are available so that they can make intelligent decisions when developing applications. This can help prevent the situation where different departments are using

I NSTALLE R SHOOTOUT

WISE FOR WI N DOWS I NSTALLE R 6
completely different components for the same purpose, and helps to increase standardization across the enterprise. For instance, if you want to standardize on a single component for manipulating images in your code, then you can add this to the repository to make it easy for all your developers to access. The third and final feature that I find particularly useful in Wise Software Repository, is the ability to gather packages together in logical groupings. This is useful in two scenarios. In the typical enterprise setting you can maintain different groupings for different departments or subsidiaries. This feature is also extremely useful in a situation like mine. My company caters to many different clients, with vastly different software configurations. Using the package grouping feature I can maintain a group for each client, giving me an accurate view of their environment without clashing with the configuration in other client environments.
When using the.EXE wrapper you can choose from a standard set of extras to include with your application, including the.NET Framework and the Windows Installer runtime. You can also embed any other executable and run it during the installation process (figure 2). This allows you to distribute applications and tools that either dont have a merge module or that you would rather install without the merge module. The main problem of distributing via merge module is that it becomes very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to patch the embedded application separately from the main application.

Task-Based Views

Of course you can still distribute tools using the merge module mechanism, and Wise for Windows Installer comes complete with a large selection of merge modules for common tools and components. Plus it provides the ability to download additional merge modules from the Web and have them stored in the Wise Software Repository for use at a later date.
A small but nonetheless very welcome addition is the introduction of task-based views in the Installation Expert. The problem in previous editions was that you didnt always require all the available options. In version 6 I can choose from a range of task-oriented configurations that only show me the features I am interested in. For instance, if I choose Server installation from the Views picklist, Im only shown the options related to creating server installations.

I really like the ability to distribute additional applications without the need to resort to merge modules. This makes it possible to distribute applications that dont have a merge module and link them into your installer as cohesive unit. One thing I hate about Windows Installer is creating custom dialogs. Often I will create a dialog for obtaining the SQL Server connection string, or to get some kind of configuration parameter that I insert into a configuration file. Thankfully version 6 has some excellent additions to the standard dialog templates. Wises philosophy with this release was to include more pre-built dialogs in order to relieve the burden on the developer of creating the dialogs from scratch. Wise has added 33% more dialogs than was in version 5. That means there are now 56 prebuilt dialogs in the product.

Dialog Mania!

Better than that, I can create my own configurations and get rid of most of options that I hardly ever use. Now my environment is much less cluttered and I can easily find the Installation Expert page I am looking for.
Distributing the.NET Framework and Other Applications
There are two main problems with the standard setup projects in Visual Studio.NET: you cant easily distribute the.NET Framework with your application, and the only way to distribute other packages is using Windows Installer merge modules. Wise for Windows Installer solves both problems by allowing you to create an.EXE wrapper around an MSI file. Windows Installer does not allow other executables to run from an MSI file; however, by using the.EXE wrapper you can get around this.
Another useful dialog is the Custom Property dialog which lets me quickly build a simple dialog that will prompt the user for a value and store that value in the Windows Installer property of my choosing (figure 3). I can even create a new property directly from the Dialogs Manager.
The SQL Server Connection dialog is an example of one of these new dialogs. It is very similar to the connection dialog used by SQL Server Query Analyzer and populates a Windows Installer property with the value of the connection string, which can then be used for all manner of installation magic as you will see.

figure 2

figure 3

Other Useful Features

For those of you who have never used Wise for Windows Installer before Ill give you a quick rundown on other features.

Summary

Wise for Windows Installer works by presenting you with a logical view of the target machine. Using this logical view you can add files to your installation package, choosing the location they are installed on the target machine; you can set up registry keys, environment variables,.INI files, shortcuts, file extension associations, the works all within in the simple graphical editor.

If you cant tell from the review, I am mightily impressed with Wise for Windows Installer version 6. I cant decide whether I am more impressed by the speed with which I can build an installer, the fact that Wise listened to what their customers wanted and delivered, or the fact they have delivered a tool that even a beginner could get to grips with in no more than three or four hours. The one downside is that it is packed with so many features that I really cant do it justice in such a short review
Nice touches to note include choosing to place a file in the Program Files directory, a logical entity representing the actual physical location of the Program Files directory on the target machine, which may be different for each target. There are several of these logical directories available including the Windows directory and the My Documents directory. You can easily configure all the information about your product, including product name, company name, etc. and it will be added into your installers dialog boxes. You have full control of how your application appears in the Add/Remove Programs dialog, or even if it appears at all.
Configuring all these things for your application is frighteningly simple, and if this is all you need to do for installing your program, you will probably spend no more than 10 minutes creating the installation.
This version has really pushed productivity to a new level, and now there is no excuse for not building an installer for your application. With the tight integration into Visual Studio.NET, building installers for.NET-based applications is a breeze and should be considered standard practice for any halfway complex enterprise application. The ability to get a solid, robust and above all repeatable deployment process wrapped neatly in a Windows.MSI file is worth any developers time!
All the features I have described so far will serve you well in building 95% of the installer applications you will ever need to build. The great thing about Wise for Windows Installer is that you dont have to stop there. It comes complete with a vast array of tools that you can use to build highly complex installation tools. For anyone building applications outside of the enterprise setting, the Features tool is a godsend. Using Features, you can build an installer that allows end-users to choose from Complete, Typical and Custom installation types. This way, if your application is modular you can let the end user decide which optional modules to install.

All of these features are driven by simple, graphical editors that even a novice could get to grips with in a couple of hours. The interface is fast and responsive, even inside Microsoft Visual Studio.NET.
rob harrop lead software architect cake solutions limited www.cakesolutions.net Rob is Lead Software Architect of UK-based development house, Cake Solutions Limited. At Cake, Rob leads a team of six developers working on enterprise solutions for a variety of clients including the Department of Trade and Industry, the Metropolitan Police and NUS Services Limited. Rob specializes in both.NET and J2EE-based development, with Rob having been involved with.NET since the alpha stages.
Using the MSI Script feature, you can write scripted actions to fire at certain points during the installation process. These actions can be linked to VBScript, JScript or even external files. Plus, there are also pre-built actions such as the ability to launch a Web page, post information to a HTTP server and download files from the Web. A cool use of the HTTP post capability is to couple it with a custom dialog, built using the graphical Dialog Editor, and build registration capabilities directly into your installer.
In his limited spare time, Rob enjoys playing about with different technologies, his current favorites being Groovy and AOP. Rob is a committer on the open source Spring project (www.springframework.org), a Java and.NET application framework built around the principle of Dependency Injection. When not sat in front of the computer Rob usually has his head buried in a book and prefers the fantasy parodies of Terry Pratchetts Discworld.
Rob is the author of Pro Jakarta Velocity (Apress, Not Yet Published) as well as co-author of Pro Jakarta Struts (Apress, 2004), Pro Visual Studio.NET (Apress, Not Yet Published) and Oracle 10g. (Apress, Not Yet Published).
On top of this you get the ability to access the underlying Windows Installer tables using a simple grid-style editor, allowing for power editing of your installer.

Predefined Templates and Page Views
Most predefined installation templates have an associated page view. When you create a new installation by using one of these templates, the page view that is associated with that template becomes the default page view of the installation. When you open the installation, this page view appears in the Page Views drop-down list. You can select a different page view from the list at any time (with the exception of the Merge Module page view, which can only be used with merge modules). When you select a different page view, it changes the pages displayed in Installation Expert but does not change the installation type. If you change the page view and save the installation, this new page view displays the next time you open the installation, unless you clear the Display the page view associated with a project when a project is opened checkbox in Wise Options.
Custom Templates and Page Views
When you create an installation template, a page view is created with the same name and is listed in the Page Views drop-down list. For details on creating custom templates, see Creating and Editing Installation Templates on page 55. However, when you use a template to create an installation, the default page view is the page view that was displayed when the template was created. If the templates default page view is a custom page view, you can customize it. See Customizing Page Views on page 23. (Enterprise Edition only.) You can share page views that are associated with an installation template because the page view is stored in the template, which is located in the share point directory.

Which Page View Appears?

The Display the page view associated with a project when a project is opened checkbox in Wise Options determines what page view appears. If you clear this checkbox, the page view in Installation Expert does not change when you open a project regardless of its associated page view. See Setting Installation Expert Options on page 47. The All page view is used when you open an installation file that does not have an associated page view. An.MSI does not have an associated page view. Also see Using Installation Expert on page 20.

Customizing Page Views

You can create customized Installation Expert page views that display only the page groups and pages that you use most often. You can customize the page view of custom installation templates or create customized page views that are not associated with a template. You cannot customize the predefined page views, but you can make a copy of a predefined page view and then customize it. When you customize a page view, you can specify how many page groups appear, what the group names are, and what pages appear under each group.

Setting.NET Assembly Options
Windows Installer 2.0 or later only.
You can specify whether you create standard Win32 or.NET installations, and customize how Wise for Windows Installer handles the.NET assemblies. Select Tools menu > Options and click the.NET Assemblies tab. (In Visual Studio: Tools menu > Options > Wise Options > Assemblies.) Note (Visual Studio integrated editor.) To display context-sentitive help, click the Wise Help link on this dialog. Note If the options on the.NET Assemblies tab are disabled, install the.NET Framework and run a manual repair of the Wise for Windows Installer.MSI from Add/Remove Programs. (Not applicable in the Visual Studio integrated editor.)

COM Interop Options

Default Application Type This determines the default setting for the Application Type field on the Product Details page for new installations. Changing this field does not affect existing installations. Win 32 (non.NET) Select this if you typically create standard Win32 installations without.NET assemblies.NET Application Select this if you typically create.NET installations with only.NET elements. Mixed (.NET and Win32) Select this if you typically create installations containing both Win32 and.NET elements. When this option is selected,.NET assemblies you add to an installation are registered so that they can be called as though they were COM components. For information on COM interoperability, search for Interoperating with Unmanaged Code in the MSDN Library (msdn.microsoft.com/library/). Rescan COM interop registry keys on compile Mark this to scan and update interop registry keys for.NET assemblies each time you compile. This checkbox is available only if the.NET Framework is installed on your computer.
Assembly Scanning Options
The scanning options are available only if the.NET Framework is installed on your computer. Scan Dependencies Specify how dependency assemblies are added to an installation. You can add them manually or have Wise for Windows Installer scan the assembly manifest for dependencies and add them automatically. Changing this option does not affect assemblies that have already been added to installations. Never scan dependencies If you select this, you must add dependency assemblies to installations manually on the Files, Web Files, or Visual Studio Solution page.

Files or Web Files Page

On the Files or Web Files page, you specify the directories and files to be installed on the destination computer. You also can specify operations to remove, copy, or move files on the destination computer during the installation. On the Web Files page, you also can add Web sites, virtual directories, and Web folders, and set their options. The Web Files page displays items to be installed to a Microsoft Internet Information Services Web server, while the Files page displays all items to be installed. For a summary of differences between the two pages, as well as links to Webrelated functionality, see About Web Installations on page 222. (Visual Studio integrated editor only.) If an installation is part of a Visual Studio.NET solution, all primary outputs (.EXEs and.DLLs) of the projects in the solution are added to the Files page when you create the installation. To add other outputs to the installation, select them on the Project Outputs page in the project settings. Files you add to the solution later can also be added automatically. (See Scanning the Solution for New Files on page 82.) Use the Files page to organize files into features and to add any files that are not added automatically. For an alternate view of the files in the solution, use the Visual Studio Solution Page (page 141). Also see When to Use the File-Related Installation Expert Pages on page 115.
Current Feature drop-down list. Directories available to your computer.
Files in the directory selected on the left.
Directories to be installed on the destination computer.
Files or operations to be installed on the destination computer.
The Windows directory represents the system directory of the destination computer. Structure you add to the Web Files page is installed under the Web server root.
Working With the Files or Web Files Page
If the installation has multiple features, specify the feature you are configuring by selecting it from the Current Feature drop-down list. Use the right-click menu to expand or collapse folders, to hide or show empty folders, and to rename folders. Drag and drop folders and files to the page and from Windows Explorer, or use the following buttons: Add Contents Add an entire directory to the installation, filter the directory using wildcards, and link the directory so that the installations contents change dynamically as the directorys contents change. See Adding Contents of Directories to the Installation on page 122. Add File Add files to the installation. See Adding Files to an Installation on page 117. New Create directories to be installed on the destination computer. You also can create directories in Setup Editor; see Creating a Folder in Setup Editor on page 389. Delete (lower left) Remove a directory from the installation.

The file association appears. To edit it, double-click its name. To delete it, use the rightclick menu. In Setup Editor, a new branch of folders is created under the Advertising icon to show the application folder, the Extensions folder, and the ProgId folder.
To import a file association:
1. 2. Select Installation Expert > File Associations page. From Current Feature, select a feature or condition. (Because any item you add must be assigned to a specific feature, you cannot add an item when All Features is selected.) Click Add at the right of the File Associations page and select Import. The Import File Association dialog appears. 4. 5. 6. Click Browse to select the executable to use for the extension. You can only select executables that youve already added to the installation. From Extension, select the extension to use. This list shows all available extensions on your computer. Click OK.
All relevant information for the extension you select is imported into the Extension Details, Command Verbs, and MIME Types tabs. To edit those tabs, double-click the file association name. Also see Advertising Icon on page 388.
Determining Extension Settings
Use the Extension Details tab to determine file association settings. 1. 2. Click the Extension Details tab on the File Associations Details dialog. See Adding File Associations on page 156. Complete the dialog:
Executable File Specify the executable to use for the extension. You can only select an executable that is in the installation. Extension Enter an extension. Do not include the period. ProgID Enter or select the program ID for the executable. This list contains the ProgIDs defined in this installation and the ProgIDs detected for the executable you specified above. Description Enter the type of file. The end user sees this description on the Properties dialog for files of this type. Icon Click Change Icon and specify an icon. This icon will be displayed on files of this type on the destination computer. Note The Description and Icon fields are associated with the ProgID, not the extension. If no ProgID is specified, those fields are disabled. 3. Click OK.

Adding Command Verbs

Use the Command Verbs tab to determine which actions are available when the end user right-clicks a file with your file association in Windows Explorer. The actions appear in the end users right-click menu in the same order that you set here. 1. 2. Click the Command Verbs tab on the File Associations Details dialog. See Adding File Associations on page 156. Click Add to add a new action or double-click an action. The Verb Details dialog appears. 3. Complete the dialog: Verb Enter or select the action to be performed when the end user selects the corresponding command from the right-click menu. Command Enter the command as it should appear on the right-click menu. This entry is added to the text strings on the Languages page and can be localized. See Translating an Installation on page 258. Argument Enter command line options that will be passed to the executable file when the action is performed. The default (%1) is a Windows variable that holds the pathname of the file that was opened. 4. Click OK.

To create a clean build in source control:
1. (Wise editor only.) Select Tools menu > Options. On the Source Control tab, mark Enable source control and click OK. This checkbox appears only if a locally-installed SCCS is detected on your computer. 2. 3. 4. Select Installation Expert > Clean Build page. From Current Release, select a release. Mark Store clean build in source control. This is disabled if source control is not enabled in options. (In Visual Studio: this is disabled if an SCCS is not installed locally. Click Browse under the Store clean build in source control option and specify where in the SCCS to store the project. Dialogs from your SCCS lead you through this process. In the Wise editor: If you are using the Source Control menu for version control on the entire installation, select a different folder in source control to store the clean build. In Visual Studio: If you are already storing the installation project in source control, select a different folder in source control to store the clean build. This completes the setup portion of the clean build process. Complete the following steps when you are ready to copy the clean build to the clean build environment.
To make the final build, select File menu > Update Clean Build. (In Visual Studio: Project menu > Update Clean Build.) This is disabled if no clean build options are set for any release. The new or updated files are checked into your SCCS.
From your SCCS, copy or get the clean build folder to your clean build computer. From the clean build folder on the clean build computer, double-click the file Wisebuild.exe, which silently compiles the build.
The compiled files appear for each release whose Build checkbox is marked on the Releases page. Two log files are created; one shows compile actions and the other shows compile errors.
To create a clean build in a directory:
1. 2. 3. Select Installation Expert > Clean Build page. From Current Release, select a release. Mark Store clean build in directory. This lets you copy the clean build anywhere on the network, to a disk or zip drive, or to any other directory accessible to your computer. You can then copy it to a clean build computer. Click Browse under the Store clean build in directory option and specify the directory in which to store the clean build.

Editing Details for Mobile Device Files
1. Do one of the following to access the Files dialog: Step through the Pocket PC or Smartphone wizard.
See Creating a Pocket PC or Smartphone Installation on page 246. Double-click a Mobile Device entry on the Mobile Device page and click the Files tab. Select this page in the Mobile Device Package Editor tool. See About Mobile Device Package Editor on page 244. 2. Double-click a file you added to the installation. The File Details dialog appears. 3. Complete the dialog: Source Pathname This is the current path to the file on your hard drive. To replace this file, specify a new file. Destination File Name Enter the name for the file when it is installed onto the mobile device. File Copy Errors Specify how the installation should respond if a file error occurs during the installation of this file. Skip silently if error occurs Do not install this file and do not notify the end user if an error occurs. Warn if attempting to skip Warn the end user if an attempt is made to skip a file after an error occurs. Do not allow file to be skipped Do not allow the end user to skip copying a file. Increment Shared.DLL Count Mark this to increment the counter for this file (if it is a.DLL,.OCX, or.VBX) in the registry of the mobile device. The shared.DLL counter prevents the file from being uninstalled if any programs are still using it. Self-Register File Some files (examples:.OCXs and some.DLLs) support self-registration. Mark this to have the file register itself in the registry of the mobile device. Replace Existing File Specify how the installation should respond if the file being installed is already on the mobile device. Install Only if File Already Exists Mark this to install this file only if a file of the same name already exists in the installation directory of the mobile device. Note The options below are disabled if you opened an existing.CAB in Mobile Device Package Editor. You can only specify processor and platform support when you select File menu > New to start an installation. Note The options below are available for Pocket PC installations only.
Platform Supported Select the platform with which this file is compatible. If you select a specific platform, then this file is isolated into a.CAB file for that particular platform. If you select All, the file is installed to all of the platforms you selected for Platform Support. Processor Supported Select the processor with which this file is compatible. If you select a specific processor, then this file is isolated into a.CAB file for that particular processor. If you select All, the file is installed to all of the processors you selected for Platform Support. 4. Click OK.

11. Click Next on the Specify Upgrade Version dialog. 12. If you are prompted to run an administrative installation again, click Yes. If you are prompted to update the package code, click Yes. If Windows Installer 3.0 or later is installed on your computer, the Patch Sequencing dialog appears. Complete the dialog and click OK; see Specifying the Patch Sequence on page 309. Otherwise, the Compile Patch dialog appears. 13. Complete the Compile Patch dialog: Output.MSP file Specify a full pathname for the patch file that you distribute to end users. Advanced Settings Click Advanced to display the Advanced Patch Settings dialog. Complete the dialog and click OK. See Specifying Advanced Patch Settings on page 309. Patch Removal (Windows Installer 3.0 or later only.) To make this patch removable through Add/Remove Programs, click Allow Removal and complete the Patch Removal Settings dialog. See Specifying Patch Removal Settings on page 310. Note Multi-patch Media Settings: During patch creation, entries are made in the Media table of the patch installation. The following options populate the Media table. For each subsequent patch, the file sequence start number and the disk ID start number must be higher than the one in the previous.MSI or patch file. To enter these numbers accurately, you must have access to the most recent patch file distributed to end users. File Sequence Start, Disk ID Start The file sequence number indicates which files in the File table are located on a particular source disk. The disk ID number indicates how many media entries are in the Media table. For patches, these numbers must be at least 1 greater than the corresponding numbers in the most recent patch or.MSI for this application installation. To specify these numbers, browse to the most recent patch file created for this installation. Volume Label Enter the name of the CD or other media on which this patch will ship. If the application needs repair in the future, Windows Installer uses this label to tell the end user what media to insert to perform the repair. If the patch is not shipped on any media but is distributed over the Internet, this field is ignored. Disk Prompt Enter the prompt that the end user should see if this application needs to be repaired. Example: Insert the disk labeled Application 2.0. 14. Click Next to begin the patch creation process. During patch creation, you might see a message stating that the versions between the target image (previous version) and upgrade image (new version) do not match. This is normal; click Yes if this message appears. Note If the date and time of a file in the upgrade is earlier than the date and time of the matching file in the original installation, Patch Creation changes the date of the file in the upgrade file to be later than that of the original installation.

Setting Dependencies for a Merge Module
The Dependencies page lets you add, edit, and remove the dependencies for a merge module. A dependency is a merge module that is required for the current merge module to work. Dependencies can have their own dependencies, which means that the module you designate as a dependency could itself have a dependency on another module, and so on. Use dependencies to compartmentalize different components of software. When you compile an installation that contains a merge module that has a dependency, both the original merge module and all its dependencies are merged into the installation. Example: Suppose you have a merge module that consists of a library of database drivers, but for those drivers to work, MDAC must also be installed. You designate the MDAC merge module as a dependency to the database driver module. Then, whenever you add the database driver module to an installation, Wise for Windows Installer attempts to add the dependency merge module, MDAC. Wise for Windows Installer looks for dependency merge modules in the default merge module directory specified in Wise Options, and also looks at the list of previously added merge modules. If Wise for Windows Installer does not find the dependent module in either of these places, it prompts you to add the dependency merge module yourself.
To add a dependency to a merge module:
1. Select Installation Expert > Dependencies page. If there is no Dependencies page, you are not in a merge module file. 2. Click Add at the right of the Dependencies page and specify one or more merge modules. If you select one merge module, the Dependency Module Details dialog appears. If you select multiple merge modules, theyre listed on the Dependencies page. Double-click a module name to open the Dependency Module Details dialog for a specific merge module. Fields are populated with information extracted from the merge module. 3. Complete the dialog:
Module ID To specify a different merge module, click Browse. Language ID To specify a different language for the dependent merge module, change Language ID. (Example: Do this if the merge module youve selected includes a complete language group but you want your merge module to be dependent on only one language in this group.) To ignore any language considerations, enter 0. Version To ignore any version considerations for the merge module upon which the new merge module will be dependent, leave Version blank. 4. Click OK. The merge module is added to the Dependencies page. Note The information on the Dependency Module Details dialog fills the ModuleDependency table, which you can see in Setup Editor > Tables tab. See ModuleDependency Table in the Windows Installer SDK Help.

installation author can specify values for the substitution item based on the configuration item settings. See Adding a Merge Module to an Installation on page 345. Configurable merge modules are supported only by Windows Installer 2.0 or later. For information on creating a standard merge module, see Creating a Merge Module As a New Installation on page 334. (In Visual Studio: also see Creating a Merge Module Within a Solution on page 336.)
To add a configuration item to a merge module:
1. Select Installation Expert > Substitutions page. If there is no Substitutions page, you are not in a merge module file. 2. Click Add at the right of the page. The Module Substitution dialog appears. 3. 4. 5. From Table, select the table that contains the item to be configured when the merge module is added to an installation. In the table, click a table cell to select the substitution item. Click Add and select from the button menu: Configurable Item Select to add a configuration item to the selected substitution item. See Setting Configuration Item Details on page 339. Constant Select to add a constant value in combination with configurable items. Example: After adding a configuration item, select this option to add a pipe character (|) before adding another configuration item. 6. Click OK. The value you defined for the configurable item appears in the Value field, and the item appears in the Configuration Items list box. 7. To add more values for the item, repeat the preceding 2 steps. If you add multiple values, multiple rows appear in the list box and the values are concatenated to create the entire substitution value. See Example: Configuring an Item for a Merge Module on page 343. 8. Click OK. The new configuration item is listed on the Substitutions page. Also see: Specifying Drop-Down List Values for Substitution on page 341 Specifying a Bitfield for Substitution on page 342 Specifying a Key for Substitution on page 343
Setting Configuration Item Details
1. Access the Configuration Item Details dialog from the Module Substitution dialog. See Creating a Configurable Merge Module on page 338.
Complete the dialog: Name Enter a name to represent the item in the Configuration Items list box on the Module Substitution dialog. Display Name Enter the name that should appear on the Merge Module Configuration dialog when the merge module is added to an installation. Description Describe what can be modified. Type Select the type of configurable data that is appropriate for the item you allow to be substituted. Arbitrary Text The installation author can enter any text to replace the default value. Example: Use this when you allow a file name to be modified. See Example: Configuring an Item for a Merge Module on page 343. Formatted Text The installation author can enter any text in Windows Installer formatted text format to replace the default value. Example: Use this when you allow a registry value to be modified. RTF Text The installation author can enter any text in rich text format to replace the default value. Example: Use this when you allow a different license agreement to be selected. Text Drop-down List The installation author can select from a drop-down list to replace the default value. This list displays only the name you gave the value, not the actual value. This is useful when the values are not self-explanatory. (Example: Use this option to make a property configurable. Possible choices for the installation author could be to let all end users or only selected end users install this particular file.) For information on completing the additional fields that display when this option is selected, see Specifying Drop-Down List Values for Substitution on page 341. Windows Installer Identifier The installation author can enter text in the format of a Windows Installer identifier to replace the default value. This text can contain ASCII characters, digits, underscores, or periods, and must begin with either a letter or an underscore. Example: Use this to allow a key to be changed or entered into any table. For information on the format types like the ones listed above, see Text Format Types in the Windows Installer SDK Help. Bitfield (Drop-down List) The installation author can select from a drop-down list to replace the default value. This list displays only the name you gave the value, not the actual value. This is useful when you provide values that are not selfexplanatory. Use the bitfield type only on columns that are bit flags. (Example: In the Files table, the Attribute column contains bit flags representing the file attributes. Therefore, you can use the bitfield type to make a files attributes configurable. Possible choices for the installation

All application/library files are 32-bit Ensures that no 16-bit components are included in the package. Changes to Win.ini or System.ini Checks to see if changes are being made to these files. Components shared with non-Windows installer applications Checks that no components of the package are shared with other applications that do not use Windows Installer. Files installed to Program Files by default Checks that all application files are installed to a subdirectory of Program Files. Terminal Server Compatibility (Enterprise edition only.) Checks for errors that might cause problems when the package is installed in a Microsoft Terminal Services or Citrix environment. With terminal service applications, installation resources must reside in per-machine locations rather than per-user locations. Errors result from this test if the installation is set to install per-user, if any keypaths reside in user-specific locations, or if environment variables are present in the installation. If environment variables are present, using the Correct button duplicates the variables, creating a per-user set and a per-machine set, one of which is installed depending on the value of ALLUSERS. Correcting some errors might cause keypaths to be empty, and might cause a one-time repair. You can set a release to be compatible with Terminal Services. See the description of the Release Type field in Creating a New Release on page 179. Also see ALLUSERS Property in the Windows Installer SDK Help. Also see: Validating a Package on page 370 Customizing Validation Modules on page 371

Wise Task Manager

Enterprise Edition of Wise Editor only.
Wise Task Manager manages the following operations: Importing packages into the Software Manager database. Adding, removing, or replacing merge modules that are part of.MSI or.WSI packages in the Software Manager database. Compiling.MSI or.WSI packages in Software Manager. Each of these managed operations consists of one or more tasks. Because Wise Task Manager manages these operations, the user who runs them can proceed with other tasks in Wise Package Studio while these operations are processed. When a user runs one of the managed operations listed above, Wise Task Manager queues them and executes them in the order in which they are received. An operation is performed after any other operations that are in the queue for that computer. Use Wise Task Manager to: Cancel the tasks of managed operations. You can cancel only the tasks of operations that you run. View a tasks log file to resolve problems if the task fails.
View information about a task, including: Its status. What computer ran the task. How many tasks, if any, are ahead of it and waiting to be executed. Other task details. Also see Using Wise Task Manager on page 380.

End Statement

The End Statement action marks the end of an If action, which specifies conditions to attach to an action or a set of actions. The End Statement action takes no parameters, and double-clicking it in the Actions list immediately inserts it into the script above the selected script line. Also see If Statement on page 504.
Execute Program From Destination
This custom action calls an.EXE file that already resides on the destination computer. Use it to call.EXE files that are common to all Windows computers, such as notepad.exe. A tutorial demonstrates this custom action in the Wise for Windows Installer Getting Started Guide.
Double-click the custom action and complete the Details tab: Custom Action Name Enter a unique name that begins with a letter or underscore. It can contain numbers and periods. It must not match the name of any Windows Installer standard action. See Standard Actions Reference in the Windows Installer SDK Help. Working Directory Using a non-bracketed Windows Installer directory property (Example: INSTALLDIR), specify the working directory of the.EXE file to call. When the.EXE file is run on the destination computer, its current working directory is set to the directory you specify here. This must be set to a directory that can be specified with a Windows Installer directory property, which are listed when you click Browse. EXE and Command Line Using a bracketed Windows Installer directory property to specify location, enter the full path to the.EXE file that exists on the destination computer. Example: [INSTALLDIR]TextEditor\MyEditor.EXE. If the.EXE file is registered or is in the PATH environment variable, you might not need to type the entire path. Example: To specify Notepad, just type NOTEPAD.EXE, because it is in the PATH variable. (Optional) To pass command line options to the.EXE file, enter them after the name of the.EXE file. The command line options are executed in relation to the working directory. Example: If you type INSTALLDIR in Working Directory, and type NOTEPAD.EXE README.TXT in this field, the README.TXT file that is in INSTALLDIR is opened. Also see: Guidelines for Custom Action Location on page 478 Using the Custom Action Properties Tab on page 517 Using the Custom Action Location Tab on page 515 Custom Action Type 34 in the Windows Installer SDK Help

This custom action runs a WiseScript.EXE that is installed by this installation. WiseScript editing tools are discussed in WiseScript Editing Tools on page 473. Also see Examples of WiseScripts You Run From an.MSI on page 474. If you use both WiseScript and Windows Installer technology, you can integrate them with this custom action. Use this to leverage past WiseScripts or to gain access to unique WiseScript technology.
In the WiseScript, use special script actionsGet Windows Installer Property, Set Windows Installer Property, and Evaluate Windows Installer Conditionto communicate between the Windows Installer installation and the WiseScript. For details, see documentation for your WiseScript editing tool. Access your WiseScript editing tool by selecting Tools menu > WiseScript. (In Visual Studio: Project menu > WiseScript.) If the WiseScript being called uses a Set Windows Installer Property action, place this custom action in the User Interface or Execute Immediate sequence. Before you add this custom action, add the file to be called to the Files page in Installation Expert. Shaded areas of MSI Script indicate restricted placement for this custom action; because this custom action calls an installed file, it must run after files are installed.
Double-click the custom action and complete the Details tab: Custom Action Name Enter a unique name that begins with a letter or underscore. It can contain numbers and periods. It must not match the name of any Windows Installer standard action. See Standard Actions Reference in the Windows Installer SDK Help. WiseScript.EXE File Specify an executable file contained in this installation that was compiled in a WiseScript Editing tool. Optionally, you can use the Options button below. Options button Browse for WiseScript Select a WiseScript.EXE file on your hard drive or network and places its path in the WiseScript.EXE File field. Create New WiseScript Open a new WiseScript in a WiseScript editing tool.
Edit Existing WiseScript If youve specified a WiseScript.EXE in the WiseScript.EXE File field, and that.EXE has a corresponding.WSE file with the same name in the same folder as the.EXE, this option opens that.WSE file in a WiseScript editing tool. This option is disabled if the WiseScript.EXE File field is empty or if a corresponding.WSE file does not exist for the specified.EXE file. Command Line (Optional) Enter the command line options to send to the.EXE. Example: Enter /s to make the WiseScript run silently. The documentation for your WiseScript editing tool lists valid command line options. Also see: Calling WiseScripts with Custom Actions on page 473 Guidelines for Custom Action Location on page 478 Using the Custom Action Properties Tab on page 517 Using the Custom Action Location Tab on page 515

family, patch 304 features about 523 adding 103 advertisement options 107 assigning component 387 attributes 107 checking if installed 414, 414 Complete feature 100 conditions, about 108 conditions, adding 408 configuring 104, 105 defaults, setting 175 deleting 100 display to end user 106 editing 24 features tree 100 including in media 205 installation location 107 installation options 104 installation state 514 moving 100 number in parentheses 25 organizing files 101 registry value, adding 143 requiring 108 turning off 183 Features page about 99 features tree 100 Features tab about 385 adding feature 103 adding file 118 showing/hiding items 385 tree structure 385 file.NET settings 133 adding to installation 117 adding to source control 317 assembly settings 133 attributes, changing 129 checking in 317
checking out 318 comparing 85 conditions, adding 408 copying on destination computer 128 duplicate 131, 389 extension, adding 156, 388 extracting from.MSI 365, 367 general details 130 hidden 131 inside.MSI 202 installation location, setting 126 latest version, getting 318 location, changing 325, 326, 326 moving on destination computer 128 multiple files, adding 122, 142 name, changing 129 name, translating 266, 271 outside.MSI 202 path error 324 path, changing during compile 327 preventing overwriting 127 read-only 131 recompressing 95 removing from destination computer 127 removing from source control 319 searching for 169 self-registration 131, 133 setting permissions 132 short file name 185 shortcut, adding 153 shortcut, editing 154 source directories 367 system file, designating 131 type, setting 157 undoing check out 319 updating from hard drive 95, 125 using wildcard to add 122, 142 validating checksum 131 Win32 settings 133 file association actions 158 adding 156 command verb 158 extension settings 157 importing 157 MIME type 159 File Associations page 156 file location indexing 32 file name long 131 short 131 File page when to use 115 file resources, shared 136 Files page about 113
adding directory 122 adding file 117 automatic updating 125 icons 116 viewing directories 47 filter added files 54 filter directories with wildcards 122, 142 find error in installation database 402 Find table data 401 find text 471 folder See directory setting permissions 132 font, in dialog theme 432 FTP server, copying installation to 285 FTP, passive 285 function, macro showing 461
HKEY_USER_SELECTABLE 150 Home page 25 HTTP protocol 285 HTTP Server, posting data 508
install MSI from destination 504 from installation 505 from relative path 506 install/action state 412 installation adding SQL to 236 adding to source control 51, 315, 317 before you start 66 building 88 calling multiple 480, 504, 505, 506 compiling 88 compression 180 copying to disks 286 copying to FTP server 285 copying to network 284, 286 creating 69 creating as project 70 creating as stand-alone 72 creating from installed application 356 creation options 74 custom 106, 175 disconnected 88 displaying images during 448 execution of actions 463 integration with solution 70, 82 language, setting 384 localizing 258 media 201 mobile device 246 multiple instances 352 multiple releases 178 opening a copy 87, 96 opening from repository 84 password, setting 186 pausing 508 previous directory, finding 174 running 90 server application 451 silent custom actions 473 source control compare 320, 320 starting in test mode 89 starting without debugging 90 template, creating 55 terminating 515 testing 89 transform, applying 351 translating 258, 260 turning off dialogs 431, 434 uninstall, avoiding 300 uninstalling nested 481 validating 370 watching 356 Installation Expert about 20 getting help 21 page groups, about 21 page navigation 21 page views, customizing 23