Book Image

WiX: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

Book Image

WiX: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

Overview of this book

WiX is an open source project and a toolset that builds Windows installation packages from XML source code. WiX, which is used internally by Microsoft and by many companies around the World, simplifies many of the installation tasks that used to be shrouded in mystery. The tool set provides a command-line environment that you can integrate into your old-style build processes or you can use the newer technology from inside integrated development environments to build your setup packages. You'll find that you understand your installer better, can create it in less time, and save money in the process. No one really wants to devote a lifetime to understanding how to create a hassle-free installer for any software. This hands-on guide takes the mystery out of Windows Installer by showing how simple XML elements can be leveraged to create a sophisticated install package. By relying on Microsoft standards, you'll be able to use features like Property elements to customize your application's entry in Add/Remove Programs, the Shortcut element to create Start menu shortcuts, and other specialized elements for building upgrade and patch support and more. This book will show you the fundamental ingredients needed to build a professional-grade installer using Windows Installer XML. The initial chapters will introduce you to the set of required elements necessary to build a simple installer. We'll then explore those basic elements in more detail and see how best to use them in the real world.In the ensuing chapters, you'll move on to learn about adding conditions that alter what the user can install, then how to add actions to the install sequence and how to author a user interface. We'll move on to advanced topics such as editing data in the Windows Registry, installing a Windows service, and building your project from the command line. Finally, you'll learn to localize your package for different languages and detect older versions during upgrades. Each chapter uses to-the-point examples to illustrate the best way to use the language.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
WiX: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
Preface
4
Improving Control with Launch Conditions and Installed States
7
Using UI Controls

Controls


Placing a Control element inside a Dialog adds a new control to that window. You'll use its Type attribute to specify which kind of control it is: PushButton, Text, and so on. Beware that these names are case sensitive. "Pushbutton" isn't the same as "PushButton" and will give you an install time error.

Positioning and sizing are always the same: Use the X and Y attributes to place your control at a specific coordinate on the window and the Width and Height attributes to size it. You must also always give it an ID attribute that uniquely identifies it on that dialog. So, you can have two buttons with the same ID if they're on two different dialogs, but not if they're on the same dialog.

In the following sections, we will explore each type of control.

PushButton

A button is one of the most basic types of controls and the one you'll probably use the most. In WiX, it's created by setting the Control element's Type attribute to "PushButton". Use its Text attribute to set its label.

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