[wix-devs] DisplayInternalUI in v4

[Sean Hall]

Based on that wix-users thread, it sounds like people want to pull the
DisplayInternalUI functionality from WixStdBA in v4? I find it interesting
that that thread got more responses and words than this one.

On Thu, Apr 2, 2020 at 6:13 AM Rob Mensching via wix-devs <
wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org> wrote:

> Yes, sounds right.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wix-devs <wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Bob
> Arnson via wix-devs
> Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 6:23 PM
> To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> Cc: Bob Arnson <bob at firegiant.com>
> Subject: Re: [wix-devs] DisplayInternalUI in v4
>
> +1 on #3. As I recall, the BA would pass in well-known (albeit custom)
> properties and we'd modify WixUI dialogs to respect them.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wix-devs <wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Sean
> Hall via wix-devs
> Sent: Tuesday, 31 March, 2020 20:59
> To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> Cc: Sean Hall <r.sean.hall at gmail.com>
> Subject: [wix-devs] DisplayInternalUI in v4
>
> We've discussed several times about what to do about DisplayInternalUI in
> v4 (
>
> http://lists.wixtoolset.org/pipermail/wix-devs-wixtoolset.org/2019-December/001454.html
> ,
>
> http://lists.wixtoolset.org/pipermail/wix-devs-wixtoolset.org/2015-October/000112.html
> ).
> I've been looking through the wix-users list and users are asking for
> everything between DisplayInternalUI being configurable at runtime and
> wanting the full MSI UI for every operation
> (install/modify/repair/uninstall). It seems like there are 3 different
> approaches we can take.
>
> 1. Remove DisplayInternalUI entirely. This enforces the design decision
> for Burn that there should be one unified UI for the bundle (documented in
> http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2012/6/25/b-is-for-bundle-and-thats-good-enough-for-me/
> and http://www.joyofsetup.com/2013/07/05/burn-zero-one-or-n/).
>
> 2. Continue with the v3 design of DisplayInternalUI - allow the MSI UI to
> be shown, but the Burn engine will ensure that the user/MSI can only do
> what was planned. The basic idea to implement this approach is to expose
> MsiEngineCalculateInstallUiLevel as a BA message, but disallow certain UI
> levels when not doing an install. This satisfies some user requests but
> many want full MSI UI during maintenance operations, e.g. feature selection
> during Modify.
>
> 3. Allow the BA full control of the UI level of the MSI, even if that
> means the user/MSI ends up doing something other than what was planned. The
> basic idea to implement this approach is to expose
> MsiEngineCalculateInstallUiLevel as a BA message, and whatever else needs
> to be exposed in that message to support EmbeddedUI. This should satisfy
> all user requests, or at least enable them to build a BA that can do what
> they want.
>
> IIRC in that discussion we had after we stopped recording the meeting, we
> had been leaning towards #3. In order to mitigate the potential for the
> user/MSI doing something other than planned, either Burn or the BA was
> going to set some MSI properties that WixUI could use to only enable the
> planned operation. I think we also considered that WixStdBA would no longer
> support showing MSI UI, and we would build a separate BA for that.
>
> I want to take approach #3. I'm in favor of making the built-in BA's
> usable for most, and then if users hit a wall then they have the
> extensibility to do what they want.
>
> For WixStdBA, I think we should basically keep it where it is - allow more
> flexibility like being able to have a condition for DisplayInternalUI but
> keep ensuring that the user/MSI can only do what was planned.
>
> I'm interested in building another built-in BA that will allow showing the
> full MSI UI for every operation - basically try to hide the bundle UI
> whenever possible. This would be technically closer than WixStdBA to
> intended Burn of only one UI.
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