coapp-developers team mailing list archive

[Rob Mensching <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Uhh, no. By written generally I meant "being data driven to handle
install/uninstall/repair/upgrade/patching/rollback in a reusable way."

Also, if you look at the code in the WiX toolset you'll find that none of
the WiX toolset custom actions are written using DTF. I personally don't
care for managed custom actions because I think install packages should have
as few dependencies as possible. Again, if you look at the WiX toolset's
custom action code, you'll find it is basically just C code compiled with
the C++ compiler because I like // comments. <smile/>

I've also never seen the Windows Installer team interested in contributing
custom actions to the WiX toolset. Unfortunate, but true.


On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 1:21 AM, Ferdi <foerdi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> ... "written generally" means your DTF aka .NET dependency?
>
> some other thread in the mailing list people discuss about coding c
> instead of messing with large c++ dependencies, so I guess nobody here
> really want to see managed custom actions in CoApp MSIs
>
> despite, I still love the idea of getting more standard (/standard
> custom) actions... perhaps involve the WI dev team and convince them
> to integrate it upstream (LAUGHOUTLOUD=1)
>
> there are a few open source msiexecs... let's see
>
> 2010/5/20 Rob Mensching <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> > Agreed.
> >
> > I've also mentioned to Garrett a couple times that it would be *awesome*
> if
> > all (most?) custom actions were written generally and contributed to the
> WiX
> > toolset so that others can take advantage of the addition even if they
> > aren't related to CoApp. For example, creating/deleting soft links are
> not
> > supported by the Windows Installer nor WiX extension today but it would
> be
> > very cool if it did. Hey, do you think CoApp will need soft link support
> > during install?
> >
> > I can dream, I suppose. <smile/>
> >
> > On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 7:39 AM, Olaf van der Spek <olafvdspek@xxxxxxxxx
> >
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 4:36 PM, Rob Mensching <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> wrote:
> >> > Note that the game explorer
> >> > install/uninstall/repair/upgrade/patch/rollback
> >> > in the WiX toolset is actually implemented by a Custom Action. We call
> >> > it
> >> > one of the "WiX Standard Custom Actions".
> >> > It's hard to write Custom Actions correctly and people often use them
> >> > improperly which leads to Garrett's comment.
> >>
> >> I think Garett wants to avoid packages creating their own Custom
> Actions.
> >> Our tools could generate the custom actions with the packages asking for
> >> them.
> >>
> >> Olaf
>