Adventures in Installing a C#/WPF Application (WiX) - wix

Question

I've got a C#/WPF application that is one step up from simple - it's got the main application, a couple of libraries, and then some NuGet packages. If I look in the project's bin/release/netcoreapp3.1 directory, there's a single EXE, a couple of JSONs, and a bunch of DLLs (some of which have PDBs). Nothing too crazy. The client wants an installer which doesn't sound like an unreasonable request.
I first try the installer that comes with Visual Studio 2019 and am astounded at how useless it is. After deleting it, I poke around on the interwebs and discover that WiX seems to be relatively popular. Ok, says I, I will try it.
After installing the WiX Toolset Build Tools (which sounds a bit redundant) and the WiX Toolset Visual Studio Extension, and restarting Visual Studio, it's looking good. I right-click on my solution, select "Add" and "New Project" and see "Setup Project for WiX v3" which looks good. I click Next, name it Installer, and I get this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
<Product Id="*" Name="Installer" Language="1033" Version="1.0.0.0" Manufacturer="" UpgradeCode="2995de5a-87ef-443d-a25a-450d39720349">
<Package InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine" />
<MajorUpgrade DowngradeErrorMessage="A newer version of [ProductName] is already installed." />
<MediaTemplate />
<Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="Installer" Level="1">
<ComponentGroupRef Id="ProductComponents" />
</Feature>
</Product>
<Fragment>
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder">
<Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="Installer" />
</Directory>
</Directory>
</Fragment>
<Fragment>
<ComponentGroup Id="ProductComponents" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER">
<!-- TODO: Remove the comments around this Component element and the ComponentRef below in order to add resources to this installer. -->
<!-- <Component Id="ProductComponent"> -->
<!-- TODO: Insert files, registry keys, and other resources here. -->
<!-- </Component> -->
</ComponentGroup>
</Fragment>
</Wix>
Which looks promising. If I try to build it gives me the error "The Product/#Manufacturer attribute's value cannot be an empty string" which is a textbook example of what an error message should look like. Precise, tells me exactly what is happening, and points me in the direction of what I need to do. I'm liking this! I put some text in the Manufacturer attribute, rebuild, and it says "Build: 1 succeeded" and I have an installer. It does give me the warning "The media table has no entries" which makes perfect sense as I haven't told it to install any files.
I start reading the official WiX tutorial and it's painfully verbose. It's not actually a tutorial as much as a treatise on why WiX is the way it is. I don't actually care at this point, I just want the darn thing to work. I want a tutorial, not the entire history of the company. Eventually I find a link for "Getting Started" and I feel a little better. But again, instead of getting me started, I get a lengthy explanation of the internal workings of the system. At this point I DON'T CARE. I want to get a basic installer working, then you can hit me with some details. After several more pages of the author thinking he or she is a university professor in a lecture, I finally get some XML - and it's for a media tag that I may or may not need, it's not at all clear. And, since there isn't a Media tag in the WXS file that was generated for me, I don't know where it goes.
Giving up on the tutorial, I do a Google search for "wix "visual studio" project" and find this page which has a link for "Creating a simple setup" which is perfect. It actually takes me through what I need, step-by-step. I follow the instructions, hit Build, and it says "Build: 1 succeeded". I find the MSI file, run it, there's no UI which seems odd but I can live with that, and it creates a folder in my "Program Files (x86)" folder that has the primary DLL for my project. Progress!
So now I need to include the DLLs constructed from my library projects, and all the DLLs that were included from NuGet packages. It would be cool if I could tell WiX "please include all the files required by my various NuGet packets" but poking around the web, it appears WiX doesn't know how to do that, but that's OK, really all I need is for the installer to include all of the DLLs that end up in my bin/release/netcoreapp3.1 directory.
Trying the obvious wildcard approach:
<ComponentGroup Id="ProductComponents" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER">
<Component Id="ProductComponent">
<File Source="$(var.MyApplication.TargetPath)" />
<File Source="$(var.MyApplication.TargetDir)/*" />
</Component>
</ComponentGroup>
Just gives an error that is not as easy to read as the first error, but does seem to indicate the asterisk is a no-go. If I do a Google search for "wix add all files in directory" returns a whole bunch of different suggestions, all of which are complicated, which seems odd for such a basic thing. But following the instructions in this page, I end up with an installer that almost works. I get the error "Undefined preprocessor variable $(var.HarvestPath)". This page happened to have the answer to that one, and I have a working installer again. But now it's including absolutely everything in that folder, and I only want the DLLs. Doing a Google search for "wix heatdirectory exclude files" gives no answers, it appears this feature is relatively brain-dead.
So here is my current WIXPROJ:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" DefaultTargets="Build" InitialTargets="EnsureWixToolsetInstalled" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<DefineConstants>HarvestPath=...\Deploy</DefineConstants>
<HeatDefinitions>MySourcePath=..\src\Your.App\bin\Release</HeatDefinitions>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<Configuration Condition=" '$(Configuration)' == '' ">Debug</Configuration>
<Platform Condition=" '$(Platform)' == '' ">x86</Platform>
<ProductVersion>3.10</ProductVersion>
<ProjectGuid>4ece284d-9247-4f7a-84a7-34820606a003</ProjectGuid>
<SchemaVersion>2.0</SchemaVersion>
<OutputName>Installer</OutputName>
<OutputType>Package</OutputType>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Debug|x86' ">
<OutputPath>bin\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
<IntermediateOutputPath>obj\$(Configuration)\</IntermediateOutputPath>
<DefineConstants>Debug</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup Condition=" '$(Configuration)|$(Platform)' == 'Release|x86' ">
<OutputPath>bin\$(Configuration)\</OutputPath>
<IntermediateOutputPath>obj\$(Configuration)\</IntermediateOutputPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Compile Include="Product.wxs" />
<!-- This will be your default one -->
<Compile Include="HeatGeneratedFileList.wxs" />
<!-- This is the Heat created one -->
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\MyApplication\MyApplication.csproj">
<Name>MyApplication</Name>
<Project>{6064dca8-d649-4592-bed5-34039bb3d30d}</Project>
<Private>True</Private>
<DoNotHarvest>True</DoNotHarvest>
<RefProjectOutputGroups>Binaries;Content;Satellites</RefProjectOutputGroups>
<RefTargetDir>INSTALLFOLDER</RefTargetDir>
</ProjectReference>
</ItemGroup>
<Import Project="$(WixTargetsPath)" Condition=" '$(WixTargetsPath)' != '' " />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\WiX\v3.x\Wix.targets" Condition=" '$(WixTargetsPath)' == '' AND Exists('$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\WiX\v3.x\Wix.targets') " />
<Target Name="EnsureWixToolsetInstalled" Condition=" '$(WixTargetsImported)' != 'true' ">
<Error Text="The WiX Toolset v3.11 (or newer) build tools must be installed to build this project. To download the WiX Toolset, see http://wixtoolset.org/releases/" />
</Target>
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
<HeatDirectory Directory="..\MyApplication\bin\$(Configuration)\netcoreapp3.1"
PreprocessorVariable="var.MyApplication.ProjectDir"
OutputFile="HeatGeneratedFileList.wxs"
ComponentGroupName="HeatGenerated"
DirectoryRefId="INSTALLFOLDER"
AutogenerateGuids="true"
ToolPath="$(WixToolPath)"
SuppressFragments="true"
SuppressRegistry="true"
SuppressRootDirectory="true" />
</Target>
<!--
To modify your build process, add your task inside one of the targets below and uncomment it.
Other similar extension points exist, see Wix.targets.
<Target Name="BeforeBuild">
</Target>
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
</Target>
-->
</Project>
All I want is a simple installer that copies over the EXE and associated DLLs. Why is this so difficult? Can WiX do what I need? Or do I need a different installer toolkit?