Making an installer for your plugin

One of the (many) great things about Windows Live Writer is the SDK for building your own plugins. For reference, see some example Plugins, download the Plugin SDK, or read an article on building plugins.

Once you have built and tested your plugin, it would be nice to wrap it in an installer before distributing it to others. At MS, our build system is using WiX to build installers. You too can use WiX, it is available on SourceForge. There is also a pretty good online tutorial available. (****Edited 8/31: Turns out the version of WiX we are using here and the latest one on SourceForge are not quite the same. Their various releases seem to be changed directory structure and library names. So to use the sample file below, you will want to download version 2.0.4103.0 from this page, the 5-03 release.****)

Here is a sample .wxs file to wrap a basic plugin (one DLL). The generated installer checks that Windows Live Writer is installed and adds your DLL to the plugins folder. Now your plugin can be managed through add/remove programs, is upgrade ready, and includes a license agreement. The sample assumes you are pointing at the WiX Minimal UI and their localization files (i.e., including flags for {path}\wixui_minimal.wixlib -loc {path}\WixUI_en-us.wxl). To change the sidebar image during installation, just replace the Bitmaps\dlgbmp.bmp image included with WiX; to use your own license agreement replace License.rtf.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2003/01/wi">
  <Product Name="{Name that shows in installer, add/remove programs}" Id="{GUID #1}" 
            UpgradeCode="{GUID #2}" Language="1033" Codepage="1252" Version="1.0.0" 
            Manufacturer="{Your name here}">
    <Package Id="????????-????-????-????-????????????" Description="{Plugin description}" 
            Manufacturer="{Your name here}" InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" />
    <Upgrade Id="{GUID #2}">
      <UpgradeVersion OnlyDetect='yes' Property='PATCHFOUND' IncludeMaximum="no" Maximum="1.0.0" />
    </Upgrade>
    <UIRef Id="WixUI" />
    <Property Id="WRITERINSTALLED">
      <DirectorySearch Id="PFF" Path="[ProgramFilesFolder]">
        <DirectorySearch Id="WLWFolder" Path="Windows Live Writer">
          <FileSearch LongName="WindowsLiveWriter.exe" />
        </DirectorySearch>
      </DirectorySearch>
    </Property>
    <Condition Message="Windows Live Writer is not installed. Windows Live Writer plugins require 
            Windows Live Writer to already be installed."><![CDATA[WRITERINSTALLED<>""]]></Condition> 
    <Media Id="1" Cabinet="{PluginName}.cab" EmbedCab="yes" DiskPrompt="CD-ROM #1" />
    <Property Id="DiskPrompt" Value="{PluginName} Installation [1]" />
    <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
      <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" Name="PFiles">
        <Directory Id="WriterInstallFolder" Name="Writer" LongName="Windows Live Writer">
          <Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name="Plugins">
            <Component Id="{PluginName}" Guid="{GUID #3}">
              <File Id="{PluginName}DLL" Name="{plugin.dll--must be in 8.3 format}" 
              LongName="{Full DLL name}" DiskId="1" Source="{path + dll}" Vital="yes" />
              {note: other files could be included here an necessary; if you 
              distribute help files or supporting graphics}
            </Component>        
          </Directory>
        </Directory>
      </Directory>
    </Directory>
    <Feature Id="Complete" Level="1" Title="{PluginName}" Description="{Plugin Description}" 
              Display="expand">
      <ComponentRef Id="{PluginName--matches the ID given in Component tag above}" />
    </Feature>
  </Product>
</Wix>