How can I customize an MSI in the Visual Studio setup/deployment project? (or) Launch product after setup finishes in MSI installers
How can I customize an MSI in the Visual Studio setup/deployment project?
Question:
I am using the Visual Studio setup/deployment project to create an MSI to install my application. I would like to add some functionality to this MSI that does not appear to be supported in the Visual Studio IDE (such as modifying the default install path based on a registry value on the system). I know how to do this by directly editing the MSI, but I don't want to have to manually edit the MSI each time I build. Are there any other options I can use in this scenario?
Answer:
There is a limited set of customizations you can make to an MSI in the Visual Studio IDE UI for a setup/deployment project. By limited, I mean that there are a lot of features that are natively supported in Windows Installer MSI format that are not exposed for customization in the Visual Studio IDE. Examples include changing the default install path based on a registry value, advanced setup UI features such as updated banner text or a "launch my product" checkbox on the final screen, creating custom actions that reference external executable files, or setting various custom action attributes (among other things).
If you would like to automate the ability to customize an MSI that is built by the Visual Studio setup/deployment project in a way that is not currently supported by the UI in the Visual Studio IDE, you can write a script that accesses the Windows Installer object model to perform these customizations. Then you can create a post-build step in your Visual Studio setup/deployment project to run your script after the MSI has been built so that the final result each time you build will be an MSI package with your additional customizations made to it.
As an example, you can use the sample script at this location to add a checkbox to your MSI's setup UI that will let the user choose whether or not to launch your product after setup finishes.
If you would like to include this script as a post-build step in a Visual Studio setup/deployment project, you can use the following steps:
- Download the sample script and extract the contents to the directory that contains the Visual Studio project you are working on
- Open the project in Visual Studio
- Press F4 to display the Properties window
- Click on the name of your setup/deployment project in the Solution Explorer
- Click on the PostBuildEvent item in the Properties window to cause a button labeled "..." to appear
- Click on the "..." button to display the Post-build Event Command Line dialog
- Add the following command line in the Post-build event command line text box:
cscript.exe "$(ProjectDir)EnableLaunchApplication.js" "$(BuiltOutputPath)" - Build your project in Visual Studio
You can find another example script that will update the MSI setup UI banner text in this MSDN forum post.
To get all the Scripts
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=27e6a35d1a492af7&id=27E6A35D1A492AF7%21498// EnableLaunchApplication.js <msi-file>
// Performs a post-build fixup of an msi to launch a specific file when the install has completed
// Configurable values
var checkboxChecked = true; // Is the checkbox on the finished dialog checked by default?
var checkboxText = "Launch [ProductName]"; // Text for the checkbox on the finished dialog
var filename = "WindowsApplication1.exe"; // The name of the executable to launch - change this to match the file you want to launch at the end of your setup
// Constant values from Windows Installer
var msiOpenDatabaseModeTransact = 1;
var msiViewModifyInsert = 1;
var msiViewModifyUpdate = 2;
var msiViewModifyAssign = 3;
var msiViewModifyReplace = 4;
var msiViewModifyDelete = 6;
if (WScript.Arguments.Length != 1)
{
WScript.StdErr.WriteLine(WScript.ScriptName + " file");
WScript.Quit(1);
}
var filespec = WScript.Arguments(0);
var installer = WScript.CreateObject("WindowsInstaller.Installer");
var database = installer.OpenDatabase(filespec, msiOpenDatabaseModeTransact);
var sql;
var view;
var record;
try
{
var fileId = FindFileIdentifier(database, filename);
if (!fileId)
throw "Unable to find '" + filename + "' in File table";
WScript.Echo("Updating the Control table...");
// Modify the Control_Next of BannerBmp control to point to the new CheckBox
sql = "SELECT `Dialog_`, `Control`, `Type`, `X`, `Y`, `Width`, `Height`, `Attributes`, `Property`, `Text`, `Control_Next`, `Help` FROM `Control` WHERE `Dialog_`='FinishedForm' AND `Control`='BannerBmp'";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
record.StringData(11) = "CheckboxLaunch";
view.Modify(msiViewModifyReplace, record);
view.Close();
// Insert the new CheckBox control
sql = "INSERT INTO `Control` (`Dialog_`, `Control`, `Type`, `X`, `Y`, `Width`, `Height`, `Attributes`, `Property`, `Text`, `Control_Next`, `Help`) VALUES ('FinishedForm', 'CheckboxLaunch', 'CheckBox', '9', '201', '343', '12', '3', 'LAUNCHAPP', '{\\VSI_MS_Sans_Serif13.0_0_0}" + checkboxText + "', 'CloseButton', '|')";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
view.Close();
WScript.Echo("Updating the ControlEvent table...");
// Modify the Order of the EndDialog event of the FinishedForm to 1
sql = "SELECT `Dialog_`, `Control_`, `Event`, `Argument`, `Condition`, `Ordering` FROM `ControlEvent` WHERE `Dialog_`='FinishedForm' AND `Event`='EndDialog'";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
record.IntegerData(6) = 1;
view.Modify(msiViewModifyReplace, record);
view.Close();
// Insert the Event to launch the application
sql = "INSERT INTO `ControlEvent` (`Dialog_`, `Control_`, `Event`, `Argument`, `Condition`, `Ordering`) VALUES ('FinishedForm', 'CloseButton', 'DoAction', 'VSDCA_Launch', 'LAUNCHAPP=1', '0')";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
view.Close();
WScript.Echo("Updating the CustomAction table...");
// Insert the custom action to launch the application when finished
sql = "INSERT INTO `CustomAction` (`Action`, `Type`, `Source`, `Target`) VALUES ('VSDCA_Launch', '210', '" + fileId + "', '')";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
view.Close();
if (checkboxChecked)
{
WScript.Echo("Updating the Property table...");
// Set the default value of the CheckBox
sql = "INSERT INTO `Property` (`Property`, `Value`) VALUES ('LAUNCHAPP', '1')";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
view.Close();
}
database.Commit();
}
catch(e)
{
WScript.StdErr.WriteLine(e);
WScript.Quit(1);
}
function FindFileIdentifier(database, fileName)
{
// First, try to find the exact file name
var sql = "SELECT `File` FROM `File` WHERE `FileName`='" + fileName + "'";
var view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
var record = view.Fetch();
if (record)
{
var value = record.StringData(1);
view.Close();
return value;
}
view.Close();
// The file may be in SFN|LFN format. Look for a filename in this case next
sql = "SELECT `File`, `FileName` FROM `File`";
view = database.OpenView(sql);
view.Execute();
record = view.Fetch();
while (record)
{
if (StringEndsWith(record.StringData(2), "|" + fileName))
{
var value = record.StringData(1);
view.Close();
return value;
}
record = view.Fetch();
}
view.Close();
}
function StringEndsWith(str, value)
{
if (str.length < value.length)
return false;
return (str.indexOf(value, str.length - value.length) != -1);
}
Launch product after setup finishes in MSI installers
Visual Studio 2008 includes a setup project that can build MSI installers for your products. The authoring interface is a bit clunky but it incorporates most of the features one would want in a robust installer. Furthermore, since it is a Windows MSI Installer, it provides enterprise level options like feature selection and rollback. All in all, its a powerful and useful package.
Many installers offer to launch the product after the installer finishes. I've always found this feature handy. MSI installers natively support this "Launch product after install finishes" feature. Unfortunately, the Visual Studio IDE UI does not expose this customization.
But not all is lost. With a bit of JavaScript and a custom build command, you can access the Windows Installer object model and perform this customization. Aaron Stebner's WebLog provides an excellent tutorial and script to enable the "Launch product after setup finishes" feature.
I added Aaron's script and custom build step to Desk Drive's installer. As you can see from the image below, it works quite nicely.
Don't forget to keep those translations coming for Desk Drive. I have English, German, Slovakian, Japanese and Finnish.
Many installers offer to launch the product after the installer finishes. I've always found this feature handy. MSI installers natively support this "Launch product after install finishes" feature. Unfortunately, the Visual Studio IDE UI does not expose this customization.
But not all is lost. With a bit of JavaScript and a custom build command, you can access the Windows Installer object model and perform this customization. Aaron Stebner's WebLog provides an excellent tutorial and script to enable the "Launch product after setup finishes" feature.
I added Aaron's script and custom build step to Desk Drive's installer. As you can see from the image below, it works quite nicely.
Don't forget to keep those translations coming for Desk Drive. I have English, German, Slovakian, Japanese and Finnish.
MSI Applications
MSI is a platform created by Microsoft. When I was in the process of releasing my own software, the common way in which software had been released was using an executable that provided a way of putting all the things in the right places and setting the right settings to the right things. Then came along MSI as the way to install software. It was new and different so I set forth along the path of creating installers for my own software. As I went along I created tools to help with releasing new software. I released these tools as Shareware.
MSICreate, MSIService and MSISelfExtract were all applications created to service a need. The need came about because there was no other way to easily create an installation program without either using the included Visual Studio tools or buying something like Installshield.
The applications, listed above, have not changed for nearly ten years. They are no longer actively supported and do not change. If you want to use them then that is good to hear. If you want extra features then my usual response is that no more features will be added.
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