Quick Help needed on MSI installer !!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Balaram Barange
  • Start date Start date
B

Balaram Barange

Hello All,

I am new to msi,Can any one suggest me which one is better to use
VS installer 1.1 or setup and deployment for VS 2003.
1. Is there any framework dependency?If I am using setup and deployment for
VS 2003 (I mean Do I require .net framework to install the MSI on target
machine?If I use Setup and deployment for VS 2003).
2. Currently I have created a MSI with VS installer 1.1 the basic problem
with this VS installer 1.1 is that I am not able to add custom actions now
after creating the MSI editing it using ORCA.exe.
added a custom action.

I am calling a function which gives me a file path now the dll returns the
path correctly (I am displaying the path in a message box that is displayed
correctly and is the last statement of my dll after this my installer gets
aborted now if I try to debug the dll using some test interface that works
fine and the installer also works fine with out this custom action (calling
a dll function from a dll).

The biggest problem is that I am not able to debug the MSI can any one
suggest me how to do that.

Thanks and Regards,
Bala
 
VS 2003 is better than VS 1.1, but VS 2005 has some improvements over VS
2003.

1. Setup projects build MSI files, and they don't care about the.NET
framework. MSI files were around before frameworks. If you install apps that
need the framework, that's a different story.

2. Use VS 2003 or any of these tools that have the features you need:
http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/authoring.htm
There seems to be some misunderstanding that VS Setup projects are the same
thing as Windows Installer, but they're not.

I'm guessing you have a custom action calling a C++ Dll function, but I
suspect that the function return value is an error value so your install
rolls back because your custom action return processing options doesn't have
the msidbCustomActionTypeContinue bit set.
 
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