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Chaining msi/setup.exe


5 replies to this topic

wellwisher

wellwisher
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Posted 05 November 2007 - 14:07

Problem:-

There is a legacy project which has a complex process of installation wherein the end user has

to go through the manual process of installing three components separately. . The legacy

project contains a mandatory msi and setup.exe and three distinct optional modules (msi and set.exe binaries). The end user installs the application through the mandatory msi/setup.exe

program. This is followed by invocation of a optional setup.exe/msi binary whose invocation depends on a particular platform.

Objective: The objective now is to automate the process so far as to have a single installer

(msi and exe). This installer should invoke the mandatory msi/exe, should determine the

platform and based on that it should invoke one of the mandatory msi/exe.
I have heard that this could be achieve by notions of chaining of msi and merge modules but could not strikingly pinpoint the exact technology/approach that could be leveraged for the

same. Any pointers/links to the same shall be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Stefan Krueger

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 06 November 2007 - 13:09

If you want to use an "umbrella" setup.exe that would invoke various other (msi based) setups, depending on the operating system version etc. then you would have to do the detection in your setup.exe. Or did I misunderstand your question?

wellwisher

wellwisher
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Posted 06 November 2007 - 14:11

Yes the umbrella setup.exe shall be calling the standalone setup.exe/msi. That looks like one of the approach even though such a approach has been criticized by folks. This approach if followed is going to be something on the lines of concurrent installation when a running parent msi shall invoke the child1 msi(mandatory) and further child msi child2 (conditional) (based on some conditions). It looks like it shall leverage some custom action calling msiexec with some command line parameters.

The other issue is that the overall installation shall be silent except for some dialogs. In view of the current ism I guess the UI dialog part shall be touched to introduce the new dialogs or edit the current ones.

Stefan Krueger

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 06 November 2007 - 14:16

Your umbrealla setup.exe should not be created as MSI setup. Either write an exe in a programming language of your choice (there are samples on the web), or create a InstallScript (without MSI) project for this purpose.

To run a msi setup silently:
msiexec.exe /i your.msi /q

or with progress bar:
msiexec.exe /i your.msi /qr


wellwisher

wellwisher
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Posted 06 November 2007 - 16:12

Does the matter at the below link add something useful.

http://msdn2.microso...y/Aa368010.aspx

Thanks

Stefan Krueger

Stefan Krueger

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Posted 06 November 2007 - 17:25

I know this page, which describes the problems with nested msi instalaltions. Therefore I recommended using an executable or a InstallScript projet as umbrella, not a MSI project.