Software Deployment

If you're not controlling the actual deployment mechanism (i.e. if these MSIs aren't being pushed by, say, Radia, SMS or Group Policy) then I guess your best bet is to build a simple EXE which calls out multiple times to MSIExec, running it against the MSIs. IS has tools to build these EXEs. The Help file should have details.

Writing an auto-updater is WAY beyond the scope of this forum. Besides any other consideration, what language would you be using? In the first instance, I'd advise you to not bother re-inventing the wheel and explore code which is already out there. I recall adapting some VB code I found on Planet Source Code http://www.pscode.com for a similar project years ago. Start there.

Finally education-wise, AppDeploy has some good stuff (e.g.http://www.appdeploy.com/video/), as does Altiris' Juice forum/knowledge base. http://juice.altiris.com/packaging

Hi Tyla,
... that contains several component msi's.
What components are we speaking about here? Are these 3party COM components and the like?
If yes, check if they are available as "Merge Modules".
They can be embedded into a MSI package.
That would make your life a lot easier.
Regards, Nick

Thanks for your prompt responses :)

VBScab, if I was to build a simple exe, will the installer be able to tell if I have updated the version number of each component? and download that updated component accordingly?
The main exe - the installer file needs to be very lightweight in order for the user to download it, and use it to check on our servers for any current updates to the components of the application program they are running.

The components that have been writtern are in C#, .NET and 4D.

I have also thought about using prerequsites which seems to work well with what I am doing.

Thankyou so much for the training link!

Nheim, I think that they are Com components I am not too sure about that as I didn't program these components. And I havent a clue what they do.

I have tried to merge these components as modules however the solution simply doesn't work so I assume that it can't be done that way for my problem.

Also I want the components to be seperated for ease of updating for the clients.

Thanks for your input anyhow

i have written a custom tool to do exactly that for distributed web clusters if your interested drop me an email.

caters for MCSC and NLB web cluster environments .. etc

[email=john.mcfadyen@gmail.com]john.mcfadyen@gmail.com[/email]