Working with Transforms

[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change.]

Transforms greatly increase the flexibility of application installation by providing a way of recording changes to a database without altering the original database. Transforms are used extensively for upgrading and patching products. Merges and Transforms can operate on entire databases.

The following procedure describes a scenario in which a transform is used to localize a recent upgrade in the most efficient manner.

    To localize to French a recent upgrade of a product in English:

1. Localize to French a snapshot of an English version 1.0 of an application.
2. Develop the English version from version 1.0 to version 2.0.
3. Create a transform from the English version 1.0 to the English version 2.0 by calling MsiDatabaseGenerateTransform.
4. Apply this transform to the French version 1.0 to obtain a French version 2.0 by calling MsiDatabaseApplyTransform.

Following the preceding procedure results in a French version that requires minimal work to bring it to French version 2.0.