Excel-DNA for 64 bit machine - Packaging/

Question

I have Excel-DNA application that needs to be distributed to the users on 64 bit environment.

I am researching on the Packaging/Installer options. Did anyone have any experience? Can someone throw light on this?

Thanks, Haritha

Answer 1

Installing the ExcelDna.AddIn package from NuGet into a "Class Library" project should set up the build so that you get (among other) these two files:

• MyLibrary-AddIn-packed.xll
• MyLibrary-AddIn64-packed.xll

If everything is set up properly, these are single-file add-ins for 32-bit and 64-bite Excel respectively, and you can just copy and load or install them. (You can also safely rename them if you want.)

That's the easiest approach.

For a more sophisticated installer, you can look at the WiX installer sample on GitHub. This project is a template that you can fork and then build your own .msi installer, based on the standard WiX toolkit.

Answer 2

If distributing your Custom library is what you want you may try a package manager like Chocolatey.

1. Create your own choclatey package as instructed here (You may want to write a Powershell script to copy your libs to the desired location and save it as chocolateyInstall.ps1)

2. Install the package on desired machines. (You will have to install chocolatey first on the target machines). You can write something like below

   @powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\chocolatey\bin"
   choco install YOURPACKAGENAME