I have switched to WiX version 3.5 for my installer. I have seen that for adding a file we need to define a <Component> entry for each file. This is OK for me.
My application is localized and have defined resource string entries for French and English. The build creates a satellite structure in the /bin folder.
Do I have to add that structure to WiX in a similar way as any other file or is there a more straight way?
Related
In my Visual Studio 2017 solution, I have a WiX 3 setup project that pulls in the output several other projects (libraries, executables, assets, content). Under the directory structure for the solution but not added to the solution as a project, I have a project that compiles some browser extensions using webpack. This webpack project outputs to an artifacts folder with subdirectories for each browser. Inside each subdirectory is the compiled extension with the version number included in the file name like:
artifacts
Chrome
myextension-0.1.0.0.zip
myextension-0.1.0.1.zip
myextension-0.1.0.2.zip
At compile time, ultimately I want to include the files matching the version number i.e. myextension-\$(var.VERSION).zip into the MSI package so it can then be placed into the application folder during installation. Even when I hard-code the version number i.e. myextension-0.1.0.2.zip into the component, I get an error from light:
LGHT0001: The system cannot find the path specified. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070003)
I'm getting the directory with a define like this:
<?define ChromeTargetDir=$(var.SolutionDir)Extensions\artifacts\chrome\?>
And then my component looks like this:
<Component Id="ChromeExt"
Location="local"
Guid="GUID_HERE">
<CreateFolder/>
<File Id="ChromeExtension"
Name="myextension-0.1.0.2.zip"
Source="$(var.ChromeTargetDir)myextension-0.1.0.2.zip"
KeyPath="yes"/>
</Component>
When I look in the wixobj created by candle, I see the full correct path replaced for the file where it resides on my system:
<field>C:\Users\me\source\repos\mysolution\Extensions\artifacts\chrome\myextension-0.1.0.2.zip</field>
So my question is, what is the correct way to include "arbitrary" files in my WiX project?
1) Solution vs Project Dir: The first thing I would try would be to replace $(var.SolutionDir) with $(var.ProjectDir) and try a recompile. I'll follow up if the problem is something else. Let's just rule that out first.
2) Quotes: I also use quotes around my paths:
<?define ChromeTargetDir="C:\Sources\Packages\MyChromeExtension\Files\" ?>
3) Project Variables: And finally you need a reference added to your project for project references and variables to work: WiX: How to use relative path to SolutionDir.
Maybe add: %ProgramFiles (x86)%\WiX Toolset v3.11\bin\WixUIExtension.dll
WiX Documentation: Using Project References and Variables
Obscure: More obscure causes could be lacking access rights (file not seen by the build process and light.exe - running impersonated?). Corrupted file or folder? (try to replace). And whatever else might conspire against you. Locked files?
I need to change an entry of a .NET config file.
The problem is that the App.config in the project folder needs to stay untouched, because otherwise the application won't work within the IDE anymore.
I need the installed .NET config file changed after its installation.
Whenever I try to reference that file and build my installer, i get an error that the file can't be found. Of course it can't be found there, because the installation folder doesn't exist, when I build the installer.
How can I achieve that goal?
You are not saying how you are editing it, but WIX has two facilities for doing this properly. You can use XmlFile or XmlConfig. These are scheduled at the proper time by WIX for you. You can set the path to the file a few ways as they accept a formatted string, so you can use an expected installed path or the file id.
I am trying to make changes to the WixStandardBootstrapperApplication.cpp and generate a dll as per the suggestion from this link. I have downloaded the wix310-debug source and am modifying the file present under wix310-debug\src\ext\BalExtension\wixstdba\ location. There is a wixstdba.vcxproj file under this location which I am trying to open using Visual Studio 2012. Whenever I try to do that I get the error:
Unable to read the project file "wixstdba.vcxproj". The imported project "C:\tools\WixBuild.props" was not found.
I am not sure what should I do to correct this. Also, based on the referenced link, I think I am updating the correct file but let me know if that is not the case. Any help in this would be great. Thanks in advance.
In your vcxproj there's a line like this:
<Import Project="$([MSBuild]::GetDirectoryNameOfFileAbove($(MSBuildProjectDirectory), wix.proj))\tools\WixBuild.targets" />
The debug source isn't really the source of wix. It includes all the wix source files but it is not really buildable. This zip has all the built pdbs and is used to debug only.
You want to download the wix source from wixtoolset's github so that you can build wixstdba. But, this is for version 3.10.3 currently and may have some version specific changes but I don't see anything that would be an issue using the dll built here against wix 3.10.2 since the engine and bootstrapper application interfaces should have remained the same.
But, you should be able to build all this with only the WixStdBA project. You will have to copy over the wixstdba folder. Edit the vcxproj and remove the import line mentioned above (it should be near the bottom).
Now, add this project to your a new solution or your installer solution in visual studio. We need to add addition include and library directories. All these include directories will be in your wix install location (default C:\Program Files (x86)\WiX Toolset v3.10) In Properties -> C/C++ -> General -> additional include directories add your wix SDK include path. If you are using visual studio 2013 you can use the full path or you can use "$(WIX)\SDK\vs2013\inc". $(WIX) should reference the WIX environment variable which points to the install directory which is added when installing wix. This should be the better option if you will be building on a build system with wix installed since the location may be different across machines.
Now for addition library directories, we go to the Properties -> Linker -> General -> Additional Library Directoryes and add in the correct lib path. If you are using visual studio 2013 you want to put in $(WIX)\SDK\vs2013\lib\x86. Finally we need to reference the libs that are needed to build the bootstrapper dll. Under Linker -> Input -> Additional Dependencies, add in "dutil.lib;balutil.lib". My additional dependencies has a lot more stuff and I don't remember if it was by default there. Here's my Additional Dependencies in full anyways
dutil.lib;balutil.lib;advapi32.lib;comctl32.lib;comdlg32.lib;gdi32.lib;gdiplus.lib;kernel32.lib;msimg32.lib;odbc32.lib;odbccp32.lib;ole32.lib;oleaut32.lib;shell32.lib;shlwapi.lib;user32.lib;uuid.lib;wininet.lib;winspool.lib;version.lib;%(AdditionalDependencies)
With this you should be able to build the wixstdba project and get a dll built. Without editing any code this should be the exact same as the wix included wixstdba.dll.
You could try referencing this dll instead of the wix included one (have to define your own BootstrapperApplication instead of using the BootstrapperApplicationRef to one of the wix ones) or just drop in this dll into your wix location's bin.
My installer has to copy files into installdir... My application has around 2000 files and it is not possible for me to write the script to add each and every file to the installer.
Is there any option in wix so that I can add all the files or the entire folder consisting the files at once? I am new to wix and i didnt find any option in any tutorial for this... Please do assist me and thanks in advance.....
Heat is the WiX harvest tool. You can run it on a directory to generate the necessary WiX source code.
EDIT:
If you want to run heat before your VS project builds, add it to your project prebuild events as seen in the screenshot below (this is how I have my project setup to dynamically generate WiX source for our ever changing help content):
Note the -var wix.HelpSource switch that I have. The WiX source files generated by heat will set the location of the source files to that variable instead of hard-coding it. So the generated source will have components that look something like this:
<Component Id="Welcome.htm" Directory="Content" Guid="INSERT-GUID-HERE">
<File Id="Welcome.htm" KeyPath="yes" Source="!(wix.HelpSource)\Content\Welcome.htm" />
</Component>
And in my particular case, I define that variable on the Tool Settings screen of my WiX VS project to the relative directory ..\..\Help\Output as seen below:
NOTE: Harvesting files in this manner will cause the GUIDs of the components harvested to change every time you build. If you don't want your GUIDs to change, you may have to write some wrapper that calls heat to harvest the files, then updates your original WiX source, leaving all the GUIDs alone.
I'm using Visual Studio to build my wix file. So far I have one file Product.wxs and it's working for a simple install.
Now I want to add some custom dialogs. I think from the two articles below, I understand how to do it - after I get my environment set up:
http://blog.torresdal.net/2008/10/24/WiXAndDTFUsingACustomActionToListAvailableWebSitesOnIIS.aspx
and
http://www.merlinia.com/mdt/WiXTutorial2.msl
I downloaded the source, and I see 35 *.wxs file in this directory
wix35-sources.zip\src\ext\UIExtension\wixlib
This is where I'm starting to get lost.
Do I need to copy some (only the ones I want to change) or all these files to my Visual Studio Project. Until now, I have been running with none of these source files.
How does my Product.wxs know to use these files? Does it look at local directory first? Or do I have to rebuild some C# modules?
I included these lines in my Product.wxs, and it gave me the user interface at execution time:
<UIRef Id="WixUI_Mondo" />
<UIRef Id="WixUI_ErrorProgressText" />
Thanks,
Neal
Do I need to copy some (only the ones I want to change) or all these files to
my VisualStudio Project. Until now, I have been running with none of these source files.
Since you are already using WixUI_Mondo, I assume you want to customize that UI. Locate WixUI_Mondo.wxs in the wix sources, and copy that to your visual studio project. Rename the file to WixUI_MyCustomUI.wxs and change the UI Id attribute inside the file to Id="WixUI_MyCustomUI". You don't need to copy any other files yet; the dialogs referenced in the copied UI sequence are compiled into the wix tools as resources, so wix "knows" these dialogs by name.
In your product.wxs file, change the UI reference to <UIRef Id="WixUI_MyCustomUI" />. If you now rebuild your setup, the UI should still look exactly as WixUI_Mondo as we haven't customized anything yet.
If that worked, you'll probably want to customize or add a dialog. Again, you can start from an existing dialog by copying it from the wix sources. You'll also have to edit the WixUI_MyCustomUI.wxs file so that it uses your new dialog. Take a look at this other answer I wrote for an example.
How does my Product.wxs know to use
these files? Does it look at local
directory first? Or do I have to
rebuild some C# modules?
You do not have rebuild any C# modules. The only reason you downloaded the wix sources is because the existing UI sequences and dialogs are good examples to start from. In principle you could also ignore the wix sources and write these wxs files for the UI sequence and dialog definitions from scratch.
When you use the command line tools, you combine multiple wxs files by simply passing multiple file arguments and they will be compiled and linked together. If you use wix with visual studio, you just have to add the wxs file to the project. A non-trivial wix setup will typically be defined by many wxs files.
The content of a wxs file can container references to elements in other wxs files through elements such as UIRef, ComponentRef, ComponentGroupRef, DirectoryRef etcetera.