[wix-users] Automating MSI building

Tue Feb 14 17:00:40 PST 2017

Christopher - I think that would be very helpful! Thank you in advance!

On Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 7:42 PM, Christopher Painter <chrpai at iswix.com>
wrote:

> I have some C#/DTF code you can use as a starting point if you like.  I
> once had a customer who  shipped an MSI and a transform tool to a value
> added reseller.  The VAR could use the transform tool to tweak and or
> "seal" certain properties and add or supersede files.   The VAR then
> distributed the MSI and tool to customer IT who could do the same before
> shipping the MSI off to customers.    This transform tool has a library
> that handles authoring the various tables, generating a new CAB and
> inserting it into _Sterams table.
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> on behalf of
> Brett Cunningham <brettcu at gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 8:37 PM
> To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [wix-users] Automating MSI building
>
> Thank you to everyone that replied!
>
> Christopher - I think your recommendation is closest.
>
> I think we are going forward with a "build" server that will handle the MSI
> compilation/automation on the per-customer basis in order to provide a
> signed MSI with a custom conf.ini.
>
> Thanks again to this community!
>
> On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 9:24 PM, Christopher Painter <chrpai at iswix.com>
> wrote:
>
> > It's not always that bad.   You can build a "seed" MSI and then have a
> > postbuild step to insert an additional file into it and then sign it if
> > desired.  One example was a .com company called signature mail.  The
> > customer signed and faxed a form that then generated an office addon that
> > included their signature.
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> on behalf of
> > Walter Dexter <wfdexter at gmail.com>
> > Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2017 6:07 PM
> > To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List
> > Subject: Re: [wix-users] Automating MSI building
> >
> > I'm not fully understanding tbh. But having a unique MSI autogenerated
> for
> > each customer sounds like trouble.
> >
> > > On Feb 11, 2017, at 5:44 PM, Brett Cunningham <brettcu at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > Thanks for the reply!
> > >
> > > Customers deploy their own server. This is one of the values that must
> be
> > > in the conf.ini file. Without knowing this value, the endpoint client
> > does
> > > not know what server to pull from.
> > >
> > > This is why we think that the customer's server could query an API and
> > pass
> > > along the right info.
> > >
> > > Does this make sense, or is there something else that makes more sense?
> > >
> > >> On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 5:52 PM, Walter Dexter <wfdexter at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Is there anything confidential in there?
> > >>
> > >> Are the files small enough you could include them all and pick at
> > install?
> > >>
> > >> Or put the config file in a cab that you deliver with the MSI, and
> have
> > a
> > >> single stock MSI?
> > >>
> > >> Or even pull the config down from a server at install?
> > >>
> > >>> On Feb 11, 2017, at 1:18 PM, Brett Cunningham <brettcu at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> Each customer needs a different conf.ini file and it's becoming
> > >>> unmanageable to keep it locally. We are looking to streamline the
> > >> building
> > >>> process.
> > >>>
> > >>> Our current thoughts: create an web app API that will take input for
> > >>> conf.ini, then call WiX tools (candle, light) and return the MSI
> > package.
> > >>> Our preference is to build web apps on Linux. We've tried to deploy
> > >> django
> > >>> apps on Windows before: it's a huge pain and unsupported.
> > >>>
> > >>> Has anyone built a WiX environment on Linux? Any other thoughts on
> how
> > to
> > >>> do this, architecturally?
> > >>>
> > >>> v/r,
> > >>>
> > >>> Brett
> > >>>
> > >>> ____________________________________________________________________
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> > firegiant.com/>
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> > ____________________________________________________________________
> > WiX Toolset Users Mailing List provided by FireGiant
> > http://www.firegiant.com/
> > WiX Support | WiX Experts and Resources from FireGiant<http://www.
> > firegiant.com/>
> > www.firegiant.com<http://www.firegiant.com>
> > WiX Support | Installation, Development, Deployment | WiX Experts and
> > Resources from FireGiant
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ____________________________________________________________________
> > WiX Toolset Users Mailing List provided by FireGiant
> > http://www.firegiant.com/
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> ____________________________________________________________________
> WiX Toolset Users Mailing List provided by FireGiant
> http://www.firegiant.com/
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
> WiX Toolset Users Mailing List provided by FireGiant
> http://www.firegiant.com/
>