[wix-devs] Scheduling multiple CAs

Christopher Painter chrpai at iswix.com
Mon Jan 16 09:18:00 PST 2017


So does the COM automation API tell me which instances it would make sense for me to register my plugin with?   I'm guessing not?

Maybe the "default" instance would be a traditional installation and  only custom instances could be the new style variants.   At least this way existing extensions would work with the default style and give us time to sort it all out.  (Kind of like how Office recommends 32bit and warns  addons might not work in 64bit)    


-----Original Message-----
From: wix-devs [mailto:wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Heath Stewart
Sent: Monday, January 16, 2017 11:09 AM
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-devs] Scheduling multiple CAs

That was the plan originally, but since different instances of VS could have different file/project support a default in the end didn't make sense.

- Heath via Nine<http://www.9folders.com/> on Android ________________________________
From: Christopher Painter <chrpai at iswix.com>
Sent: Jan 15, 2017 8:08 AM
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List
Subject: Re: [wix-devs] Scheduling multiple CAs

I would like to see VS have a concept of  "default instance"  just like MSSQL does and that everyones addins and installers can still interop with using backwards compatible techniques.   If a user wants to have custom instances they can  and  addins and installers can add support down the road if they would like to support this.


________________________________
From: wix-devs <wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> on behalf of Blair Murri <osito at live.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2017 2:07 AM
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List
Subject: Re: [wix-devs] Scheduling multiple CAs

Yes, the immediate CA can write into the script multiple invocations of the deferred CA (which does not need to appear in any particular sequence table) with different values for its "CustomActionData" each instance.



Sent from my Windows 10 phone



From: Heath Stewart<mailto:heaths at outlook.com>
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 9:53 PM
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List<mailto:wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: [wix-devs] Scheduling multiple CAs



I've been getting some requests for the ability for setup applications (e.g. BAs) to be able to give users the ability to select into which instances a VSIX is installed for VS2017 and newer. As I've explained to them, and MSI can't really prompt. Even if we sent a custom message, we'd have to plumb it all the way through Burn to BAs. It wouldn't be a general solution: of course, MSIs can't prompt in general because they need to run silently.

But I'm considering an option where a BA could query up front and pass in a delimited list of instance IDs via public property, and an immediate CA could schedule multiple CAs. As I've been out of the guts of MSI for a while, can someone confirm (or otherwise correct me):

If the immediate CA between InstallInitialize and InstallFinalize sets "CustomActionData" then calls MsiDoAction on an unscheduled deferred CA, then I could conceivably schedule multiple invocations of VSIXInstaller.exe with multiple instance IDs, right?

Now the flip side is how to deal with any CA scheduled (in support of Dev14 or older, or anyone wanting to install extension into all instances or selected instances per my current WIP). One option would be to keep the registry detection and have this new immediate CA handle all versions at install time, since really the overall idea is the same: locate VSIXInstaller.exe - using the COM APIs and calling back on registry detection (still in the MSI as it is today). In fact, this could solve a request I've seen before: the solution right now only installs and extension into the latest version of VS, correct? (Of course the VSIX manifest can still dictate a lower bound.) An install-time solution could solve that as well.

Feedback would be appreciated.

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