wix XmlConfig - how to define loc variables? - wix

Question

I need to use XmlConfig to modify my machine.config file during installation process, something like that:
<util:XmlConfig
Id="Machine_Config_Xml_Root"
File="[WindowsFolder]Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\Machine.Config"
Action="create"
On="install"
ElementPath="//configuration/system.data/DbProviderFactories"
Name="add"
Node="element"
Sequence="1">
</util:XmlConfig>
<util:XmlConfig
Id="Machine_Config_Xml_4"
File="[WindowsFolder]Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\Machine.Config"
ElementPath="Machine_Config_Xml_Root"
Name="name"
Value="My Data Provider"
Sequence="2">
</util:XmlConfig>
<util:XmlConfig
Id="Machine_Config_Xml_3"
File="[WindowsFolder]Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\Machine.Config"
ElementPath="Machine_Config_Xml_Root"
Name="invariant"
Value="Sample.MyDataProvider"
Sequence="2">
</util:XmlConfig>
<util:XmlConfig
Id="Machine_Config_Xml_5"
File="[WindowsFolder]Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\Machine.Config"
ElementPath="Machine_Config_Xml_Root"
Name="description"
Value="My Data Provider"
Sequence="2">
</util:XmlConfig>
<util:XmlConfig
Id="Machine_Config_Xml_2"
File="[WindowsFolder]Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\Machine.Config"
ElementPath="Machine_Config_Xml_Root"
Name="type"
Value="Eli.Sample.MyDataProvider, Sample.MyDataProvider, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5b9d34470b87a97f"
Sequence="2">
</util:XmlConfig>
<util:XmlConfig
Id="Machine_Config_Xml_Uninstall_1"
File="[WindowsFolder]Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\Machine.Config"
Action="delete"
On="uninstall"
ElementPath="//configuration/system.data/DbProviderFactories/add[\[]#invariant='Sample.MyDataProvider'[\]]"
Sequence="1">
</util:XmlConfig>
But it does not compile due to errors like this:
The localization variable !(loc.msierrXmlConfigFailedOpen) is unknown.
How can I define this loc.msierrXmlConfigFailedOpen variable and others? I don't want to switch to en-Us culture (in this case variables are defined) - I need to keep my current culture and define loc variables by myself. How can I do this and where on my wxs file should I put declarations?

Answer 1

This phrase you referenced can be found among UtilExtension texts. This is the relative path in WiX sources: /src/ext/UtilExtension/wixlib/en-us.wxl. As long as you reference the UtilExtension, and build the MSI for a different culture (not en-US), you get this error, because there's no translation of this and other phrases you pull along with UtilExtension.
You can do the following:
copy that en-us.wxl to your WiX sources and rename it to the culture you target
replace the values of <String> elements in that file with appropriate phrase translations for the culture you target
feed this file to light.exe (<localizations> section)
You might want to utilize the language fallback concept, described in "Specifying Cultures to Build" topic in WiX.chm