I Just want to read a name from a file or read from command line after creating installer file.
I have defined a Macro in my MainProject.wxs file as
< ?define product = "xyz"?>
And I am reading the Macro "product" as follows,
< Registry Action="write"
Id="RegistryEntryId"
Name="InstallDir"
Key="Software\$(var.product)\MyOwnName"
Root="HKLM"
Type="string"
Value="[INSTALLPATH]"
KeyPath="yes"/>
on build time.
But I want to define and read this "product" on runtime after the installer is created, so that I can change the product name according to the file content on runtime, any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks in Advance.
A macro is handled by a preprocessor. What you request is a variable that can be changed at runtime. You need to use a property.
<Property Id="PROJECTNAME">xyz</Property>
This property can be changed at runtime.
You read the property like this:
[PROJECTNAME]
There are different ways of changing the property. You could do that in a custom action.
Related
In my Bundle code, I'm trying to use the result of a registry search to set Variable to be used in my Custom Boostrapper:
<util:RegistrySearch
Id="ThirdPartyInstallDirSearch"
Variable="THIRDPARTY_INSTALL_DIR"
Root="HKLM"
Key="SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment"
Value="OceanSoftDir"
Result="exists"
/>
<Variable Name="THIRDPARTY_INSTALL_DIR" Type="string" Value="$(var.THIRDPARTY_INSTALL_DIR)"/>
But this would give an error:
Undefined preprocessor variable '$(var.THIRDPARTY_INSTALL_DIR)'
Basically, I want to pass the result of registry search to my custom bootstrapper application.
Thanks
As the error says, $(var.<NAME>) is a preprocessor define from either a wxi file or from the project file <DefineConstants>name=value</DefineConstants> or from a <?define?>. You can read more about the preprocessor here.
For your issue, the registry search itself should be defining the variable. I do something similar to what you want in a bootstrapper.
<Fragment>
<util:RegistrySearch
Id="ClientInstalledCheck"
Root="HKLM"
Key="SOFTWARE\Client"
Value="ClientPath"
Result="value"
Variable="ClientInstalled"/>
<util:DirectorySearch
Path='[ClientInstalled]'
Variable='InstallFolder'
After='ClientInstalledCheck'
Condition='ClientInstalled' />
</Fragment>
And then in the products installed by the bootstrapper I will pass in the "InstallFolder" value to these installs.
<MsiProperty Name="INSTALLDIR" Value="[InstallFolder]"/>
This way if the user has installed in a non-default install location, we pick up the custom location they chose and use that instead. If the registry key did not exist, we use the default location.
I also have the InstallFolder variable defined with a default location (since my use case is slightly different than yours) as
<Variable Name="InstallFolder" Type="string" Value="[ProgramFilesFolder]$(var.CompanyInstallDir)\" bal:Overridable="yes" Persisted="yes"/>
Where CompanyInstallDir is defined as a preprocessor variable through <DefineConstants> which is originally defined somewhere in an MSBuild properties file.
So to explain your issue, you are mixing preprocessor directives and Variables. In your registry search, you're using Result="exists" which will set the variable THIRDPARTY_INSTALL_DIR to '0' or '1'. You want to use Result="value". This will put the registry location's value in the variable you define in the Variable="" attribute.
If you do the registry search + directory search with condition, you can properly set a variable if and only if the registry exists AND the directory is actually present on the machine and properly handle cases where it isn't but the registry still exists.
Some things you may do differently since the use case is slightly different but hopefully this sets you on the right path for doing what you need to do.
I'm currently implementing a wix(3.8) installer and the main MSI is merged with several other merge modules. I'm taking a user input during the installation and I store it in a global property called PORT like this.
In the MSI
<Property Id='PORT' Value="1">
I need to access this property value inside a condition in my merge module to edit a XML file if that condition is true. So I passed this property to the merge module as a configuration like this.
In MSI
<ConfigurationData Name="PROTOCOL" Value="[PORT]" />
In MSM
<Property Id="protocol"/>
<Configuration Name="PROTOCOL" Format="Text" DefaultValue="[protocol]"/>
<Substitution Table='CustomAction' Row='SetProtocol' Column='Target' Value='[=PROTOCOL]'/>
<CustomAction Id='SetProtocol' Property='protocol' Value='[protocol]'/>
I used the value of the property "protocol" inside my condition as below but the condition never executes.
<Condition>protocol = 1</Condition>
I tried by appending the property id with the merge module's GUID as well like this and accessing that property "NEWPORT" inside the condition. but didn't success.
<Property Id='NEWPORT' Value='[protocol.8c2910c9-5694-4312-a4cc-c9b2c2a5caa5]'/>
What would be the reason for this ? Can someone please tell me the way to access the property value in MSI within Merge module's condition element.
Thanks in advance.
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 have a WiX installer project that I'm creating where I'd like the installer to check to see if another application is already installed on the user's machine. If it is, then I'd like to set the install level of one of the features to "1", otherwise it should remain hidden (i.e. install level = 0). To find out where the application is installed, I first do a registry search:
<Property Id="MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER">
<RegistrySearch Id='InstallPathRegistry'
Type='raw'
Root='HKLM'
Key='SOFTWARE\SomeLongAppPath' Name='FileName'
Win64='yes'/>
</Property>
You'll notice that the registry value that I end up getting is actually the directory of the installed application including the actual program name with extension (let's say myapp.exe). So, once I get the full path of the installed application, I check to see if the file exists:
<Property Id="MYAPPINSTALLED">
<DirectorySearch Id="CheckFileDir" Path="[MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER]" AssignToProperty="yes">
<FileSearch Id="CheckFile" Name="myapp.exe" />
</DirectorySearch>
</Property>
Now, what I would expect to see is that if the file actually exists in that location, then the Property called "MYAPPINSTALLED" would be set to 1, otherwise it would be 0. Then, when I setup my features I use something like this:
<Feature Id="ThirdPartyPlugins" Title="Third Party Plugins" Level="0">
<Condition Level="1">MYAPPINSTALLED</Condition>
<ComponentGroupRef Id="MyAppPlugin" />
</Feature>
However, when I run my installer the third party plugin feature is always hidden. I've enabled msi datalogging by setting the property like this:
<Property Id="MsiLogging" Value="voicewarmupx"/>
And when I check the log file I can definitely see that the MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER property gets changed to the correct file path when it does the registry search. However, if I search the log for the property MYAPPINSTALLED, then I can see the following:
AppSearch: Property: MYAPPINSTALLED, Signature: CheckFileDir
Action ended 15:55:06: AppSearch. Return value 1.
So, it looks like it worked, however it doesn't seem to ever set the Property to equal the search value. Am I doing something wrong? Can someone explain why my feature install level never gets set to 1 even though the application file exists?
Edit
Ok, after more debugging... I think the issue is that the directory search is trying to use a path that includes the file name and extension (i.e. C:/Program Files/MyApp/myapp.exe") instead of just the directory where the file comes from. This is because the registry search has the full path including the file name stored (but not just the install directory). If I do a directory search just using the correct absolute directory (not using the registry search) then the process works. So, my follow up question is... my Property MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER contains the full path with file name and extension. Is there a way to strip the file name and extension from this property so that I just have the proper directory name to search for?
You're checking to see if another application is installed but that's rather a long way around. Also, the file search returns a path, not zero or 1, but either way a full verbose log should tell you if the properties are being set. It might help if you could post the entire log somewhere rather than the parts you think are the only relevant ones. e.g. There's probably an AppSearch in the execute sequence for silent installs.
It's requently easier to do a single search for other applications that were installed with MSI packages in these ways:
If you know the other product's UpgradeCode (and version ranges if applicable) then add Upgrade/UpgradeVersion elements with onlydetect set to yes, and that search will set a property if the product is detected.
If you know (or can find out) the Component id of any of the relevant components from that other product, then you can use them in a WiX ComponentSearch. If you get the target property set then that component is installed. This post contains a couple of ways to find out component guids:
How to find out which application requires a certain assembly from GAC?
It's also puzzling that the AppSearch log extract you posted only refers to one property. The Directory/FileSearch is also an AppSearch, so if the MSI actually contains two searches in AppSearch there should be references to all the properties being set. Again, that's a reason to post the entire log and look in the MSI file for those searches. The RegLocator search is documnented to occur before the DRLocator, so why is there no MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER property in the AppSearch log entry? You're not on a 32-bit system are you? (noticing the win64 search).
Per the WiX documentation:
Use the AssignToProperty attribute to search for a file but set the outer property to the directory containing the file. When this attribute is set to yes, you may only nest a FileSearch element with a unique Id or define no child element [of the DirectorySearch].
I added the text in the brackets to make it more clear.
So, after reading this sentence a few times and cross referencing your WiX XML, I think I see what the problem is with your current WiX XML. You perform a separate registry search from the directory search. Instead, you should nest these. There are two ways to perform the search, depending on what you want to do. One way is to simply retrieve the registry value from the registry, and if the value exists, then you make the assumption that the feature's required application is installed, at which point you appropriately set a property that would enable hiding/showing the feature within your installer's feature selection tree. The other way is to actually find the file you're interested in, using the results of the registry search as the basis for the file search.
Below is the XML for just a registry search, which doesn't check that the file actually exists on disk. You're making the assumption that if this registry value exists, the file is installed and available.
<Property Id="MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER">
<RegistrySearch Id='InstallPathRegistry'
Type='raw'
Root='HKLM'
Key='SOFTWARE\SomeLongAppPath' Name='FileName'
Win64='yes'/>
</Property>
<Property Id="SHOW_APP_FEATURE" Value="hidden" />
<SetProperty Id="SHOW_APP_FEATURE" Value="collapse" Sequence="both" After="CostFinalize">
<!-- If MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER is defined and contains any non-empty value, this
evaluates to TRUE; otherwise, it evaluates to FALSE.
-->
MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER
</SetProperty>
<!-- You could also be more explicit:
<SetProperty Id="SHOW_APP_FEATURE" Value="collapse" Sequence="both" After="CostFinalize">
<![CDATA[MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER <> ""]]>
</SetProperty>
-->
<Feature Id="MyAwesomeFeature" Title="My Awesome App Feature"
Display="[SHOW_APP_FEATURE]">
... <!-- Component/ComponentRefs go here -->
</Feature>
If you want to ensure that, even if the registry value exists in the registry, that the file it points to is 1) actually a file path; and 2) that the file actually exists on disk, then you need to perform a nested file search within a directory search, which itself is nested within a registry search. You would again need to use a SetProperty custom action to set a property that would enable the hiding/showing of the feature within your installer's feature selection tree. Here's the XML for this search:
<!-- Performing a FileSearch nested within a DirectorySearch,
which is itself nested within a RegistrySearch
This search twill ensure that the file exists on disk, and
if so, assign the full filename and path to the
MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER property.
-->
<Property Id="MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER">
<RegistrySearch Id='InstallPathRegistry'
Type='raw'
Root='HKLM'
Key='SOFTWARE\SomeLongAppPath' Name='FileName'
Win64='yes'>
<DirectorySearch Id='InstallPathDirectory' AssignToProperty='yes'>
<FileSearch Id='InstallPathFile' Name='myapp.exe' />
</DirectorySearch>
</RegistrySearch>
</Property>
<Property Id="SHOW_APP_FEATURE" Value="hidden" />
<SetProperty Id="SHOW_APP_FEATURE" Value="collapse" Sequence="both" After="CostFinalize">
<!-- If MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER is defined and contains any non-empty value, this
evaluates to TRUE; otherwise, it evaluates to FALSE.
-->
MYAPPINSTALLFOLDER
</SetProperty>
<Feature Id="MyAwesomeFeature" Title="My Awesome App Feature"
Display="[SHOW_APP_FEATURE]">
... <!-- Component/ComponentRefs go here -->
</Feature>
This should allow you to accomplish what you're trying to achieve.
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" />