Using Chained MSI to deliver localized version of product
We'd like to be able to give our worldwide reseller a straight forward way to localize our products for their regional markets. Our base product is english. It's setup to use language libraries and satellite assemblies if a registry setting is set (ie. Current Language = Ja-JP).
This seems like the perfect situation for the new Chained MSI functionality. We would simply have our resellers include our standard product MSI inside a parent msi package that they create. The parent would install the standard product, and then add in the additional region specific language libraries, satellite assemblies, application data files, etc.
Has anyone had any experience doing this and are there any problems with this approach?
Are there any problems if the parent msi changes a file or registry setting that is created/installed by the chained msi? For example, if my chained msi creates and writes a registry key Current Language = en-US. Then my parent msi changes the same registry key Current Language = ja-JP. What happens to the contents of this registry key if I later run repair on my chained msi? Will the registry key be changed back to en-US? What about files?
After reading the white paper on Chained MSI by David Cole, I'm not so sure that Chained MSI is the way to go for what I want done. Specifically, the issue, "Chained .msi packages are installed after the parent install" mentioned on page 6. Is there any work around to this limitation?
Are Pre-requisites the preferred approach to delivering a "language pack" for an application? And if so, how does one deal with the issues related to shared files or registry settings I mentioned above?
