Using WiX to create an IIS virtual directory - windows

Question

I'd ask this on the WiX mailing list, but it seems to be down.
I have an application which is both a desktop app and a web app which runs locally. I've created a couple of basic WiX installers, but haven't yet used the IIS extension to create a virtual directory under IIS. I haven't been able to find a simple example of how to do this. All I need to do is create the virtual directory, set its port, and point it at a real directory which I'm creating with the rest of the installer.
A bonus would be enabling IIS on the machine if it's not already enabled, but I'm guessing that's not possible, and isn't a dealbreaker for me anyway.
If it matters, this installer will only be run on Vista machines.

Answer 1

Since the article mentioned by David seems lost, here is an example. This also creates an application in the virtual directory.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"
xmlns:iis="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/IIsExtension">
<Product Id="6f2b2358-YOUR-GUID-HERE-aa394e0a73a2" Name="WixProject" Language="1033" Version="1.0.0.0" Manufacturer="WixProject" UpgradeCode="225aa7b2-YOUR-GUID-HERE-110ef084dd72">
<Package InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" />
<Media Id="1" Cabinet="media1.cab" EmbedCab="yes" />
<!-- Reference existing site at port 8080 -->
<iis:WebSite Id="My.Site" Description="My Site">
<iis:WebAddress Id="My.Web.Address" Port="8080"/>
</iis:WebSite>
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="INSTALLLOCATION" Name="WixProject">
<Component Id="IIS.Component" Guid="{6FAD9EC7-YOUR-GUID-HERE-C8AF5F6F707F}" KeyPath="yes">
<iis:WebVirtualDir Id="My.VirtualDir" Alias="foo" Directory="INSTALLLOCATION" WebSite="My.Site">
<iis:WebApplication Id="My.Application1" Name="Web Application 1"/>
</iis:WebVirtualDir>
</Component>
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="WixProject" Level="1">
<ComponentRef Id="IIS.Component" />
</Feature>
</Product>
</Wix>

Answer 2

Use iis:WebVirtualDir and iis:WebApplication from http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/IIsExtension namespace.
I had a similar question earlier and I found the following article quite useful: Wix 3.0 Creating IIS Virtual Directory

Answer 3

Digging in the Google cache (which I think is now been purged by Google) I think the following is the code to the missing blog entry David Pokluda included in his answer. I had to do some reformatting to get this into SO, sorry if it's ugly.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
IMPORTANT
1. need to add the schema iis.xsd to the property window
2. add the following iis namespace
3. add the Visual Studio reference WixIIsExtenion
-->
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"
xmlns:iis="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/IIsExtension">
<Product Id="7b523f47-YOUR-GUID-HERE-fea6be516471"
Name="Vince Wix 3 Web Service"
Language="1033"
Version="1.0.0.0"
Manufacturer="Vince LLC"
UpgradeCode="0a8c10df-YOUR-GUID-HERE-50b9ecdb0a41">
<Package InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" />
<Media Id="1" Cabinet="WebAppWixProject.cab" EmbedCab="yes" />
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="WebApplicationFolder" Name="MyWebApp">
<Component Id="ProductComponent" Guid="80b0ee2a-YOUR-GUID-HERE-33a23eb0588e">
<File Id="Default.aspx" Name="Default.aspx" Source="..\MyWebApp\Default.aspx" DiskId="1" />
<File Id="Default.aspx.cs" Name="Default.aspx.cs" Source="..\MyWebApp\Default.aspx.cs" DiskId="1"/>
<iis:WebVirtualDir Id="MyWebApp" Alias="MyWebApp" Directory="WebApplicationFolder" WebSite="DefaultWebSite">
<iis:WebApplication Id="TestWebApplication" Name="Test" />
</iis:WebVirtualDir>
</Component>
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Directory>
<!--
IMPORTANT
Add a virtual directory to an existing web site
If put it inside the Component, a new Web Site will be created and uninstall will remove it
-->
<iis:WebSite Id='DefaultWebSite' Description='Default Web Site' Directory='WebApplicationFolder'>
<iis:WebAddress Id="AllUnassigned" Port="80" />
</iis:WebSite>
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="Vince Wix 3 Web Service" Level="1">
<ComponentRef Id="ProductComponent" />
</Feature>
</Product>
</Wix>
<!--
IMPORTANT
To get rid of light.exe location error, do the following on the Linker Tab:
Set culture to: en-US
Supress Schema Validation in the Advanced Button
-->

Answer 4

I'm not familiar with WiX, but both IIS 6 and 7 can be managed using WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) objects. I've used both PowerShell and C# to create websites, virtual directories, permissions etc on IIS. You should be able to get your hands on these objects from most scripting environments.

Answer 5

The above snippets use the iis:WebAddress in an improper way. You need to add IP="*" if you want this to work with all websites that match the name and the port. The above example fails during the install if there is an ip address assigned to the website in IIS (wix CA will not find it in general)
Rant: wix is terrible for many reasons, in my opinion and this is a good example. If the attribute is missing it will only work for websites with the default IP - how unintuitive is this. Wix should at least emit a waring for a missing IP element. Furthermore the default IP (localhost) is represented as * in IIS metabase, at the same time in the wix file * means all websites (not only *). So it is really confusing and not intuitive at all.