Wix Designer feature roadmap

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Wix Designer feature roadmap
Are there any plans for adding more functionality? 
Alex Dragoner


Guest


Hello there,

We've recently acquired a copy of Wix Designer and are wondering if you could share the development roadmap for this product for the next year at least.

Though it is clearly a useful and nicely integrated VS tool for creating Wix installer packages from scratch, we believe that there is still not enough added value in terms of functionality. There is still quite a lot of manual editing required, no helpers with variable completion, but the absence of the UI designer is the major gap.

Do you have any plans to integrate the UI designer and improve the visual editing experience by adding more helpers?

Kind regards,
Alex
Posted 20 Dec, 2016 16:09:33 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18829
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Alex,

Thank you for this post. We are ready to discuss any idea. We are going to implement the designer which will allow designing standard and custom forms. Plus some little useful things.

Alex Dragoner writes:
There is still quite a lot of manual editing required


Could you pleas explain this point?


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 21 Dec, 2016 07:49:03 Top
Alex Dragoner


Guest


Hello Andrei,

I?Â?Ð?ém delighted to hear that you have plans to evolve Wix Designer because it is a good tool. I think its main value is to let people create any installation packages they need quickly and reliably. Wix XML standard is great, but there is absolutely no reason to deal with it manually when it can be generated by the tool like yours.

Don?Â?Ð?ét get me wrong ?Â?Ð?ã the experience with Wix Designer was quite positive so far. I was able to create the installer in a matter of minutes without knowing Wix format and even without reading any documentation. That was exactly what was needed. But when I started customizing it, I had to do it in WXS directly as there was simply no support in any of the property editors. For example, package properties. I also had to add some defines to deal with ?Â?Ð?ìProgram Files?Â?Ð?í directory for combined (both 32 and 64 bit) package, not to mention the custom UI dialogs.

Great integration with Visual Studio and compliance with the latest Wix standard definitely make the tool quite attractive. However, if you make an effort and try to turn it into a pure visual editor with rare (if non-at all) editing of the source WXS files with a few features like completion helpers, UI editor and theme support, the overall value will increase significantly.

Kind regards,
Alex
Posted 21 Dec, 2016 16:03:35 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18829
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Thank you, Alex.

Alex Dragoner writes:
For example, package properties.


You can select the WiX project and check the Properties window.

Could you please provide more details about adding defines for combined (both 32 and 64 bit) package?

If you have other ideas, don't hesitate, please ))


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 22 Dec, 2016 07:02:25 Top
Alex Dragoner


Guest


Hi Andrei,

I meant these package properties: 

<Package Id="*" InstallerVersion="400" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine"  Description="!(loc.ProductDescription)"...>


This is the example of defines: 

<!-- 32-bit / 64-bit variables -->
<?if $(var.Platform) = x64 ?>
   <?define Win64 = "yes" ?>
   <?define PlatformProgramFilesFolder = "ProgramFiles64Folder" ?>
   <?define uberAgentExeSourcePath = ...
<?else ?>
   <?define Win64 = "no" ?>
   <?define PlatformProgramFilesFolder = "ProgramFilesFolder" ?>
   <?define uberAgentExeSourcePath = ...
<?endif ?>


Kind regards,
Alex
Posted 23 Dec, 2016 03:13:00 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18829
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Thank you!


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 23 Dec, 2016 09:40:45 Top
Alex Dragoner


Guest


Hello Andrei,

Do you have any (at least approximate) dates of the next release?

Kind regards,
Alex
Posted 09 Jan, 2017 07:29:12 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18829
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Alex,

In February. Most probably, by the end of February.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 09 Jan, 2017 09:26:49 Top