Deploy Web-Api, Asp.net project and a Windows service in one msi project

Question

Is it possible to deploy ;

1- a web-api project
2- a website written in Asp.net
3- a WCF service as windows service

in one msi file using/in Windows Web Installer Project (preferably) or in Wix ?

Answer 1

Yes, it is possible using WiX. I maintain an open source project called IsWiX that even makes it somewhat easy. See:

Create and Package a Windows Service using IsWiX
IsWiX Web Site Demo

The concept behind IsWiX is project templates (scaffolding) and graphical designers that give you a project structure and most heavy lifting for your WiX MSI project. The template already contains examples of IIS configuration that merely need to be uncommented out. If you need a Web API and a Web Site you'll have to clone that part of the code and make a few adjustments. For example a static website typically won't be a web application where a web-api will be. Then you'll use the services designer to define the windows service. The fact that the service hosts a WCF endpoint really doesn't matter.

For that matter, one of the really cool things about WCF is it's possible to eliminate your dependencies on IIS. I've seen solutions using this with no dependency on IIS and this really makes creating installers a lot simpler.