I have the requirement as follows to create an installer for a Silverlight application that consumes WCF service and SQL Server as a database.
The goal is to create an all-in-one package that installs the application, the service and the SQL Server database on the server. Although the package should include all three the user should be able to install them separately as well. For ex. Silverlight application need not be installed on the server, and the WCF service not on the client and so on.
I’m right now trying with Wix installer, this is my first time using wix. It looks good so far, but I’m not sure if it complies with all the following requirements.
Requirement:
Customers should be confident that applications will install on Windows Server 2008 R2 without degrading the operating system or other applications.
- Installer related requirements
- Do not require server to restart during and after Install / uninstall
- Uninstall cleanly
- Comply with Windows Resource Protection (WRP)
- Allow user control of installation location
- Comply with Kernel mode component requirements
- Install shared components to correct location
- Do not overwrite non proprietary files with older Versions
- Support User Account Control for installation
- Correctly conñgure package identity
- Follow Best Practices for creating custom actions
- Follow component rules
- Install / uninstall
- Support command iine installation
- Applications using Windows Installer must successfully install in quiet mode via a command line with /qn switch.
I would like to know if Wix is the right tool or is there any other better free tools. Visual Studio setup project doesn’t seem to be flexible or may be I’m wrong.
If you want a free tool Wix should be your choice. Its no so easy to use it in the beginning, but it gets the job done. VS setup project is designed for small simple setup packages, you cannot consider it as an option based on the requirements you have.