TFS 2013 Build Cannot convert StringList to String[] - xaml

I added a new parameter and associated Metadata to the default TFS 2013 build definition.
<x:Property Name="ProjectFile" Type="InArgument(s:String[])" />
<mtbw:ProcessParameterMetadata Category="#600 Deployment" Description="The csproj file that will be used for deployment" DisplayName="Project to Deploy" Editor="Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Controls.BuildProjectListEditor, Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Controls" ParameterName="ProjectFile" />
Note that it is using the same editor as the ProjectsToBuild argument which also has a data type of string[]. However I get the following exception:
Cannot convert value '$/{...}.csproj' of type Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities.StringList to type System.String[].
Any ideas as to what I need to do differently?

You should change your property ("ProjectFile") to the type of Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities.StringList StringList.
I used the Reflector to check the type of BuildSettings.ProjectsToBuild and found that it uses the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.Activities.StringList StringList type.

Related

Wix Installer - Getting data from a Property

I am using Wix to make an installer and I was wondering how I indirectly get a property's value.
Like if I have a Property WIXUI_INSTALLDIR that is preset with the INSTALLFOLDER value
<Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value="INSTALLFOLDER" />
and this Property then is changed through a a Dialog from user input and I after that would want to get what the user changed the path to, how do I get the "value" out of WIXUI_INSTALLDIR ?
I would like to send this value (a string I suppose) to either the registry or a custom action.
If I try [WIXUI_INSTALLDIR] I get a warning for illegal indirection if used with a custom action and if I try to send it to registry it just becomes "[WIXUI_INSTALLDIR]" as a string.
EDIT:
My problem is when also using my own made up properties like this:
Property Id="MyOwnProperty" Value="Hello There"
and let's say a Dialogue changes the value of MyOwnProperty, how do I the access the new Value ? Like sending [MyOwnProperty] to a CustomAction as parameter will only get "[MyOwnProperty]" as a literal string.
Try getting the value of the Property (or Directory) that WIXUI_INSTALLDIR references. In this case, use [INSTALLFOLDER] in the formatted field where you'd like the value.

IFilter with Custom properties

I'm developing a custom filter to my file format. Everything works fine when I use any of system keys from <propkey.h> like PKEY_Search_Contents.
But now I need to have my custom properties to register and use with Windows Search. Imagine:
"SELECT * FROM SystemIndex WHERE scope ='file:C:/' AND Publisher.Item.CustomProperty LIKE '%Test%'"
I saw about Property Handlers and already tested. I used the RecipePropertyHandler project from Windows 7 SDK Samples. And when I searched with this code:
// get a property store for the mp3 file
IPropertyStore* store = NULL;
HRESULT hr = SHGetPropertyStoreFromParsingName(L"SomePath",
NULL, GPS_DEFAULT, __uuidof(IPropertyStore), (void**)&store);
hr = HRESULT_FROM_WIN32(GetLastError());
PROPVARIANT variant;
store->GetValue(PKEY_Microsoft_SampleRecipe_Difficulty, &variant);
//// very important undocumented method
store->Release();
CoUninitialize();
I receive the correct answer.
But I don't understand how to union IFilter with IPropertyStore to create my custom properties. To start my IFilter, I used the example from Windows 7 SDK Samples. I'm doing something like:
chunkValue.SetTextValue(PKEY_SearchContents, filtered.c_str(),CHUNK_TEXT, 1046, 0, 0, CHUNK_EOS);
I didn't found the link anymore anymore but I read a quote of msdn about you can't implement IFilter AND IPropertyStore together. It's that true? Talking in other words, I can't create a custom property?
I saw all links from msdn, like link, link2 or any other.
I can do separate things but I don't know how to union both.
Any ideia how to implement?
EDIT
Im trying yet implement the PropertyHandler. My .propdesc file have this content:
-->
<schema xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2006/propertydescription"
schemaVersion="1.0">
<propertyDescriptionList publisher="Microsoft" product="SampleRecipe">
<propertyDescription name="Microsoft.SampleRecipe.Difficulty" formatID="{1794C9FE-74A9-497f-9C69-B31F03CE7EF9}" propID="100">
<description>This property indicates the preparation difficulty of a recipe.</description>
<searchInfo inInvertedIndex="true" isColumn="true" />
<typeInfo type="String" multipleValues="false" isViewable="true" />
<labelInfo label="Recipe difficulty" invitationText="Specify recipe difficulty" />
<displayInfo displayType="Enumerated" >
<editControl control="DropList"/>
<enumeratedList>
<enum value="Easy" text="Easy" />
<enum value="Medium" text="Medium" />
<enum value="Hard" text="Hard" />
</enumeratedList>
</displayInfo>
</propertyDescription>
<propertyDescription name="Microsoft.SampleRecipe.Keywords" formatID="{16D19FCB-7654-48AB-8057-DF8E51CC0755}" propID="100">
<description>This property indicates the preparation difficulty of a recipe.</description>
<searchInfo inInvertedIndex="true" isColumn="True"/>
<typeInfo type="String" multipleValues="true" isViewable="true" />
<labelInfo label="Recipe Keywords" invitationText="Specify recipe keyword" />
</propertyDescription>
</propertyDescriptionList>
</schema>
On Windows Properties:
I receive all informations from file... but when I try to search with Windows Search like:
SELECT Microsoft.SampleRecipe.Keywords FROM SystemIndex
Where directory='somedirectory'
I receive all lines empty... Any ideias why?
EDIT
I can see my properties on PropSchema:
I can use my Microsoft.SampleRecipe.DifficultyV2 on my WSSQL Query like:
SELECT Microsoft.SampleRecipe.KeywordsV2 FROM SystemIndex WHERE directory='C:\users\step\documents\rvffilter\'
But all the contents are empty

How to pass a property value from one proj to another proj file that follows

I have a MSBuild proj file like below:
In PreBuild.proj, I create a dynamic property with UsingTask:
<GetBuildNumber Condition="'$(BuildNumber)' == ''" MajorVersion="2" MinorVersion="0" StartYear="2012">
<Output TaskParameter="BuildNumber" PropertyName="BuildNumber" />
</GetBuildNumber>
Now I want to pass this $(BuildNumber) to the PostBuild.proj.
How to do that?
Depends on how they are linked. Hopefully you have an overall orchestrating project that imports all you pre and post dependencies a la your standard Visual Studio-generated .csproj that imports all the neccesary .targets and .props and is the main entry point for MSBuild since you'd never call the .targets directly, they only make sense as part of a bigger build file. In case of such well-designed project file you just use a property, otherwise you can try Outputs or Returns or worst case scenario WriteLinesToFile & ReadLinesFromFile.

How to set boolean in xml-action script

I am trying to set a flag so I do something like this:
<set field="existingFound" value="false" type="Boolean"/>
but the following line prints "true" in the log:
<log message="storeProperty, existingFound (0): ${existingFound}"/>
What is the best way to set flags?
The set.#value attribute is interpreted as a Groovy String (GString) so any non-empty value will be interpreted as true. The set.#from attribute is interpreted as a Groovy expression, so simply using from="false" instead of value="false" will get the desired result.
To see the generated Groovy code from an XML actions block you can write code that will cause an error and then the script will be logged, or you can change the log4j.xml file to turn on "debug" level logging for the XmlActions class (the latest log4j.xml file in the GitHub repository has an example of this). Looking at the Groovy code generated from the XML elements is a good way to track down issues when what is happening just doesn't make sense.

how to resolve burn variables in the bootstrap xml

One of my goals in creating the bootstrap project is to set a default log location. I would like the location to be based on the local app data folder. I cannot figure out how to reference the builtin Burn variable LocalAppDataFolder. I have found information about how to reference these variables in code, but not in the xml.
The reference to the property looks like this:
<MsiPackage SourceFile="MyInstaller.msi" LogPathVariable="[LogLocation]" />
The property is set like this:
<Variable Name="LogLocation" Value="[LocalAppDataFolder]MyLogFolder\Setup" Type="string"/>
The log output shows:
Initializing string variable 'LogLocation' to value
'[LocalAppDataFolder]MyLogFolder\Setup'
What am I missing to resolve [LocalAppDataFolder] ?
thanks in advance.
It's normal for the log output to show the un-formatted value, so that part looks correct. I think what you are missing is LogPathVariable should be specified without the brackets.
<MsiPackage SourceFile="MyInstaller.msi" LogPathVariable="LogLocation" />