Want to opdate or create bootstrapper packages myself

I am quite new开发者_JS百科 to Windows Installers, i faced some problems, but finally accomplished what i wanted. One important question remains for me. I can't figure out where i can download or how to create or update bootstrapper packages.

My application needed SQL server compact 3.5 and the bootstrapper package was installed on my hard disk by VS2008. What i wanted was SQL server compact 3.5 SP2 and i also needed an offline installation. I searched a lot on the internet, but could net figure out how to upgrade my SQLCE bootstrapper package to SP2, moreover i could not figure out where to download, create or upgrade these bootstrapper packages like e.g. .Net Framework myself.

I do know how to use Bootstrapper Manifest Generator in case i need to create a bootstrapper package, but to use BMG to create Microsoft packages i think i a short on information (i could not find too musch about this as well) to create correct package and product XMLs.

Maybe i am just silly, but if someone could explain me in what way i can update or upgrade my offline bootstrapper packages in ht Microsoft SDK folder, i will be grateful. It will save me a lot of misery next time.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Svatja

P.S. I obtained the SQLCE SP2 package by downloading and installing VS2010 express on my Vista test PC.

As far as I know, there is currently no simple answer to the bootstrapper problem, but I'll try to point you to some possible solutions:

I'm not familiar with the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator, but my understanding is that the VS bootstrapper is not very flexible. I remember I looked at it briefly and decided against it.

Since your question is tagged Wix I'll assume that you're aware of Wix 3.6's "Burn" bootstrapper currently in development. The present recommendation is that if you're planning to ship in the fall, you should pick up the Wix 3.6 dependency and start working with Burn. I consider this a very risky choice since there is no guarantee that Burn will actually be done in time.

I've used the Microsoft .NET Framework Setup.exe Bootstrapper Sample as the basis of a simple bootstrapper before. The idea here is to replace the logic to check for .NET Framework with logic to check for the SQL server you require. Then either install SQL Server by executing the redistributable, or skip the SQL Server installation and go straight into your MSI installation.

If you want to provide a user experience beyond regular MSI dialogs, you could look into creating an external UI, although documentation for this is scarce. I recently completed a WPF external UI bootstrapper. The way I tackled this was creating a C# version of the MsiSetExternalUI Handler Sample using Wix's DTF, and then integrated it into a WPF wizard based on this MVVM Wizard sample.

I hope that can at least get you started on choosing the right bootstrapper solution for your deployment. Good luck!