Integrating Wix with MSBuild

Question

Hi,

we are looking to automate an MSI generation for a product we are developing. Currently we have MSBuild building out the source to a network location, this is fine for testing but when it comes to releasing the software we will need to wrap it in an MSI.

The software is all .Net bar 1 COM component that will need registered on each machine it gets installed to.

What I was wondering was how to integrate Wix with MSBuild so that a new wix script will get generated along with an MSI that is able to handle fresh and upgrade installs.

Any help with this is very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Brendan

Answer 1

You should download and install Votive. This will create a Visual Studio project file which you can use with MSBuild to create a WiX-based MSI.

Answer 2

Sure, there are tasks in MS Build that can do all you need to build an MSI from WiX. Can you integrate this on a build / integration server?

Newer builds of Wix actually include a file called "wix.targets", which should get you started.

Also check out these fine articles on the topic:

• Building with Wix.Targets (by Heath Stewart)
• Wix Target for MSBuild (by Willem Meints)
• Automate Releases With MSBuild And Windows Installer XML (by Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi)

They cover the topic in much more detail and are extremely helpful to get started.

Cheers Marc

Answer 3

There is also a topic in the WiX manual about how to integrate with MSBuild called Using WiX with MSBuild.

Answer 4

Thanks for the answers.