Update Outlook addin with .msi install but keep existing .config App. Settings file from previous install

Add-in Express™ Support Service
That's what is more important than anything else

Update Outlook addin with .msi install but keep existing .config App. Settings file from previous install
 
tadams


Guest


Hi,

My Outlook addin uses Application Settings to store some addin wide properties such as API tokens and URLs on a per client basis. When they install the addin these seem to be stored in the installation directory in a .config file, which I presume is read on addin startup.

Ideally if I have an update to our addin I want to be able to run the installation .msi or .exe and it overwrites the existing files with the updated ones, however I would like to keep the existing .config file (so I can produce a single update which works for all clients and doesn't overwrite their custom properties).

I tried commenting out the .config file in Product.wxs so it doesn't include it in the install, but when I tested this on a machine with an older version of my addin already installed it seemed to delete the existing .config file.

Do I need to add any specific commands to the Product.wxs file so it doesn't delete existing files within the install directory and only overwrites ones with the same name...etc? Is there a better way I can create this 'patch' install that will allow clients to manually update the addin but it keeps the original .config?

Thanks,
Tom
Posted 11 Apr, 2016 12:58:28 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18825
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Tom,

According to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730869%28VS.80%29.aspx (see section Saving User Settings at Run Time), the user-level settings are stored in user.config, not in the .config file in the installation folder.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 12 Apr, 2016 08:51:29 Top