If you look in the wix help for the Name attribute of the Shortcut element, youll see that it has the type LongFileNameType. Properties are only substituted into (formatted) string types.
The ProgramMenuDir value should be a directory Id so it works as you suggested. Directory Ids are a bit special as they are properties http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa372403%28VS.85%29.aspx Using all caps just means a property is public. Property names are case sensitive so INSTALLLOCATION and InstallLocation are 2 different properties. Wix is a wrapper around Windows Installer, and that's the tricky part. Once you understand Windows Installer, WiX is straightforward :) The tutorial is a good start. I would recommend reading and rereading the MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc185688%28v=VS.85%29.aspx several times and this mailing list where you need specific help. There are also several good blogs that will turn up in a Google search too. -----Original Message----- From: michaelrepucci [mailto:mich...@repucci.org] Sent: 03 August 2010 20:44 To: wix-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [WiX-users] difference between INSTALLDIR and INSTALLLOCATION I've read more about properties, so now I understand that there are private and public properties, but I'm still confused on how to use them successfully in my WXS file. (FYI, so far, I've just been playing around with the examples from the http://www.tramontana.co.hu/wix/ WiX tutorial , so if you're curious where certain constructs came from, you can refer to those examples.) For instance, <RegistryValue Root="HKCU" Key="Software\[Manufacturer]\[ProductName]" Type="string" Value="" KeyPath="yes" /> seems to insert the values of Manufacturer and ProductName that I set as the Manufacturer and Name attributes of the Product tag, respectively. Good. But if I have a shortcut to the application within the main executable File tag, like so <Shortcut Id="MyStartMenu" Directory="ProgramMenuDir" Name="WinForms [ProductVersion]" WorkingDirectory="INSTALLLOCATION" Advertise="yes" /> The ProductVersion does NOT get replaced by the Version attribute of the Product tag, even though it's a stated property on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370905.aspx MSDN . Moreover, I don't understand where the value for the Directory attribute in the shortcut above gets set. I did use it as the Id attribute of a Directory tag elsewhere in the WXS file, like so <Directory Id="ProgramMenuDir" Name="MyApp"> ... </Directory> but I though that if I wanted to reuse the value of that Id attribute, that I needed to use an all caps name, as I did for the INSTALLLOCATION value above (which is the Id of another Directory tag). And, besides, I have another directory tag <Directory Id="ProgramMenuFolder" Name="Programs"> ... </Directory> which seems to point to the MSDN property ProgramMenuFolder, rather than set it (incidentally this tag wraps the previous Directory tag). I'm sure these are really basic questions, but for some reason, that big learning curve that I heard about with regards to WiX is rearing its ugly head for me. I can't seem to find documentation that explains WiX from start to finish in way that is clear to me; the MSDN documentation on properties doesn't clarify how they're used in a WiX-based XML, and I didn't see this in the http://wix.sourceforge.net/manual-wix3/main.htm WiX manual . So links to such docs would be great too. -- View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/difference -between-INSTALLDIR-and-INSTALLLOCATION-tp5347798p5369841.html Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------ The Palm PDK Hot Apps Program offers developers who use the Plug-In Development Kit to bring their C/C++ apps to Palm for a share of $1 Million in cash or HP Products. 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