Hi all, I need to create a setup project for an enormous VS Solution (contains possibly hundreds of C# projects). Due to the size of the solution, I would like to automate the actual creation of the setup project itself. This would allow the project outputs of all the projects in the solution to be added to the "Application Folder" of the "File System" view of the setup project. Automating this would allow us to easily update the setup project should it ever become stale in regards to the projects within the solution. I have tried performing this while recording but it appears that not all actions are recorded. Is this even possible via macros? (the API is not exactly intuitive!) If so, how?! Thanks very much Bardo
I recommend you take a look at WiX (http://wix.sourceforge.net/). WiX setup projects are authored in XML, so you should be able to easily write code to generate the setup files from the projects in your solution. You could create an MSBUILD task to do this, so it could be done automatically, during each build. The URL above is for the project on SourceForge, but be aware that WiX will be part of Visual Studio in a subsequent release. -- John Saunders | MVP - Connected System Developer "Bardo" wrote in message news:E40F7CC7-0241-4DB3-B68E-87B3A98B186C@microsoft.com... > Hi all, > > I need to create a setup project for an enormous VS Solution (contains > possibly hundreds of C# projects). Due to the size of the solution, I > would > like to automate the actual creation of the setup project itself. This > would > allow the project outputs of all the projects in the solution to be added > to > the "Application Folder" of the "File System" view of the setup project. > Automating this would allow us to easily update the setup project should > it > ever become stale in regards to the projects within the solution. > > I have tried performing this while recording but it appears that not all > actions are recorded. > Is this even possible via macros? (the API is not exactly intuitive!) If > so, > how?! > > Thanks very much > > Bardo
Thanks very much John, I will look into it! I had looked at WiX for another project a long while ago but didn't realise it was going to be properly supported. Beats trying to manipulate the current setup project files by hand! "John Saunders" wrote: > I recommend you take a look at WiX (http://wix.sourceforge.net/). WiX setup > projects are authored in XML, so you should be able to easily write code to > generate the setup files from the projects in your solution. You could > create an MSBUILD task to do this, so it could be done automatically, during > each build. > > The URL above is for the project on SourceForge, but be aware that WiX will > be part of Visual Studio in a subsequent release. > > -- > John Saunders | MVP - Connected System Developer > > "Bardo" wrote in message > news:E40F7CC7-0241-4DB3-B68E-87B3A98B186C@microsoft.com... > > Hi all, > > > > I need to create a setup project for an enormous VS Solution (contains > > possibly hundreds of C# projects). Due to the size of the solution, I > > would > > like to automate the actual creation of the setup project itself. This > > would > > allow the project outputs of all the projects in the solution to be added > > to > > the "Application Folder" of the "File System" view of the setup project. > > Automating this would allow us to easily update the setup project should > > it > > ever become stale in regards to the projects within the solution. > > > > I have tried performing this while recording but it appears that not all > > actions are recorded. > > Is this even possible via macros? (the API is not exactly intuitive!) If > > so, > > how?! > > > > Thanks very much > > > > Bardo > >
