Re: Same win service with different display names and description

Geoff,

That's what Ryan has proposed, but how would you differentiate between the 4
installers in the installutil command line? How do you specify "use this
installer instead of that" in the command line. Ryan's refined approach was
then to derive your own installation class and look for input parameters at
installation time, thus allowing you to pass in the specific display name
and the description.

Like you say, although WiX may be a fantastic tool, spending time to install
it and then getting accustomed to it just for something that could be
trivial may not be the road to take.

Regards,
Eddie


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Geoff Taylor
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 11:16 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Same win service with different display names
and description

That's good to know about WiX, but isn't WiX itself overkill for this?
(I've never used it, but I've been on the receiving end of someone who
did...)

Surely all you need to do is create 4 ServiceInstaller objects instead of 1
in your installation project?  Each one has its own properties for name,
service class etc., and you'd install it using InstallUtil the same way
you're doing now.  And an uninstallation would automatically remove all 4
services at the same time too.

It's been a while since I've had to do this though, so what am I missing?
Has VS come out with a fancy draggy-droppy interface that hides the
ServiceInstaller objects from you?

Cheers,

			Geoff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics. [mailto:ADVANCED- 
> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Phil Sayers
> Sent: 24 November 2008 16:10
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Same win service with different display 
> names and description
> 
> I was apprehensive about Wix, but within 2 hours from being completely 
> green i had an MSI that did...
> 
> create windows user account
> install dll in COM+ with security
> install vdir in IIS on a website with a specific host header and apply 
> security install webservices in said vdir and cleanly removed all of 
> them as part of the "uninstall".
> 
> wix integrates with visual studio so you get some extra "project types"
> to
> play with.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Eddie Lascu
> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 10:46 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Same win service with different display 
> names and description
> 
> 
> Phil,
> 
> Windows Services developed in .NET are installed with the installutil 
> tool.
> All you need to do is go:
> 
> C:\>installutil yourproject.exe
> 
> What you propose may work, but it also means that I need to stray away 
> from the installutil tool and go into other tools that I don't know 
> much about.
> 
> Will investigate the other "users" list.
> 
> Thanks,
> Eddie
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Phil Sayers
> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 10:30 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Same win service with different display 
> names and description
> 
> This sounds like a deployment problem.
> 
> I'm 95% sure that something like the WiX toolset [1] or other MSI 
> builder would be able to help you here.
> It all comes down to getting your component GUIDS correct in the 
> installer... and yes, you can specify service names/descriptions as 
> needed, or even prompt the user for them at install time... or specify 
> them by launching the msi from the commandline or a bootstrapper.
> 
> There is also a "users" list for wix avaiilable through sourceforge.
> The
> devs of Wix are very active on the list.
> 
> [1]http://wix.sf.net
> (open source, but from MS.  tool to build installers)
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of advanced .NET topics.
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Eddie Lascu
> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 10:17 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [ADVANCED-DOTNET] Same win service with different display 
> names and description
> 
> 
> Hi there,
> 
> I have one windows service that I need to deploy 4 times on a 
> production server. Each service will control a different interface. 
> The interfaces are 100% similar so that is why it made sense to 
> develop only one service.
> Now,
> that I need to deploy them, I also need to instantiate them with 
> different display names and descriptions. The display name and the 
> description are properties of the serviceInstaller object. Is there a 
> way to change those two properties other than changing them in my 
> development environment and then recompile the whole service? Is there 
> some kind of configuration file for the service itself where these 
> properties would be stored and then read by the service during the 
> installation phase?
> 
> Thanks for your help,
> Eddie
> 
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