Authoring a patch bundle

After the main program is deployed the maintenance will have to deploy fixpacks and service packs. I wondered how I should handle this with burn and decided to use a separate patch bundle.

Versioning used in this sample is MajorNumber.ServicePack.FixPack. Each patch bundle also has a separate UpgradeCode, because when removing bundle v1.0.0.1 while bundle v1.0.0.2 was installed  might leave the system with the v1.0.0.1 patch (issues about superseded patches.. see here).

Now I had several bundles, which all were authored to be a patch for the main bundle. That looks like this:

<Bundle Name="PatchingBundle 1.0.0.1" Version="1.0.0.1"
    Manufacturer="Jakob Devs Inc." UpgradeCode="[patch_bundle_code_v1.0.0.1]"
    ParentName="BaselineBootstrapper">
    <RelatedBundle Id="[parent_bundle_code]" Action="Patch" />
</Bundle>

There are several things of note here:

• The UpgradeCode of this patch bundle is new, this leads to a separate entry in ARP's updates
• ParentName: this puts the bundle in ARP's update section under the name BaselineBootstrapper. This should be the same for all patches.
• RelatedBundle element: here I specify that this bundle patches the <parent_bundle>. This leads to this bundle being uninstalled when the <parent_bundle> is uninstalled. Cool :)
  To remove a Sp1Fp1 patch when the service pack is uninstalled, the parent_bundle_code will be the UpgradeCode of the ServicePack patch bundle.

Once a service pack is deployed, there'll be patches which target the service pack. These msp patches won't install on systems which don't have the service pack installed. I talked about that topic here.

To get  a state on the system where the user can remove installed patches, the burn engine offered me basically one solution:
Install every patch under a different UpgradeCode, so that all patch bundles show up in ARP.

The patch itself could theoretically be installed as superseding or not, I didn't find any difference so far. However, burn does not remove superseded patches, that's why I opted for non-superseding patches. They still all contain the diff to the baseline, though. Baselines will be the RTM or SP releases.
[Edit]: Apparently, an upgrade of version 1.0.0.x to 1.0.1 (yep, a service pack) always makes the patch superseding. That also means, when I'd uninstall bundle 1.0.0.1 while 1.0.1 is installed, the superseded patch stays on the system.

Just for the sake of completeness: what would the complete sequence of main installer, service pack, fix pack for SP look like?

<Bundle Name="Main RTM Bundle 1.0.0.0" Version="1.0.0.0"
    Manufacturer="Jakob Devs Inc." UpgradeCode="[main_bundle_code]" >
    <!-- no related bundle here ... -->
</Bundle>

The service pack is basically again a patch, so we'll relate it to the main RTM bundle above.

<Bundle Name="PatchingBundle 1.0.1.0 - SP1" Version="1.1.0"
    Manufacturer="Jakob Devs Inc." UpgradeCode="[patch_bundle_code_v1.0.1.0]"
    ParentName="BaselineBootstrapper">
    <RelatedBundle Id="[main_bundle_code]" Action="Patch" />
</Bundle>

Then I would author the fix pack for this service pack as this, but I relate it to the service pack patch. Of course this fix pack should have the diff from the SP1 baseline to the patch. It doesn't have to use the RTM as the baseline anymore. It'll get uninstalled when the SP is uninstalled:

<project name="integrator" basedir=".">
 <property name="baseDir" value="${project::get-base-directory()}" />
 <target name="build">
  <call target="cleanBuildfiles" />
  <call target="buildSoftware" />
  <call target="buildInstaller" />
  <call target="publishSoftware" />
 </target>
 <target name="buildSoftware">
  <nant 
   buildfile="${baseDir}\myFramework\default.build" 
   target="buildAll"
   inheritall="false"/>
 </target>
 <target name="buildInstaller">
  <nant 
   buildfile="${baseDir}\installer\default.build"
   target="buildInstaller"
   inheritall="false" />
 </target>
</project>

Here it also makes sense to use the <bal:Condition> element so that the Sp1Fp1 only installs if the service pack for the main RTM bundle is installed.

Conditioning a wix bundle when it should or should not run

I started to have this question when I prepared a patch bundle which should only install when the main product is already installed. Additional complexity is given when a service pack was applied and patches require the service pack to be installed. In an additional post I explain how to author patch bundles and how to remove fix pack bundles on top of SPs along with the service pack bundle.

Wix bundles have two points where you can configure whether they should execute or not.

The first which you'll find is the bundle/@Condition attribute:

<Bundle
    Name="TestBundle" Version="1.0.0.0"
    Manufacturer="TestDeploy Inc." UpgradeCode=""
    Condition="((VersionNT = v6.0) AND (ServicePackLevel &gt;= 2)) OR (VersionNT &gt;= v6.1)"
>
<!-- bundle stuff -->
</Bundle>

Here the condition checks that at least NT in version 6.0 (Windows Server 2008) is installed with at least ServicePack 2, or that the windows versions bigger than 6.1 (Windows 7). Microsoft provides a list of the windows versions.

This can only be used with prebuilt wix burn variables. A list of those can be found here: http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix3/bundle_built_in_variables.htm.

The second method requires the WixBalExtension's Condition element:

<bal:Condition
   Message="The Bootstrapper has to be installed in version $(var.BaselineVersion)">  
      WixBundleInstalled OR      
      ((SampleMsiInstalledState = 5) AND (SampleMsiInstalledVersion &gt;= v$(var.BaselineVersion)))
</bal:Condition>
<util:ProductSearch Guid="[msi_prerequisite_package_product_code]"
    Result="version" Variable="SampleMsiInstalledVersion" />
<util:ProductSearch Guid="[msi_prerequisite_package_product_code]"
    Result="state" Variable="SampleMsiInstalledState" />

Here we use a ProductSearch from the WixUtilExtension to find the state and versions of related msi packages. The version is then compared to the minimum version of a bundle that's required for the bundle (BasellineVersion).
I haven't found a way to search for installed bundles, but it is apparently possible to do a registry search for the bundle UpgradeCode. However, that's wix implementation details and should be used with care.

What i found important is: Use some kind of fallback condition, like the WixBundleInstalled (this variable is 1 if installed, 0 else). Without that, the SampleMsiInstalledState could be false because someone forced the bundle to uninstall, then the conditions would evaluate to false and the bundle won't run anymore. No user likes bundle corpses on the system.

BURN #05: writing your own .net based BoostrapperApplication UI

Read here :)
http://blog.wrightfully.com/2013/01/part-1-of-writing-your-own-net-based.html