[wix-users] Dos and Don'ts of Patch

[John Zajac]

Regarding patch types:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa370579(v=vs.85).aspx

These are Windows Installer concepts at the root of it. WiX Toolset
provides the tooling for implementing these concepts. So if you didn't find
documentation by WiX that's why. There probably is in some form somewhere
though. InstallShield also has decent documentation and somewhat guidance
around your questions and it should be out on the web somewhere as well.

My two cents: I have taken patching to an extreme level in terms of
automation defining them (code generation) as well as compiling, building
and testing them. I did this because 'requirements' were pushed down from
the powers that be. I learned a lot. However I was eventually able to get
the right people in the same room and persuade that a well defined Major
Upgrade MSI for even small fixes/updates in our situation would be less
costly in time/money/loss-of-sanity, etc.

If your hands are tied and you have to or choose to do patching/MSPs, I
would look into what Purely WiX could do. I never did, wish I had.
http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/patching/wix_patching.html

Good luck on your decision. It's your foot!

btw, regarding "when I roll back or uninstall the patch some of the
properties don't seem to be getting rolled back to their previous values".
it sounds like you either need to implement that rollback and uninstall
yourself. I always preferred the remember property pattern
<http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2010/5/2/the-wix-toolsets-remember-property-pattern/>
.


On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 6:55 AM, Ven H via wix-users <
wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org> wrote:

> I have an MSI through which I am creating some App Pools and setting their
> properties, apart from deploying some files. I am also building a Patch in
> which I am updating some properties of the App Pools. When I install the
> patch, the properties of the app pools are getting updated with the patch,
> but when I roll back or uninstall the patch, some of the properties don't
> seem to be getting rolled back to their previous values, like IdleTimout,
> CpuUsage etc. Has anyone faced this? If so, were you able to find a
> solution?
>
> Also, what are the Dos and Don'ts in a Patch? Is patch only meant for
> making minor file changes or also minor changes like property values of app
> pools and so on. There doesn't seem to be good documentation on Patches.
> Also, I am trying to understand the Patch Classification. Most of the
> samples are of type Update. I have not seen other classification types like
> HotFix. I am not sure what is the essential difference between the various
> options. Again this also doesn't seem to be well documented. Please
> explain.
>
>
> Regards,
> Venkatesh
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
> WiX Toolset Users Mailing List provided by FireGiant
> http://www.firegiant.com/
>



-- 
-John