We deliver our documentation in several languages. The fileset is huge (100,000 files), so we can not combine installs. What we do now is use the same install, but switch out the content, using dynamic file linking.
In our next version, we are moving to allow multiple languages on the same system. So the contents will have a language directory as part of the path. We want to continue to use one basic MSI project to support this.
The dynamic file linking has been modified to be based on path variables. So changing a path variable is all that is needed to do when switching languages.
The problem we are facing is with the component destination directory. Due to the number of files, we have divided the project into several components, 40 of these will be language dependent. What I really wanted to do was to specify the component directory with a property, and then change the property from EN_us to FR_fr, etc. But this doesn't seem to be supported. I don't want to have to make 40 edits when moving from one language build to another.
So far the best we have been able to do is to use the direct editor to make the 40 components share similar directory trees. The directory tree is rooted down to the language directory, and then branches out from there for each component. Then we can use the direct editor to modify the one language directory from EN_us to FR_fr and get the component destination directory to change for all 40 components. I would prefer not to do this with the direct editor. Is there any way to parameterize this using a path variable or a property?
You could do this with a custom action (Set a property) to set the destination folder. But the problem is that your component will use the same ComponentId even if the content (language) is different. If feasile it would be better to add all langauges to the project, set the language property accordinly, and filter the languages in the release settings.
