Bootstrapper Manifest Generator for Visual Studio 2008 is Released

Question

Nov 17th, 2008 - Bootstrapper Manifest Generator for Visual Studio 2008 Released

  BMG for VS 2008 has just been released.
  In addition to bug fixes and updates required to run correctly on VS 2008, several new features have been added:

• A new downloader in the MSBuild projects that makes it easy to download any missing redist files that have a Homesite link.  This will work especially well for people who have downloaded the Visual Studio Express products.
  • (New since the Beta) The new downloader is also capable of handling .NET Frameworks 3.5 and .NET Frameworks 3.5 SP1, extracting the downloaded files  and updating the product.xml for the SP1 package according to the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 readme.
• When a package is selected in MSBuild projects, dependent and included packages are selected or deselected automatically, making it easier to build a complete and optimized bootstrapper.

 

Installation Information

If you have the Beta version already installed, just download and run the new installer, and your installation should be upgraded to the final release version.

 

    Install from: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=bmg&ReleaseId=1567

 

    or http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/bmg

Answer 1

Where do we find documentation and/or samples for using this tool?

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Burt Harris

Answer 2

seems like a Javascript error is preventing download on the page.  Anywhere else I can go to get this?

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Patrick Mallahan

Answer 3

After installing this it says it can't find the prerequisites for bootstrapping.

Answer 4

Can you run it at all? What are you doing when it gives you that message?

RobinDotNet

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Answer 5

RobinDotNet...sorry for the late reply. I uninstalled this but going from memory the warning was in the Prerequisites window. It gave this warning for two items and I believe they were both Net Framework files that it could not find. I know one of them was the 3.5 SP1 file. I was thinking this program would place these files in the proper folders but when I checked the folder locations they were empty.

Let me know if you want me to reinstall it and give you more information.

Answer 6

Were you trying to wrap the .Net Framework installation using the BMG? Is that what you were doing?

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!

Answer 7

hi
it is really a nice tool to create a bootstrapper .can you tell me the location of default bootstrapper project for sql express so that i can open it using bmg and modify something according to my requirements

Answer 8

hi i want to add sql express 2005 sp3 as a bootstrapper but i have a bootstrapper for sp2 by default so i want to create bootstrapper for sp3 which should install both on windows xp and vista . is it possible to edit sp2 bootstrapper

Answer 9

This appears to be the download page for SQLServer Express 2005 SP-3.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3181842A-4090-4431-ACDD-9A1C832E65A6&displaylang=en

Dunno if you can copy the SP-2 bootstrapper package and edit it; you could always try it. (Keep a backup!) I would create a new one with the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator, and compare it against the other one.

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!
Microsoft MVP, Client App Dev

Answer 10

Once the Bootstrapper is generated using the BMG, is there a way to include it into my solution folder, so I can check it in to TFS, and other developers can build. It seems the generated files are located under

Answer 11

It's not really something you would want to include in your solution folder. Can't you just put it on a server or file share? Also, unless the other developers are actually deploying the application, do they really need it?

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!
Microsoft MVP, Client App Dev

Answer 12

This appears to be the download page for SQLServer Express 2005 SP-3.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3181842A-4090-4431-ACDD-9A1C832E65A6&displaylang=en

Dunno if you can copy the SP-2 bootstrapper package and edit it; you could always try it. (Keep a backup!) I would create a new one with the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator, and compare it against the other one.

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!
Microsoft MVP, Client App Dev

Any updated version? Your effort is appreciated!

Answer 13

Heck, I wish! (and thanks). I have actually talked to the SQLServer Express product lead, and while he agrees that Microsoft should provide bootstrapper packages with each subsequent version of SQLServer Express, he hasn't been able to fit it into the schedule even for SQLServer Express 2008. So my advice above still stands.

RobinDotNet

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Click here to visit my ClickOnce blog!
Microsoft MVP, Client App Dev