[wix-users] Need help to get started

[Martin]

Dark IMO is not the way to go in your case. You have to invest the time
again to understand Wix, all the conditions you mention can be met but you
will need to craft it your solution, there is no quick way, it will take a
few weeks to get from nothing to something close. Take a deep breath, do
the tutorials on FireGiant, dont move to the next subject matter until you
understand. Or fork out the cash. Personally is learn Wix.

Martin





On 2 March 2016 at 19:15, Jon Earle <earlej at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hey folks!
> I have a scenario I'm pondering.  We need to create a new build server,
> installing VS2015 and the latest wdk for building a hardware device
> driver.  The outdated build server cannot host vs2015, already tried that.
> The primary issue is that it also contains our installation of
> installshield 2009, and we have no copy of the installer.  So, I thought I
> would investigate converting to wix rather than shelling out $5kUSD for the
> new version.
> Noone touches the installer except for maybe once or twice a year - things
> don't change that much.  Once the script is working, it is rarely ever
> looked at again, so you can imagine, there are few folks who a) understand
> the windows installer at all and b) there is no appetite to spend any time
> on it, at any level.
> So, if I can convert the current project to wix, quickly, and be done with
> it, it will fly.  If not, then we'll spend the $5k and be done with it that
> way too.
> I know, sounds like a cop-out, but that is the reality of my situation.  :(
> So, what I've googled up is this... convert the current msi using dark.exe
> and then rearrange things.
> I should add that I'm using release 3.11.0.226.
> I did the first part of that... ran dark.exe myclient.msi -x -o
> myclient.wxs and got a massive xml file, full of stuff.  I also received
> directories with things in them... .\Binaries named
> NewBinary1...NewBinaryX, a collection of DLLs I can only assume come from
> installshield (difxapp.dll, issetup.dll and many others), .\File with a
> collection of files name with a leading _ and a random collection of
> letters and numbers and .\Icon with a file name ARPPRODUCTICON.exe.
> What do I do with all of this?  It's overwhelming and seemingly broken to
> the point where, I don't know if I should just toss it and start from
> scratch, or sort it out (though... how? Nothing in the xml file makes any
> sense to me).
> The end goal, is to have an installer present a list of products (tree
> form) with sub-items to be installed or not (drivers, java sdk, c_++ sdk,
> samples).  Each product might have a different assortment of things
> associated with it - for example, installing the component to connect to a
> hardware device containing our product using a network connection, would
> not install a hardware driver, whereas the component installed to connect
> to a local (pci-based) hardware product would install the required pci
> drivers.  The component to connect to another product would install the usb
> drivers for that product and so on.  Some components might also install
> additional software to be run as a windows service.  Installation would
> generate ini files, create empty db files (essentially, the equivalent of
> 'touch mynew.db') and do other things as required (those actions are
> currently implemented via insstallscript actions and set to occur at
> certain times during the installation.
> The uninstallation would stop any running services, remove the driver
> files (again, sometimes using installscript to do so).
> Doesn't seem trivial to me, maybe it does to some. I've used wix in the
> past to create simple installers (though I still found it really hard to
> learn to use and ended up mangling a wxs file I found so that it ended up
> doing what I needed).  I am simply overwhelmed and am at a loss as to what
> to do from here.  Please help!
> Many TIA!Jon
>
>
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