InstallAware has just released a beta version for their upcoming 2.0 release. This release contains some anticipated bug fixes and support for external fragment and include files.
WixAware is a front end GUI for building Windows Installer XML (WiX) scripts. It’s not just a visual XML editor like other ones I have seen. It speeds up the process by providing templates for deployment projects, merge modules, and patch setups.
I have been trialling Wixaware 1.1 for a few weeks to help speed up the development of our WiX projects. Version 1.1 was quite buggy but Version 2.0 seems to have most of the querks worked out.
I’ve created deployment projects in WiX that deploy the following application types
- ASP.NET Web Sites
- ASP.NET Web Services
- C# Windows applications with COM registration of .NET and VB6
- Command line / Windows UI tools.
The WiX scripts have been integrated into the continuous integration build process.
I still have to manually edit the WiX script to customize the way my installers work. Wixaware provides both a UI view with tree views, lists etc as well as the XML view. Vesion 2.0 now supports fragment and include files so I can move all of the UI parts and common properties into a separate file.
I’m still not fully convinced that WiX is the way to go – it seems a lot of steep learning just to produce a deployment project. Even with GUI editors, there is still much one needs to know to build WiX deployment packages. I have been building deployment projects on and off since 2000 with Visual Studio Deployment projects (MSI), Inno Setup and Wix/Wixware (MSI). Are MSI installers really that good and efficient for developers to build?
