Deploy your Application or Component Using Windows Installer

Title:       Deploy your Applications and Components Using Windows Installer
Author:      Prabhakar Manikonda
Email:       email2prabhakar@gmail.com
Environment: Visual Studio .Net 2003, Windows 32 bit Platforms.
Keywords:    Windows Installer, Deploying your application or component, Visual Studio .Net, Easy Setup Program
Level:       Intermediate
Description: An article on creating setup programs without having the knowledge of setup scripts.
Section      Software Deployment using Visual Studio Setup and Deployment
SubSection   Microsoft Visual Studio .Net 

Introduction

When ever we heard about deployment of our application or component we get scared with the traditional scripted setup programs. The main goal of this article is to make .NET programmers to get used to this easy to setup program which allows you to deploy your application even if you don't know how to write the setup script. Microsoft Dot Net Setup & Deployment will make the setup for you with simple clicks. It is also provided with self taught easy driven wizards. Many programmers who are using Microsoft Visual Studio Dot Net they are not fully aware of this windows installer that comes with Visual Studio; they are going for other setup programs that need's hard scripting knowledge. Using Windows Installer is very easy.

About Microsoft Windows Installer

Windows Installer enables you to deploy your Applications and Components in an efficient manner. The installer provides new capabilities to advertise features without installing them, to install products on demand, and to add user customizations. Windows Installer is an installation and configuration service that reduces the total cost of ownership. The installer enables customers to better address corporate deployment and provide a standard format for component management.

Run-Time Requirements

This technology is available as a redistributable for Windows Installer version 2.0, from the Microsoft Downloads.

Features of Windows Installer:

> It is based on a data-driven model that provides all installation data and instructions in a single package. In contrast, traditional scripted setup programs. > It also supports self-repair � the ability for an application to automatically reinstall. > It provides the ability to roll back an installation. The deployment tools in Visual Studio .NET build on the foundation of Windows Installer, providing you with rich capabilities for rapidly deploying and maintaining applications built with Visual Studio .NET. Creating your first Deployment Project Visual Studio provides templates for four types of deployment projects: Setup Project Builds an installer for a Windows-based application. Merge Module Project (.msm) is used to pack components that might be shared by multiple applications. Web Setup Project Builds an installer for a Web application. Cab Project (.cab) Creates a cabinet file for downloading to a legacy Web Browser In addition, a Setup wizard is provided to help step you through the process of creating deployment projects.

• For a Setup project, the installer will install files into a Program Files directory on a target computer.
• For a Web Setup project, the installer will install files into a Virtual Root directory on a Web server.

Note If you have created a standard deployment project and later decide to deploy it to a Web, you will need to create a new project.

Five Easy Steps:

Step 1

Open the Visual Studio IDE, and select File->New ->Setup and Deployment Projects. Select the Setup Wizard. Give the File name and location where to store that project as shown in the below figure.

Step 2

Welcome to Setup Project Wizard will appear. It is a simple Four Steps Wizard. Click on the Next Button. In the second step on the wizard it will ask the type of the setup. Choose appropriate here I has chosen setup for windows application and click Next.

Step 3

In the third step of this wizard it will ask to add your developed application or component and other files that you need to place in the clients machine, for example say documentation files

Now It will display as shown below figure.

Step 4

As you can see in above figure, The application folder is the folder where your application and supported files will be installed. User's Desktop and Programs Menu are the clients desktop and programs menus respectively. If Place the short files of your main application & Help files on the user's desktop and programs menu, then during the installation the application, supported files and the shortcuts will be placed automatically as you directed by placing the intended files in Application, User Desktop directories and programs menu.

We can use the following editors during the deployment of our application

You can find these editiors in the solution explorer each as a button as shown below,

File System Editor:

It allows you to add project outputs, files, and other items to a deployment project and specify where they will be installed on the target computer.

Registry Settings Management Editor:

Allows you to specify registry keys and values to be added to the registry of the target computer.

File Types Management Editor :

It is used to establish file associations on the target computer.

Custom Actions Management Editor

Allows you to specify additional actions to be performed on the target computer at the end of an installation.

Launch Condition Management Editor :

Allows you to specify conditions that must be met in order to successfully run an installation.

User Interface Management Editor

As shown in above figure, User InterfaceManagement Editor is used to specify and set properties for predefined dialog boxes that are displayed duging the installation on the target system.

The Customer Information Dialog is important to protect your software.

for that first set the Show SerialNumber property to true ( false by default).

there will be a template for the serial key called SerialNumberTemplate:-

Valid editable characters for the SerialNumberTemplate property are:

note that any other character is treated as a literal constant.

The Default template is <###-%%%%%%%>, Which create two text boxes separated by a dash surrounded by spaces.

The first has # which means that use must enter three numbers but those numbers will not be participating in the validation algorithm.

The Second box had seven digits,

% means that it will be involving in the validation. we apply modulo 7 to the sum of these required digits and if it equate to 0 algorithm returns true and the user can proceed to next dialog box.

Example:-

<###-%%%%%%%>,

124 - 7134501 is one of the key by which the user can proceed to next dialog box.

the first three digits 1, 2 and 4 can be any digits as they will not participate in validation.

the next seven digits 7134501 when you sum them you will get 21 and if you apply 21%7 you will get 0 so this is ok. Like wise you have to proceed.

You can add the dialog boxes like end user license agreement dialog and serial key dialog as shown.

Step 5

When you build the application, you will find the install program for your software or component in the projects debug directory.

Conclusion

I hope that many of the .Net developers who are using traditional setup script programs will find this as a easy and simple way to deploy your software. More than that if you got the licensed Visual Studio .Net with you then there is no need to purchase setup applications from other companies as Visual Studio .Net itself offers it for you. I think that I had given enough features of Windows Installer that comes with Visual Studio .Net. Now it's time that you try it just once to get used to it.

History

• 1.0 - 13 Feb 2006
  • First release version.
  • 1.1 - 4 Sep 2006

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Can I access the serial number after installation? Member 3455398 16:30 24 Oct '08   Is it possible to find the serial number in the registry, after the application has installed? Thanks, Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Can I access the serial number after installation? MitchellBaldwin 10:49 8 Dec '08   Has anybody found a answer to this? I would like to access the SN a user enters during installation later in a custom action, but cannot find where or if this value is saved as a property in the Windows Installer class? Mitchell Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Can I access the serial number after installation? Member 3455398 3:50 11 Dec '08   I found that the MsiGetProductInfo will retrieve the information. I have been OOO, and just saw your response. I can post some code if you want, but this is pretty straight forward. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Can I access the serial number after installation? MitchellBaldwin 5:17 11 Dec '08   Thanks for the reply. I looked up the MsiGetProductInfo method but it is not clear which property is associated with the serial number. There is no "SerialNumber" property, for example. Maybe it is the "ProductID" property? I guess maybe a short code snippet would be helpful... Mitchell Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Can I access the serial number after installation? Member 3455398 9:00 11 Dec '08   You are correct. It is the Product ID. Here is a short code snippet. /* Grab the registration Name, Company, and Serial Number fields from the Registry All of these items are written to the registry at install time by Windows Installer. I put these values into the MSI package when I created it. */ UINT uErrorCode=0; TCHAR lpszPropertyValue[256]; DWORD dwBytesNeeded=sizeof(lpszPropertyValue); LPCSTR lpszProductGuid = "{276A802D-DC75-473C-BF78-840C4448B557}"; memset (lpszPropertyValue,0,sizeof(lpszPropertyValue)); uErrorCode=MsiGetProductInfo(lpszProductGuid, INSTALLPROPERTY_PRODUCTID, lpszPropertyValue, &dwBytesNeeded); Let me know if I can help. .......Cameron Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Can I access the serial number after installation? Martchap 10:00 31 Jan '09   There's a very easy and simple method to do this (you don't need to write a single line of code! ). Make your installer create a "registrypath" anywhere in the registry you like, and then add a string. Set the value of that string to "[ProductID]". Now you can access that registry-key whenever you want to know the serial - the installer automaticly substitutes the [ProductID] with the serial number the user entered! Hope it helps you Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink How to solve Login Fail? khinezw 1:23 20 Aug '08   Hi I'd like to make my VB.Net project setup file. I made it with Setup wizard from Setup and Deployment. But I don't know how to do well and got database connection error in same development standalone when running exe file created by Setup. I use MS Visual Studio 2005. I create a new setup wizard project. When adding file in Application Folder, what type of File should I add? Should I add all files under "bin" folder? In this folder, there are a lot of file types that are XML Document, XML COnfiguration File, Program Debug Database, MANIFEST File, Application Manifest, Application Extension, Application and projectName.publish Folder. After customizing setup project, I debug this setup project and install it. When running my application, i got Login error. I created XML Server setting file. In this file, I made the predefined user and password to check login user and password. So the error is invalid password. If I click Ok button without typing username and password, the main entry form of my application is opened. But opening Database entry form, "Login failed to user" Message is appeared. How to solve these? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 (1 vote) Product Key sonudevgan 3:59 20 May '08   can any body tell how i can assign more then one valu to seraiNumber property of the Customer information dialog box piz tell how i can do that thanx in advance Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 (4 votes) Re: EULA (license agreement) praveenkumar palla 21:46 28 Mar '08   Hi, Really this is usefull to all. I need that, the license file(RTF) should be picked dynamically rather including in the setup. If the rtf is updated, need not make setup again. When user runs the setup file rtf should be picked from the his system some path. Please advice me on this. Thanks in advance. Praveen Kumar Palla Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 (1 vote) Re: EULA (license agreement) Prabhakar Manikonda 3:01 8 Apr '08   Setup is something that you burn in Disk and do installation which does installation of contents that are in the MSI Package, How ever if you wish so you can write additional code in the setup project to check the version of the files with respect to the files that exists in your Remote FTP Software Location if it is out dated then you can prompt / no-prompt user to download latest version of the files. Prabhakar Manikonda MS CS, M.A Social Work, MCSD.NET, MCTS Sharepoint 2007 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Get rid of .net framework Gabriel X 8:04 20 Dec '07   Hello friends, As an amateur programmer, I am dealing with my softwares' deployment. You know, today a lot of softwares are being developed, without any dependency of .netframework. Surely people don't like to see an error while running a software, which says: ".netframework.v2 needed!". So, I have to find a way to make my software .netframework-independent. Current dependencies are: "system.windows.forms", "system.drawing" and "system". If there is any solution for my problem at all, please share, I'll be grateful! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Get rid of .net framework fadee 1:55 12 Feb '08   ooooooo you are 'being' very very naughty! ------------------- Therez No Place like ... 127.0.0.1 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink My own Key Exelioindia 21:32 3 Sep '07   Hi Guerven, I saw your article in code project regarding serial key, really it's nice and helped me lot to get an idea about the serial key. I am having an doubt ho shall i set my own serial key? Here the algorithum supports for number 7, like this how shall i set 8 or some other number?,is it possible?, Please guide me to overcome this problem. Thanks in advance Know is Drop, Unknown is Ocean Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.33/5 (3 votes) copy additional files during installation process ? Jatin Prajapati 8:21 25 Aug '07   hi how to copy additional files to specific location during installation process, i want to copy my .mdb file to specific location during Installation using Windows Installer Setup project, so is it possible or not? i have temp.mdb db file in my installation package and i want to put that file on my specific location like " C:\Temp\Temp.mdb can you pls help to solve my problem? Thanks in Advance............ Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 (3 votes) path of .msi file ProsGIS 5:26 21 Aug '07   I am developing an Add-in which help the developers to place application over intranet. I need to retrieve .msi file so that I could place them over intranet. Is there a way to retrieve the path (full path) of the .msi file programmatically? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 (1 vote) Re: path of .msi file maznblue 5:26 3 Apr '08   Were you able to figure out a solution to this? I am attempting to retrieve this as well. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink what can i do,if i want use the serialnumber of myself? Wan--Vevi 22:29 1 Aug '07   what can i do,if i want use the serialnumber of myself? I want validate the serialnumber using the method of myself,no the .net's.default Serial Number Template which is based on modulo 7 algorithm,can I change it and how? from vevi Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.50/5 (3 votes) Re: what can i do,if i want use the serialnumber of myself? Ivo86 22:23 30 Sep '07   Hi Vevi I have the same problem. And I still can't finde the right solution. Do you find a way to use your own algorithm to validate the serial number. Thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.67/5 (3 votes) Thanks Mohamed Imtiyaz 5:55 23 Jul '07   This topic was truely helpful. I do thank the author for taking his time to write this article. Well done Sir. Keep up the fantastic work. Mr. A, Mohamed Imtiyaz Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink How to validate product code Rajkumar Reddy 20:35 22 May '07   Hi, this article was so helpfull.but i have one query .how to ask user for product code and how to validate.is there any way to do this....?.If product is correct then only user should be able to install the product.like what we have seen in microsoft products which will ask for product code while installlation.the same way i want to implement in my setups.could u pls help help out if u know.ur suggestions are greatly appreciated. Regards, Rajkumar RAJ Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.50/5 (2 votes) error during install har113 7:48 2 May '07   Hi, I get this error message during install. "object reference not set to an instance of an object" An exception occured during Rollback Phase of the installation. What does it mean how can I rectify it Sri Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink setup project tbtrieu 18:15 3 Apr '07   I want to get serial number from Customer information dialog box of user interface in Visual studio. Please help! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 3.00/5 (3 votes) Re: setup project sonudevgan 4:07 20 May '08   select the property of dialog box and enter @@@<###-%%%%%%%>1234567 in the serialnumber template box Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink ICON for shortcut on the Desktop Eyungwah 11:17 1 Feb '07   Hello, The installer Shortcut of an application displayed as regular Text image. I like to add different picture other than the default text.Could you show me how to do that? Thanks, Eyungwah Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.67/5 (3 votes) Re: ICON for shortcut on the Desktop Prabhakar Manikonda 3:46 4 Feb '07   In the Phase Step 3, you can add ur icon that u want for ur application, In File System View, the Step4 double click on the application and in properties u will find icon property select it it->browse icon in the folder where u have added it. If you still did get it, please let me konw, thanks, prabhakar Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 (1 vote)

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