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Running RegAsm for an MSI install build with Visual Studio 2008

I'm a newbie to Installs in general. I used VIsual Studio 2008 to create an installation for a .Net object that needs to be registered in the system using RegAsm. (It is an Office Add-in.) The install that was created copies all the files correctly, but doesn't run RegAsm.

How do you instruct the MSI to run RegAsm?

Mr. Google didn't seem to know this one... yet.

I suspect there may be additional complications with the security model of Vista, but what I'm mostly interested now is just how to run RegAsm after the MSI copies all the files to where they need to be.

Thanks!! The command line is in the Code.

%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727\RegAsm.exe RtdServer.dll /codebase

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Vadim Rapp

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KellyTDDGuy

ASKER

In the web page it talks about running Tlbexp. Is there a way to run the Tlbexp other than as a Post Build step on the DLL to install? I try to avoid post build steps when I can as they are somewhat difficult to maintain.

Vadim Rapp

You run Tlbexp manually, produce the .tlb file, then include the resulting .tlb file in your installation.

KellyTDDGuy

ASKER

But if I change the interface, I have to run it again, right? I might not remember to do so at the appropriate time, leading to hard-to-understand issues later. Or am I missing something?

-Kelly

Vadim Rapp

> But if I change the interface, I have to run it again, right?

right. I thought you mentioned post-build of the setup project; if you meant instead post-build of the assembly itself, then yes, this is reasonable. You can probably specify it in the project properties/compile/build events.

KellyTDDGuy

ASKER

No, I meant in the post build of the assembly itself. I was just wondering if there was a property to instruct the build process to emit a tlb file, rather than having to do the post build step.

Vadim Rapp

I would look at the available switches of the command-line compiler. If compiler can do that, it probably would be one of the options.

KellyTDDGuy

ASKER

I suspected it should be easy... This url is similar to the one you pointed to, but had a bit more information and was better written.
http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/visual-studio/build-and-deploy-a-.net-com-assembly/

Thanks for your help. I have it working now!

-Kelly