using Advanced Installer for just the bootstrapper setup.exe

[franklopez]

Is it possible to define an Advanced Installer project where I build my .MSI file using WiX 3.0 using a VS 2008 msbuild project, and then programmatically use Advanced Installer for generating the bootstrap program?

* single self-extracting setup.exe
* checking for prerequisites and installing them
* multiple language support: selecting the right .msi file to use
* other non-MSI features

I like Advanced Installer's .MSI features, but I've got an existing WiX 3.0 project, and so it would be nice for them to co-exist.

Meaning, as part of a single VS 2008 build, I would use WiX 3.0 to generate the .MSI file and then have Advanced Installer grab that generated .MSI file to generate the setup.exe. Right now it looks like I have to manually import the WiX project and recreate the Advanced Installer project from scratch each time: is that necessary? Or, can I reload my current .MSI file from WiX 3.0.

[Cosmin]

Hi,

Is it possible to define an Advanced Installer project where I build my .MSI file using WiX 3.0 using a VS 2008 msbuild project, and then programmatically use Advanced Installer for generating the bootstrap program?

Currently this is not supported by Advanced Installer. However, I added on our TODO list and improvement which will offer support for it. Thank you for your suggestion.
Can you please give me more details about why you need to build the package with Wix instead of using Advanced Installer? Perhaps we can improve Advanced Installer based on your feedback.

Right now it looks like I have to manually import the WiX project and recreate the Advanced Installer project from scratch each time: is that necessary? Or, can I reload my current .MSI file from WiX 3.0.

The Wix Product import feature was designed to move your installation package from Wix to Advanced Installer, it doesn't support a dynamic link between a Wix project and an Advanced Installer project.

Regards,
Cosmin

[Kallex]

Hi!

I have bumped to similar need, coming from the requirement to get silent MSI installations for 3rd party MSI packages. The prerequisite and other stuff would be handy to do within the bootstrapper.

I believe InstallShield in fact supports (-r) option for recording the installation answers and then being able to provide the setup.ini as source for answers for silent installation. I'm not sure what is required to provide such functionality, but it would be excellent if you could provide something similar.


Br,

Kalle

[Cosmin]

Hi,

I have bumped to similar need, coming from the requirement to get silent MSI installations for 3rd party MSI packages. The prerequisite and other stuff would be handy to do within the bootstrapper.

I believe InstallShield in fact supports (-r) option for recording the installation answers and then being able to provide the setup.ini as source for answers for silent installation. I'm not sure what is required to provide such functionality, but it would be excellent if you could provide something similar.

I'm not sure I understand what you need to do with Advanced Installer. Can you please give me more details about this? This doesn't seem related to the feature requested by franklopez.

Regards,
Cosmin