Please excuse my frustration but I am finding WiX to be neigh worthless - why?
Because there is a plethora of information by half of it is no good and the
other half points you to the mysterious MSI documentation which is wonderful if
one could figure out how that translates to WiX.
All I want to do is have a default directory structure:
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" Name="PFiles">
<Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name="Acme">
<Component Id="AppSettings" Guid="
xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx ">
But let the user choose to install in another place:
<Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value=" INSTALLDIR " />
<Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="Next" Event="SetTargetPath"
Value="[WIXUI_INSTALLDIR]" Order="1">1</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog"
Value="VerifyReadyDlg" Order="2">1</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="ChangeFolder"
Property="_BrowseProperty" Value="[WIXUI_INSTALLDIR]" Order="1">1</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="ChangeFolder"
Event="SpawnDialog" Value="BrowseDlg" Order="2">1</Publish>
However when I use the above - no matter what the user chooses the component is
always placed at: C:\Program Files\Acme - i.e. the dialog is pointless.
So I made this change:
<Property Id="INSTALLDIR" Value="Acme" />
<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
<Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" Name="PFiles">
<Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name=".">
<Directory Id="FILELOC" Name="OTInstaller">
<Component Id="AppSettings" Guid="
xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx ">
Well this tries to install to come network drive named Acme.
I did find that I can insert "C:\Program Files\Acme" but this results in a
warning about hard coding directories This is what I guess I will have to live
with. I did try something like [ProgramFilesFolder]\Acme - but this too
resulted in an error - I guess a property can't be used to set another property
in this way.
Ultimately I know that my frustrations are a result of just not understanding
how MSI works with directories but all I have are 100's of examples to
extrapolate from and none of them seem to offer correct advice (i.e. it either
does not work (WiX Wiki example) or results in errors). As I fight my way
though building this installer I find that this has consistently been the case
- 100's of examples but no real information to help you extrapolate to achieve
what you need which is often just a tiny tweak on the example. Without some
sort of understanding there is no way to get form the example to the desired
functionality - and how can you build understanding from examples that don't
work?
So aside from helping me get these files placed where the user wants them - if
someone ever figure out the secret to WiX - write a good solid book on it and I
will buy it and I know other users will love to have it. WiX is wonderful - but
so much time gets wasted trying to work out details. I am ever to tempted to
use VBScript to do custom actions to do things that WiX clearly can do - just
because I cannot figure out HOW to do it. This is madness
(I have found many books with WiX examples - generally a 2-3 page section with
an example that is usually copied from the tutorial (or darn near) or the Wiki.)
Nicholas
(again sorry for the frustration in my tone)
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