Navigation

	Home Page
	Index
	All Pages

Quick Search
Advanced Search »

Contributor Links

	Create a new Page
	Administration
	File Management
	Login/Logout
	Your Profile

Other Wiki Sections

Software

Installer Projects - Visual Studio

Overview¶

This article gives an overview of working with Installer projects within Visual Studio. Refer also to Web.Config Transformations with Web Setup Project - Visual Studio.

Installer projects are primarily declarative in nature, with the exception of Installer Classes, which are included in your application code.

Item	How to Configure
Files to install	View menu > Editor > File System
Files NOT to install	Solution Explorer > Installer project > "Content Files" or "Primary output" > right-click > Exclude filter
Registry entries	View menu > Editor > Registry
File Types to create	View menu > Editor > File Types
Installer dialogs	View menu > Editor > User Interface
Custom actions	View menu > Editor > Custom Actions
Launch conditions	View menu > Editor > Launch Conditions
Prerequisites	Solution Explorer > Installer Project > right-click > Properties > Prerequisites button

Walk-Throughs¶

Changing a Connection String Based on User Input¶

1. Include a "Textboxes" dialog in your User Interface.

2. Specify the following property values for the Textboxes dialog.

Edit1Property	TARGETSITE
Edit1Value	/LM/W3SVC/1
Edit1Visible	False
Edit2Property	TARGETVDIR
Edit2Value	(default value)
Edit2Visible	False
Edit3Label	SQL Server Instance
Edit3Property	SQLSERVERINSTANCE
Edit3Value	(default value; e.g., ".\SQLEXPRESS")
Edit3Visible	True

3. Add a Custom Action on "Primary Output...", and in its CustomActionData property, specify "/Site=[TARGETSITE] /Vdir=[TARGETVDIR] /SqlSvr=[SQLSERVERINSTANCE]". (This will refer to the value in the textboxes from the previous step.)

4. To your application code, add an installer class. Within its override of the the Install method, add the following code.

Dim site As String = Me.Context.Parameters.Item("site")
Dim appName As String = Me.Context.Parameters.Item("vdir")
Dim sqlServerInstance As String = Me.Context.Parameters.Item("sqlsvr")

Dim siteNum as Integer = Integer.Parse(site.Substring(site.LastIndexOf("/") + 1)) - 1
Dim mySite As Microsoft.Web.Administration.Site = mgr.Sites(siteNum)
Dim myApp As Microsoft.Web.Administration.Application = mySite.Applications("/" & appName)
Dim mgr As ServerManager = New ServerManager()
Dim rootPath As String = myApp.VirtualDirectories("/").PhysicalPath
TweakConnectionStringDataSource(rootPath, "Local", sqlServerInstance)

5. Add the following method to your installer class.

Private Shared Sub TweakConnectionStringDataSource(rootPath As String, connectionStringName As String, newDataSource As String)

    Dim configFile As String = Path.Combine(rootPath, "web.config")
    Dim doc As XmlDocument = New XmlDocument()
    doc.Load(configFile)
    Dim xPath As String = "/configuration/connectionStrings/add[@name='" & connectionStringName & "']"
    Dim node As XmlNode = doc.SelectSingleNode(xPath)
    Dim attr As XmlAttribute = node.Attributes("connectionString")
    Dim conn = New SqlConnectionStringBuilder(attr.Value)

    ' We do this tweak because, for some reason, when the user specified ".\SQLEXPRESS" (for example)
    ' it comes in here as ".\\SQLEXPRESS".
    newDataSource = newDataSource.Replace("\\", "\")

    conn.DataSource = newDataSource

    attr.Value = conn.ConnectionString
    Dim newConfigFile = configFile ' Path.Combine(rootPath, "web2.config") ' This is for testing
    doc.Save(newConfigFile)

End Sub