[wix-devs] Burn Variable breaking changes

[Rob Mensching]

(Focusing only on 4863)

Using Variable/@Type="literal" is interesting. I wonder if we should change the default for "string" to actually mean "literal string" and introduce Type="formatted" instead? I don't know what kind of can of worms that opens (but it would be wix convertible so an interesting idea).

I wonder if the answer is that thmutil always *sets* values as string literals but when it reads the value as formatted or not based on the Variable/@Type. This would remove the ability for the end user to enter "[ProgramFilesFolder]IKnowBurnWillProcessThis" via thmutil UI to have it expanded. But I'm not sure that's a real scenario. Of course, custom BA code would still be able to set variables literal and formatted.

Thoughts?


-----Original Message-----
From: wix-devs <wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Sean Hall via wix-devs
Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2020 9:53 PM
To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Sean Hall <r.sean.hall at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [wix-devs] Burn Variable breaking changes

There's a few scenarios for 4863.

1. Path variable. This one's straightforward, the editbox should be populated with the literal value of the target variable. When saving, the variable needs to have the contents of the editbox as a literal value.

2. Random string - user can't use Variables. The editbox should be populated with the formatted value of the target variable. When saving, the variable needs to have the escaped contents of the editbox as the value ("abc[def]" needs to be saved as "abc[\[]def[\]]").

3. Random string - user can use Variables. The editbox should be populated with... I don't know. Should it be the formatted or unformatted value of the target variable? When saving, the variable needs to have the unescaped contents of the editbox as the value.

4. Current v3 behavior. The editbox is populated with the unformatted value of the target variable. The contents of the editbox are saved unescaped.

Even if we don't want to support some of these, I don't know how we get around thmutil needing to know whether to alter the value before saving it.
In that case, I would rather not have Variable/@Literal and instead add a new variant type of BURN_VARIANT_TYPE_LITERAL_STRING. I feel like it's more correct in saying that a string value is literal, instead of declaring a Variable to be literal.

On Sat, Jun 27, 2020 at 4:22 AM Bob Arnson <bob at firegiant.com> wrote:

> I can't speak to managed BAs but in general, it seems like the BA 
> would know about the variables it's querying or, if not, wouldn't care 
> about the underlying type.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wix-devs <wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of 
> Sean Hall via wix-devs
> Sent: Thursday, 25 June, 2020 19:18
> To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> Cc: Sean Hall <r.sean.hall at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [wix-devs] Burn Variable breaking changes
>
> Does Variable/@Literal just work? I'd have to think about the implications.
> There'd be a bit on the Variable saying it's Literal, and there's also 
> the existing bit on the Variant saying the value's Literal. I'm not 
> sure if there needs to be support for asking whether the variable is a 
> literal string. Which is why I brought 5319 into this discussion. If 
> we don't need or want to add the ability for the BA to query the 
> current type of a variable, then I'll probably get rid of the separate collections.
>
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2020 at 2:16 AM Bob Arnson <bob at firegiant.com> wrote:
>
> > On 4863, I'm a little leery of trying to make thmutil too smart; if 
> > the bundle authoring can express the intent 
> > (Variable/@Literal="yes"?), then I'd say that's probably the better
> option.
> >
> > On 5319, I don't know enough about managed BAs to say much, but I've 
> > always found it weird that the different variable types are exposed 
> > in different collections, even if it makes sense when using them.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: wix-devs <wix-devs-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of 
> > Sean Hall via wix-devs
> > Sent: Thursday, 25 June, 2020 07:47
> > To: WiX Toolset Developer Mailing List 
> > <wix-devs at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> > Cc: Sean Hall <r.sean.hall at gmail.com>
> > Subject: [wix-devs] Burn Variable breaking changes
> >
> > I'd like to design the following issues so I know which ones require 
> > a breaking change:
> >
> > https://github.com/wixtoolset/issues/issues/4763
> > https://github.com/wixtoolset/issues/issues/4863
> > https://github.com/wixtoolset/issues/issues/5319
> >
> > 4763 added the ability for Burn to set a variable as a literal string.
> > I think it's pretty straightforward to expose 
> > VariableSetLiteralString to the BA. Doesn't seem to be a breaking change.
> >
> > 4863 is about wixstdba (through thmutil) allowing an editbox to be 
> > either a literal string or a formatted string. If it's a literal 
> > string, then the value should not be expanded when populating the 
> > editbox. If it's a formatted string, then the value should be 
> > expanded when populating the editbox. Should thmutil ask for a 
> > SetLiteralStringVariable callback and the editbox is configured as 
> > literal/formatted in the theme? Or can a variable be authored as a 
> > literal string (so thmutil and wixstdba won't be aware that they're 
> > setting a literal string, the Burn engine will just handle it)? 
> > Making thmutil format the variable when populating the editbox is a 
> > breaking
> change, but adding the literal support doesn't seem to be breaking.
> >
> > 5319 is about the managed BootstrapperEngine implementation where it 
> > exposes StringVariables, NumericVariables, and VersionVariables. The 
> > complaint is that calling 
> > NumericVariables.Contains("StringVariableA")
> > returns true even though the variable is actually a string and not a 
> > number. Do we remove the Contains method from all 3 and provide a 
> > single Contains method so it doesn't imply that the variable is of 
> > the requested type? Or does Burn provide a way to expose what the 
> > current type of a variable is? Either way sounds like a breaking change.
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