WiX- A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

And now for something completely different – a review of someone else’s examples. I have been reading “WiX- A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML“ by Nick Ramirez. I would not dare call myself a WiX expert – in fact I wrote one three-component setup in the cause of a few weeks, but I was asked to review this book by its publisher, Packt Publisher and well, here’s my verdict.

Examples examples examples

What I like about the book: it takes you by the hand using what I think is the most powerful tool in teaching: examples. Which is what I so painfully missed when I myself was struggling with WiX. Lots of concepts and half-*ssed postings on forums, but no complete examples. In the first chapter the author starts a small example which gets more and more elaborate. After reading that first chapter you have a good idea of the most important concepts of installing. The second chapter follows the same recipe and gives you more of the fine details on creating files and directories. If you have read the first two chapters, you can write a basic installer.

Pick and choose

The rest of the book is more of the pick-and-choose type. It still follows the same recipe, but whereas the first two chapters are mandatory, the rest is optional – use what you need, although I would recommend not skipping chapter 5, “Understanding the Installation Sequence”

What do I miss?

I was puzzled by the absence of  a description of the util:XmlFile task, which can be utilized for modifying config files during install. Apart from that, the sub titles says “Create a hassle-free installer for your Windows software using WiX”. That’s exactly what it delivers. I would very much have liked something on how you create and install web sites, handle the intricacies of creating applications pools, set the ASP.NET version, permissions, create CGI support settings and stuff like that – taking into account people can install on different operating systems and different versions of IIS. Maybe something for a second print? ;-)

Conclusion

First part learns you the basics pretty well, the rest is a solid reference. A book I should have bought and read before I started mucking around with WiX.