creating installer patches with msi 3

7/31/2019 Creating Installer Patches With MSI 3

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Creating Installer Patches with MSI 3.0

Summary

Today, in the world of software development, it is common to have patch releases due to variousreasons. This article intends to make this process easier by explaining the steps that would be

needed to create a patch using MSI 3.0. The complete example is available in the downloadableMSIPatchExample.zip file.

Introduction

It's not uncommon for development teams to request a patch release immediately after a majorrelease. In large development environments, immediately after a major release there could be an

immediate fix for a problem that might have arisen in the code already in productionenvironment. But, this does not need a major release because the changes are minor but criticalfor the application. This is when a patch release is needed. The process of creating a patch with

MSI 3.0 is pretty complicated and not well documented. Additionally, VS.NET does not support

the creating of these patches. Therefore, this article goes through the steps of creating a patch

release.

MSI 3.0

You would need platform SDK. If you don't have platform SDK, you can install it from this

locationhttp://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/. This download

contains MSI 3.0. If you have an older version of the SDK, you would need MSI 3.0.

MSI 3.0 is an application installation and configuration tool that aids in creating a Windows

installer. MSI 3.0 and can be downloaded fromhere.

Process

To create the patch, there are several steps to be followed. This article walks you through the

step of creating it by using an example. First, create a Windows forms application using VS.NET

as shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1: Application screen in the first release

The screen is a simple screen where users have to enter their name and then search for

information related to the user. Create a Windows installer for this application and call it

UserInfoSetup. The properties of UserInfoSetup would look as shown in Figure 2. Rememberthe Package files option should be "As loose uncompressed file"as shown in Figure 2. Now,

build the application and install it. Run the application; you should be able to see your screen as

seen in Figure 1.

Figure 2: Properties of the installer.


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Now, save everything in this release folder to a new folder called FirstRelease. It's time for the

patch because the users have requested to change the label name to "Enter Last Name" instead of"Enter Name" as shown in Figure 3. So, change the name and release the application as a patch

release.

Figure 3: Application screen after the requested changes.

Before creating the patch release, you would need to modify the properties of the setup project.

Change the version to 1.1.0 as shown in Figure 4.


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Figure 4: Properties of the setup folder as seen in VS.NET.

On changing the version, you would be prompted to change the product code and package code.These guids need to be changed when creating a patch; otherwise, an error would be thrownstating the GUID is not unique while creating the patch. The changed property would look as

shown in Figure 5. Build the solution and copy the upgraded setup to a new folder and call itSecondRelease. For this example, also create apatch folder.


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Figure 5: Properties of the setup folder after the change.

Before you create the patch, make sure MSI 3.0 is downloaded and installed on the machine.

You would also need ORCA.exe, which is available with the installation of Platform SDK. On

installation of Platform SDK, ORCA.msi is available. Install this one to the machine.

After the MSI 3.0 is installed, go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft

SDK\Samples\sysmgmt\msi\Patching on your machine. This folder contains all the necessarytools to create a patch. Copy the TEMPLATE.PCP to the newly created patch folder. The

Template.pcp file is given primarily for the purpose of using as a starting point for creating a

patch. Rename it to MyNewPatch.pcp. Now, open this MyNewPatch.pcp with ORCA as shownin Figure 6.


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Figure 6: Tables as seen in ORCA.

This shows a series of tables that would need to be filled. Go through each table and fill the

properties. The first table that you see is ExternalFiles. Add a row to this table. There areseveral properties of the table that need to be filled. The first property is the family. It's the table

key. Provide the table key name as LastName.

Another property is the FilePath. This is the actual location of the application file. In the

example, it's located in the folder called SecondRelease. The FTKproperty can be any string and

the order property can be 1.

Next, look at the Properties table where thepatchGuidcan be changed if you need and is the

recommended approach whenever a new patch is created. ThepatchOutputPath is where the

patch would be created. In the example, it's in thepatch folder. Create a new property called

MinimumRequiredMsiVersion in the table and set its value to 200. Setting this to 200 makes itmandatory to have MSI installer 2.0 and above on the machine. This also makes it easier in

creating the patch process by avoiding some of the entries in the ImageFamilies table. Leave allother properties to the default.

The next table is the TargetImages. Here, the first property is Target; this can be any string. The

next is theMsiPath, the location of the first msi. It can also be a relative position to the PCP file.

In the example, this location would be the FirstRelease folder. The Upgradedproperty can be


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any string; call it "FirstUpgrade". Orderis 1 andIgnoreMissingSrcFile is 0. Now, you can fill

the UpgradedImages table. The upgradedrow should have the same value as the upgradedproperty in the TargetImages table. In this example, it's "FirstUpgrade". TheMSIPath property

contains the path to the new upgraded MSI. In the sample, it would be the SecondRelease folder.

The next property is thefamily; it should be the same as the value of the property forfamily in

the ExternalFiles table. In the example, it is "LastName".

Another table that needs to be filled is the ImageFamilies table where the Family property is thesame as the previous table.

MyNewPatch.pcp tables are populated with the minimal required values. Save this file to thepatch folder and run the following on the command line.

1. MsiMsp.exe -s MyNewPatch.PCP2. -p UserInformationPatch.msp3. -l MyNewPatch.log

The MSP file would be the MSI patch file created. This also creates the log file that would showthe success or failure and the error that occurred in creating the patch.

This creates the patch and can be installed as an upgrade to the previous release. Now, on

running the application, you would see the changes as requested.

Conclusion

Creating the patch is not an easy process, but once created, a patch release can be done; this was

not available earlier. This makes it easier on the development teams as well as release managersif they need to make a hot fix immediately after a release.

creating installer patches with msi 3

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