I want to validate the value of a command line property in WiX given by the user during installation. If the value of the property is not one among the specific set, it should take a default value and create a registry entry.
For example, property USERLEVEL should have value 1-4. If user specifies any other value it should default to 1 and write it to the registry. The installer does not have a UI component and we want to do this using some conditional statement.
That can be done easiest with a "Launch Condition". As a child of Product element add a Condition element with a message. For example:
<Product ...>
...
<Condition Message='The USERLEVEL property has an invalid value of: [USERLEVEL]. Please ensure the value falls in the range of 1 to 4.'>
USERLEVEL>0 AND USERLEVEL<5
</Condition>
I used the > and < rather than wrapping the condition in CDATA but you can do it however you like. The end result is that you want the condition to say something like USERLEVEL > 0 and USERLEVEL < 5 (or if you prefer: USERLEVEL >=1 AND USERLEVEL <= 4).
You can use the SetProperty element to change the USERLEVEL property value. You can use the (USERLEVEL<1 OR USERLEVEL>4) Condition to check the value, but it won’t work if end user pass any non-integer value like ‘A’.
<Property Id="USERLEVEL" Secure="yes" />
<SetProperty Id="USERLEVEL" Value="1" After="AppSearch">
USERLEVEL<>1 AND USERLEVEL<>2 AND USERLEVEL<>3 AND USERLEVEL<>4
</SetProperty>
You can use the below code to write the property into registry.
<Component Id="CMP_UserLevel" Guid="{FD70BBE3-F7F1-460E-AA7C-56750F66536D}">
<RegistryKey Root="HKLM" Key="Software\Sample, Inc.\Test Installer">
<RegistryValue Name="USERLEVEL" Value="[USERLEVEL]" Type="integer" />
</RegistryKey>
</Component>
Related
Using Wix for the first time in 10+ years, and first time with forms/dialog entry.
Have a property defined more or less like this:
<Property Id="THE_FLAG">
<RegistrySearch Id="SearchTheFlag" Root="HKLM" Key="SOFTWARE\$(var.Manufacturer)\$(var.SimpleProductName)" Name="the_flag" Win64="$(var.Win64)" Type="raw" />
</Property>
Have a control in a form to set it:
<Control Id="TheFlagCheckBox" Type="CheckBox" X="45" Y="80" Width="220" Height="17" Property="THE_FLAG" CheckBoxValue="1" Text="Flag for something" />
At the end I want to write it:
<RegistryKey Root='HKLM' Key='SOFTWARE\$(var.Manufacturer)\$(var.SimpleProductName)' ForceCreateOnInstall='yes' >
<RegistryValue Name='the_flag' Type ='integer' Value='[THE_FLAG]' />
</RegistryKey>
If I select the checkbox, it sets the registry value. However, if I don't check the checkbox, then I get a warning when running the installer about not being able to acces the registry value. I think it is because the "value" of "THE_FLAG" is null or the empty string. I want to avoid the nasty warning to the user. I took over some code, and the previous owner used all strings for obviously DWORD values...maybe to get around the warning.
Can I set some conditionals or set the value of THE_FLAG to "0" if it is "" or null?
Add the following to your authoring:
<SetProperty Id="THE_FLAG" Value="0" Before="InstallInitialize" Sequence="execute">NOT THE_FLAG</SetProperty>
This will set the value of THE_FLAG to "0" if it's blank (in MSI, null and empty string are both blank) before the registry writes are done. A reasonable alternate value for Before is "WriteRegistryValues".
I have trouble with component in wix when I make update without ui.
<Component Id="PrinterConfEnable" Guid="911F0032-A217-4B1F-B973-29DB6DC06952">
<util:XmlFile Id="PrinterEnabled" Action="setValue" Permanent="yes" File="[INSTALLFOLDER]\config.xml" ElementPath="/printer/enabled" Value="true" />
<Condition>
<![CDATA[ USE_PRINTER_VAL = "1" and USE_PRINTER_0_VAL = "1" ]]>
</Condition>
</Component>
<Component Id="PrinterConfDisable" Guid="56AD5D4B-3700-44E1-9A0F-03E3A2A5D88F">
<util:XmlFile Id="PrinterDisabled" Action="setValue" Permanent="yes" File="[INSTALLFOLDER]\config.xml" ElementPath="/printer/enabled" Value="false" />
<Condition>
<![CDATA[ USE_PRINTER_VAL <> "1" or USE_PRINTER_0_VAL <> "1" ]]>
</Condition>
</Component>
During updating properties USE_PRINTER_VAL and USE_PRINTER_0_VAL are equal 1 but in config.xml it has been written
<printer>
<enabled>false</enabled>
</printer>
However when I update with UI it works properly
Assuming that these values are set in the UI, and "update without UI" means a feature change or patch (or something like that) then:
You are probably assuming that once property values are set in the UI they are saved somewhere for later use. They are not saved unless you save them, so they revert to the default values. WiX has a "remember property" pattern you can use to save the values so that the values originally entered will be saved and restored on other servicing activities like patches, updates etc.
http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2010/5/2/the-wix-toolsets-remember-property-pattern/
Even if they are being set somewhere, they need be marked as secure to ensure that they pass correctly into the execute sequence.
I am working on a set of WiX installers that are going to share a common form. Every application needs the values set, but they are going to be different for each application.
I am trying to allow for the properties (which are linked to controls) to have a default value (or not) and to allow for the property values to be set via command line.
in my "SharedDialog.wxs" I have:
<Fragment>
<PropertyRef Id="PROP1"/>
<PropertyRef Id="PROP2"/>
<UI>
<Dialog Id="SharedDialog" Width="370" Height="270" Title="[ProductName]">
<Control Type="Edit" Id="1" Property="PROP1" Wid... Indirect="no" />
<Control Type="CheckBox" Id="2" Property="PROP2" Wid...
CheckBoxValue="1" Indirect="no"/>
</Dialog>
</Fragment>
In a file for the application specific project:
<Fragment>
<Property Id="PROP1" Value="Test"/>
<Property Id="PROP2" Value="1"/>
</Fragment>
This all works for what I am trying to do, but the problem is that when I want to clear the values as so: (so they don't have a default)
<Fragment>
<Property Id="PROP1"/>
<Property Id="PROP2"/>
</Fragment>
I get this error:
Unresolved reference to symbol 'Property:PROP1' in section 'Fragment:'.
Unresolved reference to symbol 'Property:PROP2' in section 'Fragment:'.
WiX also will not let you set value to "". The problem is that as far I can tell the checkbox will always be checked if the property has a value. How can I set the property "PROP2" to "null"?
You can undefine an existing property by setting it equal to an empty string wrapped in braces like this: PROPERTY = {} in a set property custom action. This means the property doesn't exist, it is not an empty string. See the explanation here.
For properties to be available from the command line they must be PUBLIC - they are the properties that are all UPPERCASE.
Setting PUBLIC PROPERTIES secure means they can be passed from the client to the server installation process which is required for properties that are used in deferred mode custom actions. Technically this adds them to the list of SecureCustomProperties.
You can give PUBLIC PROPERTIES a default value in the Property table, and then set other values from the command line. The command line overrides the defaults:
msiexec.exe /I "C:\Test.msi" /QN /L*V "C:\log.log" TEST="MyValue" TEST2="MyValue"
See more info:
How to set a check box to "unchecked" from the msiexec command line?
Nevermind, I found the solution:
<Fragment>
<Property Id="PROP1" Secure="yes"/>
<Property Id="PROP2" Secure="yes"/>
</Fragment>
I am trying to edit an XML file with Wix. I am using the WixUtilExtension bundled with Wix 3.7. The xml file is a settings file created in Visual Studio 2010 for a C# application. In this file, I am using an element which is used to store multiple string values in an array. This is the content of the unaltered settings file:
<configuration>
<applicationSettings>
<AppName.Properties.Settings>
<setting name="StringArray" serializeAs="Xml">
<value>
<ArrayOfString xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
</ArrayOfString>
</value>
</setting>
</AppName.Properties.Settings>
</applicationSettings>
</configuration>
I want to add <string> elements to the <ArrayOfString> element in this file. One way to do this is by using an <XmlConfig> element from the wix/UtilExtension namespace. I have added this element to the component which holds the config file like this:
<Component Id="ProductComponent" Guid="$(var.ConfigGuid)">
<File Source="SettingsFile.exe.config" KeyPath="yes" Id="FILE_config" />
<util:XmlConfig
Name="string"
Value="My value"
File="[INSTALLFOLDER]SettingsFile.exe.config"
Id="String1"
On="install"
Action="create"
Node="element"
ElementPath="/configuration/applicationSettings/AppName.Properties.Settings/setting[\[]#name='StringArray'[\]]/value/ArrayOfString"
Sequence="100"
/>
</Component>
This results in the addition of one <string> element to the <ArrayOfString> element. To add another <string> element to the settings file, another XmlConfig element has to be added to the <Component> element of the setup project with a different Id attribute and a higher value for the Sequence attribute like this:
<util:XmlConfig
Name="string"
Value="My second value"
File="[INSTALLFOLDER]SettingsFile.exe.config"
Id="String2"
On="install"
Action="create"
Node="element"
ElementPath="/configuration/applicationSettings/AppName.Properties.Settings/setting[\[]#name='StringArray'[\]]/value/ArrayOfString"
Sequence="101"
/>
After installation of the msi, the <ArrayOfString> element in the settings file looks like this:
<ArrayOfString xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<string>My value</string><string>My second value</string></ArrayOfString>
I have found out that it is possible to set the Value attribute of an <XmlConfig> attribute to the value of a property like this:
<Property Id="STRING1VALUE" Value="My value" />
<util:XmlConfig Value="[STRING1VALUE]" ... />
This is good. I would like the user to be able to add multiple values in the installation process dynamically so that a variable amount of <string> elements can be added to the settings file.
My first approach was to use a <?foreach?> statement like this:
<?define values="My value;My second value"?>
<?foreach value in $(var.values)?>
<util:XmlConfig
Name="string"
Value="$(var.value)"
File="[INSTALLFOLDER]SettingsFile.exe.config"
Id="String$(var.value)"
On="install"
Action="create"
Node="element"
ElementPath="/configuration/applicationSettings/AppName.Properties.Settings/setting[\[]#name='StringArray'[\]]/value/ArrayOfString"
Sequence="101"
/>
<?endforeach?>
There are a few problems with this approach:
The foreach statement uses a preprocessor variable which cannot be set to the value of a property.
The value of the Sequence attribute stays the same.
I would like the user to store the values for the string elements in a Property which separates the values by semicolons and then parse them in a foreach statement like this:
<Property Id="VALUES" Value="My value;My second value" />
<?foreach value in [VALUES]?>
<util:XmlConfig
Name="string"
Value="$(var.value)"
File="[INSTALLFOLDER]SettingsFile.exe.config"
Id="String$(var.value)"
On="install"
Action="create"
Node="element"
ElementPath="/configuration/applicationSettings/AppName.Properties.Settings/setting[\[]#name='StringArray'[\]]/value/ArrayOfString"
Sequence="101"
/>
<?endforeach?>
This throws the following error:
The util:XmlConfig/#Id attribute's value, 'String[VALUES]', is not a legal identifier.
Identifiers may contain ASCII characters A-Z, a-z, digits, underscores (_), or periods (.).
Every identifier must begin with either a letter or an underscore.
Is there any way I can create a variable amount of elements with the XmlFile or the XmlConfig element? Is the only solution to this problem a CustomAction?
Based on Rob's answer, here is my new approach to adding multiple elements to an XML config file with Wix. I did not want to write C++ code, that is why I used DTF in my CustomAction.
I am going to describe how to turn a string containing multiple elements using a delimiter into multiple XML elements.
First there needs to be a property in the setup file containing the delimited string.
<Property Id="STRINGARRAY" Value="string1;string2;string3" />
This property could be populated by the user in a dialog, of course.
Next, a CustomAction has to be written. To make use of the DTF, a reference to the Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller.dll has to be added to the C# CustomAction project. The namespace Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller should be included with a using directive in that project. My CustomAction looks like this:
[CustomAction]
public static ActionResult Insert(Session session)
{
string strings = session["STRINGARRAY"];
string[] stringArray = strings.Split(';');
Database db = session.Database;
View view = db.OpenView("select * from `XmlConfig`");
string xpath = "/configuration/applicationSettings/AppName.Properties.Settings/setting[\\[]#name='StringArray'[\\]]/value/ArrayOfString";
for (int i = 0; i < stringArray.Length; i++)
{
string id = String.Format("String{0}", i);
int sequence = 100 + i;
string value = stringArray[i].Trim();
Record rec = new Record(
id,
"[INSTALLFOLDER]SettingsFile.exe.config",
xpath,
null,
"string",
value,
273,
"ProductComponent",
sequence);
view.InsertTemporary(rec);
}
db.Close();
return ActionResult.Success;
}
Here, at first the Property StringArray is read into a local variable which is converted to a string array. The following line establishes a connection to the current database used by the installer. A handle on the table XmlConfig is created, which is the table where the XML elements are added to. To insert the right values into that table, it is best to create an installer file which contains such a table and then take a look at that table in an editor like orca or InstEd.
In the xpath, backslashes have to be escaped by using double backslashes. The id variable holds the name of the temporary record, using a simple string and a number works flawlessly. The sequence has to be incremented for each element. I could not find any documentation on the values of the flags column, but I have found out that its value is set to 273 for elements that are created and 289 for elements that get deleted.
Once the record is filled with the correct values, it gets added to the XmlConfig table by using the InsertTemporary method of the view object. This is done for each element found in the delimited string.
A problem I have come across is that this CustomAction fails, if the XmlConfig table does not exist. To counter this problem I have added the following code to the setup file, which adds an element to the XML file and immediately deletes that element. I guess there could be a cleaner solution, but this was the easiest one for me.
<util:XmlConfig
Name="string"
Value="Dummy"
File="[INSTALLFOLDER]SettingsFile.exe.config"
Id="DummyEntry"
On="install"
Action="create"
Node="element"
ElementPath="/configuration/applicationSettings/AppName.Properties.Settings/setting[\[]#name='StringArray'[\]]/value/ArrayOfString"
Sequence="1" />
<util:XmlConfig
On="install"
Action="delete"
Id="DeleteDummyEntry"
Node="element"
File="[INSTALLFOLDER]SettingsFile.exe.config"
VerifyPath="/configuration/applicationSettings/AppName.Properties.Settings/setting[\[]#name='StringArray'[\]]/value/ArrayOfString/string"
ElementPath="/configuration/applicationSettings/AppName.Properties.Settings/setting[\[]#name='StringArray'[\]]/value/ArrayOfString"
Sequence="2" />
Finally, the CustomAction has to be added to the setup project. By adding a reference to the CustomAction project in the setup project, the location of the binary can be specified like this:
<Binary Id="XmlCustomActionDLL" SourceFile="$(var.XmlCustomAction.TargetDir)XmlCustomAction.CA.dll" />
The CustomAction has to be executed immediately, otherwise it won't be able to access the session variable:
<CustomAction Id="CA_XmlCustomAction" BinaryKey="XmlCustomActionDLL" DllEntry="Insert" Execute="immediate" Return="check" />
<InstallExecuteSequence>
<Custom Action="CA_XmlCustomAction" Before="RemoveRegistryValues" />
</InstallExecuteSequence>
To determine the right position for the CustomAction in the installation sequence, I relied on this article by Bob Arnson.
Yes, this is possible but if you want to have this determined at install time then the preprocessor is not an option. The preprocessor executes during the build process.
To get what you want, you'll need to write another custom action that takes the arbitrarily long set of user data and adds temporary rows to the XmlConfig table. The WcaAddTempRecord() function in src\ca\wcautil\wcawrap.cpp can do the work. The src\ca\wixca\dll\RemoveFoldersEx.cpp is a pretty good example of using WcaAddTempRecord() to add rows to the RemoveFile table. You'll want to do similarly.
I need to set Key attribute value at run time.
<RegistryKey Root="HKLM" Key="Software\ApplicationName">
I will get application name from the user. I want to append application name with default key.
For example: if the application name is test then key should be "Software\Test"
Thanks
This can be achieved in 2 simple steps:
Declare your <RegistryKey> element like this:
<RegistryKey Root="HKLM" Key="Software\[APPLICATIONNAME]"> ... </RegistryKey>
Save the user input to the APPLICATIONNAME property