I'm a long time Installshield user, but here at my new place of employment, they have a requirement which I've never faced before.
I need to build an internal application, one that installs a website and a database into IIS and SQL Server. Unfortunately, for me, they need to install a new one for each client. So currently there are about 15-25 sites/DB's currently on one server.
What is the best way to approach this situation? How do i get around all the package GUID's which uniquely identify my application(s)? Has anyone ever done something like this before?
Hi, you can make use of instance transforms try to create an exe with any language you are good with and then ask the client for user input.lets just say client id and have an exe to replace the content of batch file with the instance id depending on the user input and call the msi file from batch file that was modified. tha content of the batch file is like "msiexec /i package TRANSFORMS=Transform List" here replcae the tranform list with the tranform that is paired with the user selection
ProductCode changing Multiple Instance transforms is the way to go. InstallShield will handle generating and embedding them into the MSI for you and the Setup.exe experience will (generally) handle the servicing for you.
You'll need some custom actions to mutate the INSTALLDIR and other business rule details and you'll also want to make sure every component has a file as a KeyPath (such as IIS components) otherwise you get into scenarios where MSI says you have to create multiple components with unique GUIDS and mutually exclusive conditons. Yuck.
Seriously though. There is a learning curve but when you get it right it's a very slick experience.
Christopher, good to see you are still active here! Between you and Robert D. I don't know what i'd do.
So this trasnforms, if there a tutorial laying around which explains it better? I can write custom actions up the wazoo, pass things from the UI to exec sequences with a breeze but this damned transforms thing has me fuzzy.
