We are looking to OEM our product complete with separate install paths, exe names, ect…
But of course we want to minimize the amount of maintenance overhead we need to maintain the product.
I know of course that we can re-use the fragment files, and map them to different directories with the product.wxs file. But is it a good idea to do that as we will be reusing GUIDs fro the files.
Now those files will be exactly the same files, but it maybe that they are being installed in different directories.
If anyone could point to some good resources for managing multiple OEM installers with WIX, I’d be very appreciative.
It’s ok to reuse ComponentID’s in multiple Product contexts. This is basically what merge modules do all the time when consumed by multiple products.
Yes, you can use fragments for code reuse. Here is an old blog article on the subject:
Using the WIX Toolset for Distributed Development
Basically you want to come up with a way of defining your Directory element in your product wxs and then using DirectoryRef elements in your asset fragements. Also your Asset fragments will have Fragment elements and ComponentGroup elements. Then in your Product wxs you can use ComponentGroupRef elements nested under Feature elements to pull the components into your feature.
A couple of rules…
1) You have to pass all the wxs files to candle for the compiler to resolve the symbols.
2) Once you ref something from a fragment ( FragmentRef, ComponentRef, ComponentGroupRef… ) every thing from the fragment gets included. E.g. fragments are atomic and sealed just like merge modules.