Merging a Multiple Language Module into the Same Package Multiple Times

Windows Installer

Merging a Multiple Language Module into the Same Package Multiple Times

When a module supports multiple languages, you can merge it into the same Windows Installer database multiple times, but make sure that each merge uses a different language. Before each merge, request a different language from the module. The resulting .msi database then has a record in the ModuleSignature Table for each merge of the module. Components that are shared between languages exist only one time in the Component Table, but are associated with each language in the ModuleComponents Table.

When merging multiple languages of a module into the same package, each merge must satisfy the same restrictions on code pages as single-language modules. The modules cannot contain strings in different code pages.

When merging a module multiple times into a single .msi file, you may need to modify the order of the files in the File Table to use the existing .cab from the module directly in your installation. The order of files in the File Table must match the order of files in the .cab. When merging a module multiple times into an installation database the sequence may be modified, because files shared between the languages may already exist in the module from a prior merge, and they have a different relative sequence number.

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Build date: 8/13/2009

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