3 replies to this topic

[telethis]

Hi,

I am hoping someone may have some insight into how a patch should be created for a msi that has embedded instance transforms. Allow me to provide some background...

First off, we are using the WISE API to automate our msi creation - we are not using the GUI. That being said it is a requirement for the deployment of our application that it is able to be installed multiple times on the same piece of hardware, for this we are using embedded instance transforms that alter the ProductCode, ProductName, the installation path, etc.

The process by which we create the transforms and the msi is:

1) Generate the "base" msi -> MyProgram.msi.
2) MyProgram.msi is copied off to MyProgram_baseline.msi.
3) Generate an "instance" msi -> MyProgram_Company1.msi.
4) MsiTran.exe is used to generate a transform, Company1.mst, between MyProgram_baseline.msi and MyProgram_Company1.msi.
5) Company1.mst is then embedded into MyProgram.msi using the windows installer API.

* The reason for step 2 above, at least in my thinking, is since I am generating the "instance" msi, the transform for that instance, and then embedding that transform into MyProgram.msi, all in 1 loop, I need to make sure I have a "clean" baseline msi to use when running MsiTran.exe (an msi that doesn't already have an instance transform embedded).

We would like to be able to provide a minor upgrade to the application using a patch (msp). When I generate this patch, I am going to do so using MsiMsp.exe which has a pcp file pointing it to the administrative install images of the "parent" msi (TargetImages in pcp) as well as the newly created, minor upgrade, msi that was derived from the parent (UpgradedImages in pcp).

Now to the question (sorry, I like to provide a lot details) - In the pcp file for generating the patch, in the TargetImages table, do I need to provide it a path to the administrative install image of the msi that contains all the embedded instance transforms, or the one I copied off in step 2 above that doesn't contain any embedded instance transforms?

Thanks in advance for any input to my question.

Regards,
Ryan

[telethis]

Sorry to post it twice, but I got an error the first time about "could not send mail"?

[telethis]

Anyone have any ideas, or need more information? I see a lot of views, but no replies...

Thanks,
Ryan

[Stefan Krueger]

I haven't really used instance transforms, but I think it doesn't matter. The patch is working with the msi database. Embedded transforms live in another stream in the .msi file, so they shouldn't affect the msi database.

Note that renaming the msi file could be a problem, I would try to avoid it. You could copy it to a different folder but keep the file name. In small and minor updates it is not allowed to change the msi file name.