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  • Book Overview & Buying WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML
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WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

By : Nicholas Matthew Ramirez
4.3 (36)
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WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

4.3 (36)
By: Nicholas Matthew Ramirez

Overview of this book

The cryptic science of Windows Installer can seem far off from the practical task of simply getting something installed. Luckily, we have WiX to simplify the matter. WiX is an XML markup, distributed with an open-source compiler and linker, used to produce a Windows Installer package. It is used by Microsoft and by countless other companies around the world to simplify deployments. "WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML" promises a friendly welcome into the world of Windows Installer. Starting off with a simple, practical example and continuing on with increasingly advanced scenarios, the reader will have a well-rounded education by book's end. With the help of this book, you'll understand your installer better, 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. Learn to build a sophisticated deployment solution targeting the Windows platform in no time with this hands-on practical guide. Here we speed you through the basics and zoom right into the advanced. You'll get comfortable with components, features, conditions and actions. By the end, you'll be boasting your latest deployment victories at the local pub. Once you've finished "WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML", you'll realize just how powerful and awesome an installer can really be.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
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WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
1
Index

Viewing the MSI database


I mentioned before that an MSI file is really a sort of relational database. WiX does all the work of creating tables, inserting rows, and matching up keys in this database. However, as we progress through the rest of the book, I encourage you to explore how it looks behind the scenes. For example, we discussed the File and Component elements. Sure enough, there are two tables called File and Component in the MSI package that contain the definitions you've set with your XML markup. To get inside the installer, you'll need a tool called Orca.

Orca.exe

Once you've compiled your project in Visual Studio, you'll have a working MSI package that can be installed by double-clicking on it. If you'd like to see the database inside, install the MSI viewer, Orca.exe. Orca is provided as part of the Windows SDK and despite the icon of a whale on the shortcut, it stands for One Really Cool App. You can find versions of the SDK at Microsoft's Windows Development Center website:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/bb980924.aspx

After you've installed the SDK (specifically, the .NET tools that are included), you can find the installer for Orca—Orca.msi—in the Microsoft SDKs folder in Program Files. On my machine, it can be found in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\Bin.

Install Orca and then right-click on your MSI file and select Edit with Orca, as shown in the following screenshot:

Orca lets you view the database structure of your installer. This can be a big help in troubleshooting problems or just to get a better idea about how different elements work together. The following is a screenshot of the Component database:

If you wanted to, you could edit your MSI package directly with Orca. This is helpful when learning or trying out different concepts. You'll need to know exactly which tables and rows to modify. Sometimes, though, you'll be able to just change a single value and check its effect.

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