MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\Windows Installer FAQ (the basics)VB Declarations

---

Windows Installer Basics: VB Declarations

This is basic documentation badly missing from the MS doco...

Note that generally I use VBSCRIPT wherever possible as its much faster and easier to build but not everything can be done in script and you may need to work around script alerts.

To work out the values of constants, SDK include files such as "MSI.H" and "MsiQuery.H" can be examined (of course again it would be better if they were documented).

I have added tried and tested declarations here, let me know if you have others:

• MsiCloseAllHandles()
  Closes all open handles. Return code is the number of handles actually closed.

  Public Declare Function MsiCloseAllHandles Lib "msi.dll" () As Integer

• MsiCloseHandle()
  Closes any handle types. Return code of zero indicates success.

  Public Declare Function MsiCloseHandle Lib "msi.dll" (ByVal hAny As Long) As Integer

• MsiDatabaseCommit()
  Commits database. Call before closing handle. Return code of zero indicates success.

  Public Declare Function MsiDatabaseCommit Lib "msi.dll" (ByVal hDatabase As Long) As Integer

• MsiDatabaseIsTablePersistent()
  

  Public Declare Function MsiDatabaseIsTablePersistent Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiDatabaseIsTablePersistentA" (
         ByVal hDatabase   As Long,
         ByVal szTableName As String
         ) As Long

• MsiDatabaseMerge()
  Merges two databases. Return code of zero indicates success.

  public Declare Function MsiDatabaseMerge Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiDatabaseMergeA" ( _
         ByVal hDatabaseInTo As Long,  _
         ByVal hDatabaseFrom As Long,  _
         ByVal MsiName       As String _
         ) As Integer

• MsiDatabaseOpenView()
  Open a view. Execute the view with MsiViewExecute(). Close Handle when complete. Return code of zero indicates success.

  Public Declare Function MsiDatabaseOpenView Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiDatabaseOpenViewA" ( _
         ByVal hDatabase  As Long,   _
         ByVal szSqlQuery As String, _
         ByRef hView      As Long    _
         ) As Integer

• MsiDoAction()
  Return code of zero indicates success.

  public Declare Function MsiDoAction Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiDoActionA" ( _
         ByVal hInstall As Long,   _
         ByVal szAction As String  _
         ) As Integer

• MsiEnableLog()
  Return code of zero indicates success.

  public Declare Function MsiEnableLog Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiEnableLogA" ( _
         ByVal dwLogMode       As Long,   _
         ByVal szLogFile       As String, _
         ByVal dwLogAttributes As Long    _
         ) As Integer

• MsiGetDatabaseState()
  Return code of zero indicates success.

  Public Declare Function MsiGetDatabaseState Lib "msi.dll" (ByVal hDatabase As Long) As Long

• MsiInstallProduct()
  Return code of zero indicates success.

  public Declare Function MsiInstallProduct Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiInstallProductA" ( _
         ByVal MsiName As String, _
         ByVal CmdLine As String  _
         ) As Integer

• MsiOpenDatabase()
  Commit and close handle when finished! Return code of zero indicates success.

  '--- 2nd parameter is a perstance mode (2=Direct etc) ----
  Public Declare Function MsiOpenDatabase Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiOpenDatabaseA"( _
         ByVal szFileName   As String,  _
         ByVal iPersistMode As Integer, _
         ByRef hDatabase    As Long     _
         ) As Integer
  
  '--- 2nd parameter is a file name ----
  Public Declare Function MsiOpenDatabaseFN Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiOpenDatabaseA"( _
         ByVal szFileName    As String, _
         ByVal szNewFileName As String, _
         ByRef hDatabase     As Long    _
         ) As Integer

• MsiOpenPackage()
  Return code of zero indicates success.

  public Declare Function MsiOpenPackage Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiOpenPackageA" ( _
         ByVal szFileName As String, _
         ByRef hProduct   As Long    _
         ) As Integer

• MsiSetInternalUI()
  Can be used to turn off the normal internal user interface.

  public Declare Function MsiSetInternalUI Lib "msi.dll" ( _
         ByVal dwMessageFilter As Long, _
         ByRef puiHandler      As Long  _
         ) As Integer

• MsiSetExternalUI()
  Sets up an external handler for all (or some) user interface messages. Return code of zero indicates success.

  public Declare Function MsiSetExternalUI Lib "msi.dll" Alias "MsiSetExternalUIA" ( _
         ByVal puiHandler      As Long,  _
         ByVal dwMessageFilter As Long,  _
         ByVal pvContext       As String _
         ) As Long

• MsiViewExecute()
  Executes a view opened with MsiDatabaseOpenView(). Return code of zero indicates success.

  Public Declare Function MsiViewExecute Lib "msi.dll" ( _
         ByVal hView   As Long, _
         ByVal hRecord As Long  _
         ) As Integer

The above have been used with some degree of success in at least one program I have compiled and tested. There is no guarantee that they are 100% correct, if you know of a problem please let me know and I will update the list. If you can supply a very small working program as an example then I can add this to the doco.

Functions such as "MsiOpenDatabase()" show that there is not always one correct declaration and of course in the above I have not used the "W" versions (just the "A" for ANSI ones).

---

Please email me any feedback, additional information or corrections. See this page online (look for updates) MAKEMSI© is (C)opyright Dennis Bareis 2003-2008 (All rights reserved). Saturday May 28 2022 at 3:11pm Visit MAKEMSI's Home Page