I am authoring a WiX bundle that installs several other pre-build packages, some are MSIs and some are EXEs.
One of the EXE packages requires a settings file to be supplied which I have to give the path to on the command line.
<ExePackage Id="exePackage"
Description="Executable Installer"
PerMachine="yes"
InstallCommand="-settings=TheConfigurationFile.txt"
SourceFile="RedistributablePackages\TheInstaller.exe" >
How should I package TheConfigurationFile.txt so that the EXE installer can find it? It isn't clear to me how to do that as I can't seem to find any way to specify a file in connection with the ExePackage...?
Check out the Payload element.
<Payload SourceFile="TheConfigurationFile.txt"/>
Related
Going from this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/15985524/552448
<Wix>
<Bundle...>
<BootstrapperApplicationRef Id='WixStandardBootstrapperApplication.HyperlinkLicense' />
<Chain>
<MsiPackage SourceFile="prereq1.msi" />
....
<MsiPackage InstallCondition='NOT VersionNT64' SourceFile='path\to\x86.msi' />
<MsiPackage InstallCondition='VersionNT64' SourceFile='path\to\x64.msi' />
</Chain>
</Bundle>
</Wix>
All the projects in my solution target "Any CPU", with the exception of the bootstrapper and the MSI package, thus I'm using a shared cabinet to avoid doubling the final size of the bootstrapper.
I know I have to build the MSI with x86, then with x64 and finally build the bootstrapper. Did this manually and it works.
However, I'd like to automate these steps.
I've been trying to add a Prebuild event to the Bundle wixproj file, something along the lines of
$(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild "$(SolutionDir)MyMSI\MyMSI.wixproj" /p:Platform=x86;Configuration=Release
$(MSBuildBinPath)\msbuild "$(SolutionDir)MyMSI\MyMSI.wixproj" /p:Platform=x64;Configuration=Release
However, this fails with this error:
The OutputPath property is not set for project 'MyLibrary.csproj'. Please check to make sure that you have specified a valid combination of Configuration and Platform for this project. Configuration='Release' Platform='x86'. You may be seeing this message because you are trying to build a project without a solution file, and have specified a non-default Configuration or Platform that doesn't exist for this project.
I'd like to make it work without having to go through all the projects in order to add the combination of platform/configuration. After all, this works if I right click MyMSI and choose build.
Surely I must be missing something.
It was pretty obvious - create two separate MSI projects - one with x86, the other with x64, both using the same files.
I've got following problem: With WiX 3.7 I have built an installer which creates several localized MSI files, for example:
..\bin\x86\Release\en-us\myProject.msi
..\bin\x86\Release\fr-fr\myProject.msi
..\bin\x86\Release\de-de\myProject.msi
Furthermore, I created a Burn bootstrapper project which should ensure that .NET 4.5 is installed:
...
<Chain>
<PackageGroupRef Id="NetFx45Web"/>
<MsiPackage SourceFile="$(var.myProject.TargetPath)"></MsiPackage>
</Chain>
...
Now I have expected that the Burn bootstrapper project creates:
..\bin\x86\Release\en-us\myProject.exe
..\bin\x86\Release\fr-fr\myProject.exe
..\bin\x86\Release\de-de\myProject.exe
but MsiPackage expects a single file.
Is it generally possible to make the Burn project work as I expect?
If this is not the case, is it possible to get to know how the exact name of the created MSI file? I can not hard code the MSI file name, because the output name can vary.
I don't think that this is possible... If you are using MSBuild or something similar you can build it as you're building your MSI packages.
Or you can use a simple script which will call candle.exe with parameter -dYOUR_VARIABLE=myProject.msi.
See Working with MSBuild for more information.
I wrote a shell extension (item in explorer's file context menu), and used WiX's heat to create an MSI from the DLL.
PROBLEM: Installing the MSI does not make the context menu item appear.
In contrast, running Regasm.exe my.dll /codebase makes the item appear.
heat writes registry keys into HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\, while
Regasm writes registry keys into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\.
I could modify the heat-generated WXS to write to the same registry path as Regasm, but MSDN suggests HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and apparently some users are not be able to write into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE... is there a better solution?
HKCR is an alias for HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\ when your MSI package is per-machine. The easiest way to ensure pre-machine package is to set the InstallScope on the Package element:
<Wix>
<Product ...>
<Package InstallScope='perMachine' />
I am using WiX Burn to make my installer, i am bundling one exe and one msi.
And the exe needs an properties file at the time of install.
Is there a way to copy the file using burn, i tried Payload but it is not working.
Can i know the location throguh any Bundle variable where my file is copied.
Thanks
Ravi S
Make sure you are specifying the properties file as the payload for the exe and not for the bootstrapper. For example, in your bundle, your chain may look something like this:
<Chain>
<MsiPackage SourceFile="MyInstaller.msi" Id="MyInstaller" Cache="yes"/>
<ExePackage SourceFile="MyExe.exe" Id="MyExe" Cache="yes">
<Payload SourceFile="OtherFile.properties" Id="Properties"/>
</ExePackage>
</Chain>
Also, as a sanity check, which version of WiX are you using? If you are using an older build (such as RC0), you could try updating to the latest weekly build.
Update:
In WiX 3.6 it does not appear that you can get the absolute path of a payload file. There are two bugs/feature request open right now regarding the issue that are deferred to WiX 3.7:
Add burn variable to cache path - ID: 3557446
Change working folder to the cache folder - ID: 3538846
One workaround would be to use burn to write your own bootstrapper application and then programmatically determine the working directory and set the appropriate parameters, but that would be a lot of work for this one issue.
I want to package multiple MSIs into a single install package, hence I am using Burn from Wix3.6.
I want to have a simple user interface allowing to select which package(s) should be installed.
I understand the standard BA (wixstdba.dll) does not provide this functionnality and that I need to write my own BA.
I have been looking at project 'wixstdba' from the 'wix36-sources' package as an example of a C++ BA. To get started I have tried simply rebuilding the project and adding the resulting DLL to my Bundle as follows:
<Bundle
Name="$(var.ProductName)"
Version="$(var.ProductVersion)"
Manufacturer="$(var.VendorName)"
UpgradeCode="$(var.UpgradeCode)" >
<BootstrapperApplication SourceFile="wixstdba.dll" />
<Chain>
...
I succesfully built the Bundle:
light -ext WixBalExtension.dll -ext WixUIExtension -ext WixUtilExtension installer-v$(VERSION).wixobj -o installer-v$(VERSION).exe
candle -o installer-v$(VERSION).wixobj bundle.wxs -d"Platform=x64"
However, when I run the resulting .exe, nothing happens. No UI appears, no software is installed and no error message.
Any idea what I might be doing wrong?
When you run the .exe, it should create a log file in your system's %TEMP% folder. This should tell you if any errors are being encountered. The file name will be the product name (with spaces replaced with underscores). The easiest way to find it is to open a Windows Explorer window, type "%TEMP%" for the folder name, and sort by Date Modified desc. The top file is likely the right one.
It is likely that the bootstrapper is running, but when it attempts to load your code it is unable to load some dependency, or otherwise has some error. Hopefully, the log will provide enough hints for you to find the issue.
If you end up needing to add additional libraries/files to be used by your BA, add them to the bundle payload files, like this:
<BootstrapperApplicationRef SourceFile="wixstdba.dll" >
<Payload SourceFile="$(var.ReferencedProject.TargetDir)\file.needed.at.runtime" />
</BootstrapperApplicationRef>
This will place the file in the same folder as your unpacked BA at runtime.