Create Wix installer for Windows Service

In this article I'm going to discuss create wix installer for windows service. in this scenario i considered about following situation.

• Attach Exe with App.config
• Attach external dll
• Modify App.config values based on installed location.

for this you can use either visual studio editor or Wix Editor. 

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  
 <Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi" xmlns:util="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/UtilExtension">  
   <Product Id="5AC767F2-4F21-45DF-9DAB-C013C62B2B67" Name="Installer" Language="1033" Version="1.0.0.0" Manufacturer="TRT " UpgradeCode="3fd83540-23f6-45f4-bb1c-e77c12725680">  
     <Package InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" />  
     <Media Id="1" Cabinet="SampleApp.cab" EmbedCab="yes" />  
     <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">  
       <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">  
         <Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="Installer">  
           <Directory Id="TestService" Name="TestService">  
             <Component Id="MainExecutable" Guid="CE30D5D8-3211-4890-A9DC-0C315C15B39E">  
               <File Id="testServiceexe" Name="TestInstallerProject.exe" DiskId="1" KeyPath="yes" Source="..\TestInstallerProject\bin\Debug\TestInstallerProject.exe" />  
               <File Id="TestInstallerProject.exe.config" Name="TestInstallerProject.exe.config" Source="..\TestInstallerProject\App.config" Vital="yes" DiskId="1" />  
               <File Id="GOOGLE.GDATA.ANALYTICS.DLL" Name="Google.GData.Analytics.dll" Source="..\TestInstallerProject\bin\Debug\Google.GData.Analytics.dll" />  
               <File Id="GOOGLE.GDATA.CLIENT.DLL" Name="Google.GData.Client.dll" Source="..\TestInstallerProject\bin\Debug\Google.GData.Client.dll" />  
               <ServiceInstall Name="ScheduledService" Type="ownProcess" Start="auto" ErrorControl="ignore" Id="ServiceInstaller" DisplayName="ScheduledService" Account="[SERVICEACCOUNT]" Password="[SERVICEACCOUNTPASSWORD]">  
                 <util:ServiceConfig FirstFailureActionType="restart" SecondFailureActionType="restart" ThirdFailureActionType="restart" ResetPeriodInDays="1" RestartServiceDelayInSeconds="1" />  
               </ServiceInstall>  
               <ServiceControl Id="StartService" Name="ScheduledService" Start="install" Stop="both" Remove="uninstall" Wait="no" />  
               <RemoveFolder Id="INSTALLDIR" On="uninstall" />  
               <util:XmlFile Id="ModifyServiceLocation" ElementPath="//configuration/appSettings/add[\[]@key='TextLocation'[\]]/@value" File="[TestService]\TestInstallerProject.exe.config" Action="setValue" Value="[TestService]ScheduledServiceNew.txt" PreserveModifiedDate="yes" SelectionLanguage="XPath" Sequence="1" />  
             </Component>  
           </Directory>  
         </Directory>  
       </Directory>  
     </Directory>  
     <Feature Id="Complete" Title="Installer" Level="1">  
       <ComponentRef Id="MainExecutable" />  
     </Feature>  
     <UI>  
     </UI>  
   </Product>  
 </Wix>  

when attache app.config, you have to consider about name and the id of the config. it should be the name of the exe.

 <File Id="TestInstallerProject.exe.config" Name="TestInstallerProject.exe.config" Source="..\TestInstallerProject\App.config" Vital="yes" DiskId="1" />  

for modify the App.config have to use util:XmlFile tag. in here my app.config file is something like this.

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>  
 <configuration>  
  <appSettings>  
   <add key="TextLocation" value="d:\ScheduledServiceNew.txt"/>  
  </appSettings>  
 </configuration>  

I want to update it into something like this:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>  
 <configuration>  
  <appSettings>  
   <add key="TextLocation" value="C:\Program Files (x86)\Installer\TestService\ScheduledServiceNew.txt"/>  
  </appSettings>  
 </configuration>  

for that i have to use  util:XmlFile tag as follows:

 <util:XmlFile Id="ModifyServiceLocation" ElementPath="//configuration/appSettings/add[\[]@key='TextLocation'[\]]/@value" File="[TestService]\TestInstallerProject.exe.config" Action="setValue" Value="[TestService]ScheduledServiceNew.txt" PreserveModifiedDate="yes" SelectionLanguage="XPath" Sequence="1" />  

once you compile the project you can create installer using wix for windows service