I am using Properties to set the values of Registry entries. This is so that on install the first time I have a default value and then on upgrade the current registry value is used.
I need to have a property that sets the path to the user's local folder and to the programs folder. I know the below code is wrong but how do I do it. I think at least I want to do a Type 51 custom action but don't understand the documentation.
I believe there are three relevant parts
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="SetUserFolder" Before="InstallInitialize"/>
<Custom Action="SetInstallFolder" Before="InstallInitialize"/>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
Custom Action
<CustomAction Id="SetUserFolder" Property="UserFolder" Value="[%USERPROFILE]" />
<CustomAction Id="SetInstallFolder" Property="P_InstallFolder" Value="[%PROGRAMFILES]" />
The property.
<Property Id="P_MyAPPPATH" Value="[P_InstallFolder]MyApp\">
<RegistrySearch Id="S_MyAppPath" Type="raw" Root="HKCU" Key="Software\MyApp\Settings" Name="MyAppPath"/>
</Property>
<Property Id="P_MyAPPDB" Value="[UserFolder]\MyApp\MyAppData\">
<RegistrySearch Id="S_MyAPPDB" Type="raw" Root="HKCU" Key="Software\MyApp\Settings" Name="MyAppdb"/>
</Property>
As an alternative to using the properties you're defining, you might be able to use some built-in properties to better effect.
Instead of %USERPROFILE, consider LocalAppDataFolder. This will avoid your data from being copied between machines as a user roams between machines on a network domain. I'm guessing you don't need that but, if you do, use AppDataFolder and beware of the latencies involved.
Instead of %PROGRAMFILES, consider ProgramFilesFolder. This seems to be what you intend.
Related
I have a WiX 3.10 installer that installs an add-on module for an existing application. For this reason I use RegistrySearch to obtain the installation folder where the add-on should be put. After that an already pre-existing (meaning this is part of the base application and not the add-on) utility in the same directory must be executed with some parameters.
I tried this:
<Property Id="INSTALLFOLDER">
<RegistrySearch Id='InstallPathRegistry' Type='raw' Root='HKLM' Key='SOFTWARE\Vendor\Application' Name='InstallPath' Win64='no'/>
</Property>
<Condition Message="Application installation folder not found.">
<![CDATA[Installed OR INSTALLFOLDER]]>
</Condition>
<Property Id="WixQuietExecCmdLine" Value="RegAddOn.exe /f [INSTALLFOLDER]\Addon.RegFile" />
<CustomAction Id="QtExec" BinaryKey="WixCA" DllEntry="WixQuietExec" Execute="immediate" Return="check" />
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="QtExec" OnExit="success"/>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
Unfortunately, [INSTALLFOLDER] is not resolved. Obviously, as I also get a compiler warning about this.
How can I resolve the property?
Your warning says what to do:
Warning The 'X1' Property contains '[X2]' 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.
Note: use a CustomAction with Property and Value attributes.
So you need to define your property with no value
<Property Id="WixQuietExecCmdLine" Value=" " />
and use custom action to fill it
<CustomAction Id="SetProp" Property="WixQuietExecCmdLine" Value="RegAddOn.exe /f [INSTALLFOLDER]\Addon.RegFile"></CustomAction>
and run it before your current custom action
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="SetProp" OnExit="success"/>
<Custom Action="QtExec" After="SetProp"/>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
I have the following WiX excerpt which works perfectly during an install but doesn't during uninstall. I'm quite new to WiX so apologies if it's a glaring error. Can anyone see the problem?
<Property Id="APPFOLDER" >
<RegistrySearch Id="APPInstalledFolderReg"
Root="HKLM"
Key="SOFTWARE\$(var.MANUFACTURER)\One Of My Web Services"
Name="Folder"
Type="raw"
Win64="yes" />
</Property>
<CustomAction Id="SetAPPFolderProperty"
Property="APPInstalledFolder"
Value="[APPFOLDER]"
Execute="immediate"
/>
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="SetAPPFolderProperty"
After="AppSearch"
>APPFOLDER</Custom>
<Custom Action='MyUnregisterAction'
After='InstallInitialize'
>REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
During "MyUnregisterAction", the APPInstalledFolder is not set. The MsiExec Install Log reports:
Skipping action: SetAPPFolderProperty (condition is false)
I understand this means the CustomAction's not executing because the Property APPFOLDER is not set. Is the RegistrySearch not performed during Uninstall?
The Registry search is definitely performed during an uninstall.
As a matter of fact, i tried your same snippet and could get it to work.
Are you running the installation in full UI mode?
In that case, the registry search will be run in the UI mode. Probably, what is happening here is that , the value of the property APPFOLDER is not passed into the Execute sequence.
For the value of the property to be passed to the execute sequence, you need to secure the property ie. add the APPFOLDER property to SecureCustomProperties in the Property table.
Once you do this, you code snippet should start working.
In general, under normal circumstances, the values of public properties are passed from the UI sequence to the execute sequence. However, there could be lockdown conditions where the property needs to be explicitly added to the SecureCustomProperties list in the Property table for the value to propogate to the Execute sequence.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Kiran Hegde
I have written following code in my wix installer for updating the language in an XML file and this works fine in following conditions:
1) fresh install
2) upgrade by using admin rights (I am using msiexec /I "Tools.msi" /l*v D:\InstallLog.txt).
However, when I run/execute the msi without admin rights (This is where "Change" mode is being used....what am I missing) the values are not updating always set to the default value :
<Property Id="LANGUAGE" Value="en-US" />
The code:
<util:XmlFile Id="LanguageConfig"
Value="[LANGUAGE]"
ElementPath="/configuration/appSettings/add[\[]#key='Language'[\]]"
Action="setValue"
File="$(var.ConfigFile)"
Name="value" Sequence="1" />
<util:XmlFile Id="MappingLanguageXML"
Value="[LANGUAGE]"
ElementPath="/MappedUsers/UsersList/UserID/LanguageCode"
Action="setValue"
File="$(var.UserMappingFile)" Sequence="1" />
Any help is much appreciated.
The fact that it's being changed implies it may not be a privilege issue. I suspect that the scenario is that a different language was entered at install time, but you did not preserve its value anywhere so Change just uses the default value. Properties aren't remembered automatically, that's what the WiX "remember property" pattern is for. That's likely to be the solution - preserve the install time value of LANGUAGE. It's no different from running any program - the fact that the user may have entered something that went into a variable doesn't mean that the variable will have that same value next time you run the program unless you save it.
Based on PhilDw pointer I solved the issue by modifying my property
<Property Id="LANGUAGE" Value="en-US" />
as follows:
<Property Id="LANGUAGE" Secure="yes" Value="en-US">
<RegistrySearch Id="RememberLanguage" Root="HKLM"
Key="$(var.RegistryLoc)"
Name="Language" Type="raw" />
</Property>
By preserving the value in the registry I was able to modify the value during "Change" operation.
Can anyone tell me why this is not working please?
I have two registry checks to check if Visual C++ Redistributables are installed:
<Property Id="REGDBKEYEXISTX64">
<RegistrySearch Id="REGDBKEYEXISTX64" Root="HKLM" Key="Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{837b34e3-7c30-493c-8f6a-2b0f04e2912c}" Name="Version" Type="raw" Win64="yes" />
</Property>
<!--Checking if Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables are installed on a 32-bit system-->
<Property Id="REGDBKEYEXIST">
<RegistrySearch Id="REGDBKEYEXIST" Root="HKLM" Key="Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{837b34e3-7c30-493c-8f6a-2b0f04e2912c}" Name="Version" Type="raw" Win64="no" />
</Property>
I then run a custom action if they are not installed:
<Custom Action="InstallRedistributables" After="GetVariantName">Installed OR REGDBKEYEXISTX64 OR REGDBKEYEXIST</Custom>
However when the redistributables are installed it still runs the custom action which is what i do not want. I know it detects it as this is my log file:
Property: REGDBKEYEXIST, Signature: REGDBKEYEXIST
MSI (c) (4C:44) [12:19:04:989]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Adding REGDBKEYEXIST property. Its value is '#134276921'.
So what could be the problem? I have this done on another custom action and it works perfectly so i really don't know the solution.
It appears your condition is reversed. The REGDBKEYEXIST properties will be set if the registry key exists, and thus true when the search indicates the redistributable is present. So what you probably want is more like NOT REGDBKEYEXIST You also probably only want to run this on first time install (hence your reference to Installed). So I would suggest changing your condition to something more like the following:
NOT(Installed or REGDBKEYEXIST or REGDBKEYEXISTX64)
I'm trying to simulate the InstallURL property of a VS.net install MSI... I've got to the ponit where the WIX MSI will open a browser to the download page that I want it to go to. I thought things were going great because on my test machine, the web page opened when I didn't have the MSXML6 component installed. However things went downhill when I discovered that the web page opened even when I DID have the component installed.
I'm searching for the MSXML6 component using a Property w/ a RegistrySearch. However, as best as I can tell, the registry value isn't even being evaluated, and thus it "always" looks like it isn't installed.
Here's the relevant portion of my WXS:
<Property Id="MSXML6">
<RegistrySearch Id="MSXML6Search" Root="HKCR" Key="Msxml2.DOMDocument.6.0" Type="raw" />
</Property>
<Property Id="TEST">
<RegistrySearch Id="TESTSearch" Root="HKLM" Type="raw" Name="Version" Key="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectX" />
</Property>
<Property Id="cmd.exe" Value="cmd.exe" />
<CustomAction Id="OpenMSXML6Download" Property="cmd.exe" ExeCommand="/c start http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=993c0bcf-3bcf-4009-be21-27e85e1857b1" Execute="immediate" Return="check" />
<CustomAction Id="OpenMSXML6DownloadError" Error="This component requires MSXML6. =[MSXML6]=[cmd.exe]=[TEST]= A web browser has been opened to the download page. Please install MSXML6 and then re-install the connector." />
<!-- installation execution sequence -->
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<!-- wires the error dialog to the downgrade event -->
<Custom Action="PreventDowngrading" After="FindRelatedProducts">NEWPRODUCTFOUND</Custom>
<!-- execution to delete old install info after upgrade-->
<RemoveExistingProducts After="InstallValidate" />
<!-- Forces MSXML6 to be pre-installed -->
<!-- <Custom Action="OpenMSXML6Download" Before="FindRelatedProducts">NOT MSXML6</Custom> -->
<Custom Action="OpenMSXML6Download" Before="FindRelatedProducts">NOT MSXML6</Custom>
<Custom Action="OpenMSXML6DownloadError" After="OpenMSXML6Download">NOT MSXML6</Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>
<!-- ui information for the custom actions above. -->
<InstallUISequence>
<Custom Action="PreventDowngrading" After="FindRelatedProducts">NEWPRODUCTFOUND</Custom>
<Custom Action="OpenMSXML6Download" Before="FindRelatedProducts">NOT MSXML6</Custom>
<Custom Action="OpenMSXML6DownloadError" After="OpenMSXML6Download">NOT MSXML6</Custom>
</InstallUISequence>
What this does is if MSXML6 isn't defined then it opens the web page and then prints the custom error message. Note that I'm trying to print the value of the property in the error message (I'm not sure if this is valid or not, but it seems to be.) The text that I see says "This component requires MSXML6. ==[cmd.exe]==..." so it is printing the value of the 'cmd.exe' property but not the other two... maybe that's because I define the property explicitly, I'm not sure... Anyway, I also ran the MSI with debugging on, and in the log file, I see absolutely no reference at all to the MSXML6 or the TEST properties ever being set. I've confirmed that the registry values are indeed set, although I'm not 100% sure how to handle the Msxml2 registry key, since it doesn't have any real values, only a default value. (I'm assuming that leaving off the 'Name' parameter is the right way to handle this.)
Help??
I managed to figure this one out... it was quite a simple answer. Basic issue was that the Custom Actions were executing before AppSearch, which is where the RegistrySearch properties get evaluated. See my blog post at CTICoder for details.