[wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

Tyler Gustafson tgustafson at solacom.com
Tue Feb 7 08:23:36 PST 2017


The term patch is a bit confusing here. What you're actually doing is a major upgrade since you're using MSIs with a product GUID which gets changed with every build (please correct me if I'm wrong). Supersede which John mentioned is a patch (.MSP) thing.

Your MSI 15.0.3 should be authored in such a way that "File1", "File2", and "File3" as well as every other file that 15.0.0 had are all included. When you make a new version of the product, you should build on the same wix code that you used to make the previous version, just add the pieces that aren't there. Windows installer is state based rather than script based so if 15.0.1 put down "File1" and 15.0.3 says "File1 should be on the system" it will verify that it's there in it's required state and that will be it. (This works a little different since you're actually doing major upgrades and it will depend on how you've authored your MajorUpgrade element. You're most likely completely uninstalling your previous version and then re-installing the new one).

The part that might be a sticking point for you is the database tables. Depending on how they're being added (likely script based) you probably need to run them in order and you're probably not detecting what's already on the system and only running the ones that are required. One option might be to write some custom logic into your installer so that it knows what version the database is at and which scripts need to be run. Another option you might want to look into would be a bootstrapper using burn. With that you can bundle your 3 MSIs into a single exe which is smart enough to determine if each install in turn already exists on the system and install it if not. You can set an order with burn so you can do things as if you were installing one MSI after another and it would probably be an easy way to get what you're after quickly but the downside is it's going to be as big as all three installers.

Maybe someone else on here can suggest other methods if I've missed something.

To sum it up I think that what you have is a large 15.0.0 MSI and three small 15.0.1, 15.0.2, and 15.0.3 MSIs containing database migration scripts and a file or two. What you should actually have right now is a 15.0.3 with ALL of the files from all the previous versions and an upgradecode which stays consistent across each version change so that windows installer understands how they relate. The quick and dirty fix is to continue on your current path but bundle your installers using burn bootstrapper.

Hope that helps,
Tyler

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of John Cooper
Sent: February-07-17 10:00 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

Yes.  If you author your patches as superseding, you can have each patch be a superset of it's predecessor.  This is my preferred method of authoring patches, but it has both advantages and disadvantages like any other.

--
John Merryweather Cooper
Senior Software Engineer -- Integration Development Group -- Enterprise Notification Service Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.® | Lenexa, KS  66214 | Office:  913-341-3434x431050 JoCooper at jackhenry.com




-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Venkatesan, Ravikumar
Sent: Tuesday, February 7, 2017 8:48 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

The e-mail below is from an external source.  Please do not open attachments or click links from an unknown or suspicious origin.

Well, actually that's not working out for me! Let me try to explain my scenario with an example.

Assume my application has a set of files & DB tables as part of the base version 15.0. Now, assume the below.

  1. Patch 15.0.1 adds "File1" and creates "Table1"
  2. Patch 15.0.2 adds "File2" and creates "Table2"
  3. Patch 15.0.3 adds "File3" and creates "Table3"

All these are released as separate MSI files. There's no connection between each of them, except they are all from the same code base but different builds. This works like, if I only run patch 15.0.2, I'll only have "File2" & "Table2". If I need to have all three, then I'll have to run all of them separately.

Now, what I actually want is to check if any mechanism exists such that I can combine/consolidate the patches. This should result in one installation which ensures that all the previous versions are installed, as well. Am I looking at something achievable in WiX? Any thoughts?!

Regards,
Ravi


-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Tyler Gustafson
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2017 6:01 PM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

Not a problem. Your MSI should be able to upgrade from any previous version so 15.0.0 straight to 15.0.3 should work without any extra work on your part. Try it out and let us know if you are seeing issues.

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Venkatesan, Ravikumar
Sent: February-07-17 1:50 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

Hi Tyler, Hari,

	Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, we've rolled out 15.0.1, 15.0.2 & 15.0.3 as MSI files hence the question.

	FYI, all the Custom Actions,  logics and files included are same for each versions except for the content. 

Regards,
Ravi


-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Tyler Gustafson
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2017 9:53 PM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

I should maybe clarify a bit.
If your "patches" are delivered as major upgrades in .msi files then you can ignore the rest of this response.

If you are actually creating .msp patches you'll be using torch.exe to create transform file(s) from previous installer(s) to the latest installer. You are then putting the transform file(s) into pyro.exe to create a patch. If you want that patch to be able to upgrade from any of the previous versions instead of just one, run torch.exe multiple times to create transforms from 15.0.0, 15.0.1, and 15.0.2 to 15.0.3, then you can use multiple -t arguments to the call to pyro.exe to give it the 3 transforms.

If instead you only do one transform 15.0.0 -> 15.0.3 and put that alone into pyro, your patch will only be able to go from 15.0.0->15.0.3 and you won't be able to use it to handle a scenario such as 15.0.1->15.0.3

Clear as mud right?
Tyler

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Harinatha Narisetty
Sent: February-06-17 10:26 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

Our current implementation is exactly the way you explained... works without any problems. We don't have to install all patches to upgrade from 15.0 to 15.3 unless each setup is writing/updating database or some store that you need later.

Thanks
Hari

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Tyler Gustafson
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2017 10:18 AM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

That's how patches work out of the box. You shouldn't have to install 15.0.1 or 15.0.2 if you want to go from 15.0.0 to 15.0.3 you should be able to just install 15.0.3. Have you tested this to see if it works? If not, what sort of error message or failure indication are you seeing?

Tyler

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf Of Venkatesan, Ravikumar
Sent: February-06-17 9:36 AM
To: 'wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org' <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: [wix-users] Consolidated Upgrade Version

Hi All,

                We have a product which is in "15.0" version.  I've a WiX Installer project for releasing my patches. We've successfully released the minor versions of the product using this WiX project as a MSI file, viz. "15.0.1", "15.0.2" & "15.0.3". All is well, so far. Also, the latest version of the patch is "15.0.3", which will be most likely the last version.

                Now, if a customer wants to have the latest 15.0.3, we've to upgrade them to 15.0.1 & then to 15.0.2 & then to 15.0.3. This is done by running each version of the installers, in this case 3 installers.

My question is, Is there a way to consolidate the patches so that I end up installing only the consolidated patch instead of 3 patch installers? I would also like to know if there is a consolidation concept in the WiX installer world.

I hope, I've tried my best to describe my requirement. Please let me know, if you want any clarification on the same.

Regards,
Ravi

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