What I want to do is copy the value of a single property, and place it as the value of another property. Is this possible with Wix?
<Property Id="PROP1" Value="default" Secure="yes"/>
I want PROP2 to have the same value some where during the UI sequence.
You can use Custom action to accomplish it. Define action as
<CustomAction Id="SetMyProperty" Execute="immediate" Property="PROP2" Value="[PROP1]" />
Then call it in <InstallUISequence> or <InstallExecuteSequence> when you need it set, something like
<Custom Action="SetMyProperty" After="FileCost"></Custom>
Although #Mischo5500 answer is correct, there is a more elegant way to achieve the same. You can use a special element, <SetProperty>, which was designed exactly for that purpose.
The benefits of using it is:
It's just one line of WiX code
It is scheduled properly by default into both sequences
The name of the element is more natural and self-explanatory
Thus, the above example can be transformed into the following:
<SetProperty Id="PROP2" Value="[PROP1]" After="FileCost" />
Related
I have to pass a value to my custom action in patch release for my feature. I did some research and did the following:
<CustomAction Id="CustomAction1" Property="customaction2" Value="Value1" />
<CustomAction Id="customaction2" BinaryKey="Binary.dll"
DllEntry="Functionname" Impersonate="no"
Execute="immediate" Return="check" />
I also updated the installExecuteSequence as below:
<Custom Action='CustomAction1' After="InstallFinalize"><![CDATA[PATCH]]></Custom>
<Custom Action='customaction2' After="CustomAction1"><![CDATA[PATCH]]></Custom>
I also added the componentrefs to the patch.wxs file.
<CustomActionRef Id="CustomAction1.PackageGuid"/>
<CustomActionRef Id="customaction2.PackageGuid"/>
To access this parameter value, I tried the following code in my customaction "Functionname" :
var value = session.Property["CustomActionData"];
The "value" is Empty. I did some debugging and found that, i am getting the value from below code:
var value = session.Property["customaction2.PackageGuid"];
I have not seen any examples that access properties with packageGuids also. I am not sure why the first approach(using "CustomActionData") is not working for me.
Can you guys let me know what i am missing?
Also, Is there any harm in using with packageGuids? If not, i am planning to continue this way. Please let me know if you need me to try any other st
I have a Merge Module which installs a file. I would like to use a property passed to the Merge Module during MSI creation. Something like:
<Configuration Name='FileNameProperty'
Format='Text'
DefaultValue='[FileNameProperty]' />
<Substitution Table='CustomAction'
Row='SetFileName'
Column='Target'
Value='[=FileNameProperty]' />
<CustomAction Id='SetFileName'
Property='MYFILENAME'
Value='[MYFILENAME]' />
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action='SetFileName'
Before='LaunchConditions'>1</Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
...
<File Name="[MYFILENAME]"
Source="my-file.exe" />
Currently I am using a Custom Action, namely Type 51, which works when substituting property values for other element attributes, such as ServiceInstall DisplayName. However, in this instance the file is deployed as [MYFILENAME].
I've looked through the other Custom Actions provided by MSDN, but can't find anything that fits this situation. Any suggestions or idea if this is even possible?
My last ditch option is to include File elements for each variation of file name and select the desired file based off condition, but I would like to avoid that.
File names aren't formatted so properties can't be used. If you use multiple files, WiX's smart cabbing ensures the copies don't take up extra space in your cabinet.
The aim is that if the value isn't found in the registry then I want to assign a default value and then have that value display as the default value in a field in the installer UI. The default value I actually want to use is [ComputerName] but obviously I can't use [ComputerName] directly in the property value attribute because it will give me errors on compiling, specifically:
warning CNDL1077: The 'MYPROPERTY' Property contains '[ComputerName]'
in its value which is an illegal reference to another property. If
this value is a string literal, not a property reference, please
ignore this warning. To set a property with the value of another
property, use a CustomAction with Property and Value attributes.
I want to get it working with plain text before I even try [ComputerName] but so far I can't even get that working.
In my project I have a Product.wxs file which contains the Product element, lots of custom actions (most of which are running fine but they're all running significantly later) and the following elements which are not cooperating and which are all siblings under the Product element.
Property definition and registry search:
<Property Id="MYPROPERTY" Value="ADefaultValue">
<RegistrySearch Id="MyProperty" Type="raw" Root="HKLM" Win64="$(var.Win64)"
Key="Software\MyCompany\MyApplication" Name="MyProperty" />
</Property>
Custom action definition:
<CustomAction Id="SetMyPropertyDefault" Property="MYPROPERTY" Value="MyCustomValue" Execute="immediate"/>
Custom action execution:
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="SetMyPropertyDefault" After="AppSearch"><![CDATA[MYPROPERTY="ADefaultValue"]]></Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
It just will not work for me at all.
For the custom element content I have tried:
<Custom Action="SetMyPropertyDefault" After="AppSearch"><![CDATA[MYPROPERTY="ADefaultValue"]]></Custom>
<Custom Action="SetMyPropertyDefault" After="AppSearch">1</Custom> // I thought this would always run the custom action.
<Custom Action="SetMyPropertyDefault" After="AppSearch">NOT MYPROPERTY</Custom> // Back when I wasn't using the default value on the property at all.
The result is always the same, I'm still getting "ADefaultValue" showing up in the UI, never the alternate "MyCustomValue".
According to every blog and SO post I've seen I'm doing exactly what I should be doing except clearly I'm missing something.
Any ideas?
UPDATE/Answer:
The piece of information that I was missing which was provided by #sutarmin-anton was that InstallUISequence runs before InstallExecuteSequence (seems counter-intuitive to me but there you go).
But as it happened I didn't need to explicitly duplicate the custom action call in each of the install sequence elements, instead I used the SetProperty element.
So now I've got the following in my Product.wxs as children of the Product element:
<Property Id="MYPROPERTY">
<RegistrySearch Id="MyProperty" Type="raw" Root="HKLM" Win64="$(var.Win64)" Key="Software\MyCompany\MyApplication" Name="MyProperty" />
</Property>
<SetProperty Id="MYPROPERTY" After="AppSearch" Value="[ComputerName]">NOT MYPROPERTY</SetProperty>
It now runs the SetProperty after AppSearch in both InstallUISequence and InstallExecuteSequence, but the second time it runs the NOT MYPROPERTY will come out false so it doesn't get reset, and of course if it's run in quiet mode it'll still work correctly.
When you going through installer UI, installation is in InstallUISequence. InstallExecuteSequence runs after all UI events. This is cause of you have not seen "MyCustomValue". To change your property before UI sequence you should place your custom action in "InstallUISequence".
By the way, why don't you set default value of your property to "MyCustomValue"? Then, if AppSearch wont find value in regisrty, it just leave default value that you are trying to set manually.
You may be overcomplicating things. The MYPROPERTY value will not be set at all if you don't set a default. So then you call your CA to set it if 'NOT MYPROPERTY'
I see that you've tried this, and I'd say it's the correct approach that I'd try to diagnose rather than try something else. A verbose log would be invaluable. Do a:
msiexec /i [path to msi] /l*vx [path to a text log file]
and see what CA is called, what AppSearch does, property values etc.
Your original comment of "I can't use [ComputerName] - if that's the problem why not tell us what happened and maybe there is a solution that doesn't require all this. What's the compile error, for example?
I've got different installation modes. Depending on the parameters I do things like:
<Property Id="PROP1" Value="Value1" />
<SetProperty Id="PROP1" Before="CostFinalize" Sequence="execute" Value="Value2"></SetProperty>
The problem is that I've got more than 2 options, when I'm adding them I'm getting.
Duplicate symbol 'CustomAction:SetPROP1' found.
Is there a way to have some sort of switch statement or how do you handle multiple conditionals?
Another trouble is, I've got multiple variables set depending on the value (about 10 right now) and it's very cumbersome to list them all with absolutely the same code
<SetProperty Id="PROP2" Before="CostFinalize" Sequence="execute" Value="Value2"></SetProperty>
<SetProperty Id="PROP3" Before="CostFinalize" Sequence="execute" Value="Value3"></SetProperty>
etc
Is there any way to make it like:
<Condition val="...">
<setProperty.../>
<setProperty.../>
<setProperty.../>
</Condition>
Thanks!
First of all, try to re-think the architecture of your installation program. Is it really necessary to set all those properties based on the same condition? Or maybe it's better to "condition"-ize the appropriate features and components in a more plain way?
Let's get back to the technical side of your question. The SetProperty element is just a shortcut which is "all-in-one" solution for defining a custom action which sets a property and scheduling it appropriately. It is true that you can't use it to set the same property to different value, because there's no ID attribute of the SetProperty element itself.
Instead, use the good old style of defining a custom action and scheduling it manually:
<CustomAction Id="SetProp11" Property="PROP1" Value="Value1" />
<CustomAction Id="SetProp12" Property="PROP1" Value="Value2" />
...
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="SetProp11" After="...">your condition here</Custom>
<Custom Action="SetProp12" After="...">your condition here</Custom>
...
</InstallExecuteSequence>
This definitely adds extra typing work and makes your code less readable, but this way you can work your problem around. However, let me emphasize once again - the fact that you have to invent workarounds means that the code starts to smell and it might make sense to re-think it through.
And I'm not aware about the way to set a number of properties in a bunch, like in switch statement. Alternatively, technically you can create a e.g. C# custom action and let it do the job for all the properties at once.
Hope this helps.
I searched through several questions at Stack Overflow, but nothing helped me. The problem is:
I look in the registry for some value (I know how to do that). I know how to set property. But I cannot find the way how to write this expression in WiX. This is what I want to write in pseudocode:
if(registryvalue contains substring1)
set property to value1
if(registryvalue contains substring2)
set property to value2
This condition must be evaluated at runtime. Is there a way to write this condition? What would some sample code look like?
You can use a type 51 custom action to set the property:
<CustomAction Id="SET_VALUE1" Property="TEST_PROPERTY" Value="value1" />
<CustomAction Id="SET_VALUE2" Property="TEST_PROPERTY" Value="value2" />
Use the condition when you call the custom action in install sequences:
<Custom Action="SET_VALUE1" After="AppSearch">Not Installed AND (REG_VALUE="substring1")</Custom>
<Custom Action="SET_VALUE2" After="AppSearch">Not Installed AND (REG_VALUE="substring2")</Custom>
Or you can write the custom actions in managed code like C#, and schedule it after AppSearch in case you have many comparisons.