[wix-users] Auto Update

[Phill Hogland]

Look In the Wix schema at the Update element.  
"The absolute path or URL to check for an update bundle. Currently the engine provides this value in the IBootstrapperApplication::OnDetectUpdateBegin() and otherwise ignores the value. In the future the engine will be able to acquire an update bundle from the location and determine if it is newer than the current executing bundle. "

The part about " In the future the engine will be able to " may seem a little misleading as the WixBA project in the wix source code (which is used to install the Wix toolset) currently checks for a update bundle and prompts the user if they want to install the update.  This functionality is supported in the Burn engine, which is the bootstrapper (and much more) that you would use to chain multiple exe or MSI installers.  So it is not really a " component that can be included in its installers ", but I think it is what you are looking for.  And yes a bundle typically produces logs in the user's temp folder.  Most of my bundles (product releases) use this web-deployment approach and I am very pleased with the results.  Also look at MsiPackage/@DownloadUrl and Payload/@DownloadUrl

You can see this functionality in action by going to wixtoolset.org/releases/ and download one of the earlier wix 3.x releases to install on a test system (without selecting the 'Update").  Then run the setup again and the 'Update Available' button will indicate that there is an update that could be applied.  If you select it the new bundle will be downloaded and installed.

The WixBA project is a managed ba, but the Standard Bootstrapper Application that comes with the wixtoolset also supports this behavior.  When you create a managed BA you have more flexibility on modifying the behavior to suit your needs, and I found the source code for the WixBA project to be a helpful example, though not intended to be a tutorial.  The old wix archives at:
http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/
are useful resources to search for discussion on this subject, but post questions to this new wix users mailing list.

Phill

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Yehuda Newman
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 1:19 AM
To: wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org
Subject: [wix-users] Auto Update

I'm researching auto update tools for my team right now.

Heard about wix from stackoverflow.

Does wix toolset have an auto updater component that can be included in its installers?
I asked this question a couple of days ago but didn't get a reply. Perhaps I emailed it to the wrong address.

If there is such an auto updater, does it provide a log of what it is doing?



Yehuda Newman | Software Developer
MHCampus R&D Team | Digital Platforms Group McGraw-Hill Education | Israel office, 35 Efal st. Petach Tikva, Israel


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