[wix-users] Wix 3.10.1.2213: How to avoir an error on missing files?

Edwin Castro egcastr at gmail.com
Fri Oct 30 14:02:37 PDT 2015 

Marking a File as optional would actually require the owning Component to
be optional because the Component Rules dictate that Components must not
change. If you do not want a Component in your MSI, then don't reference it.

One way to tackle this problem is to group the Components for your zillion
html files into a ComponentGroup and then use <?if?> to decided whether you
reference the ComponentGroup or not. This approach works best if the files
can be included or not in the MSI as a group. You could make smaller groups
to get more fine grained control but becomes difficult the finer control
needed.

If the files are very dynamic (perhaps they are generated), then you'd want
to use Heat to generate your WiX source for those files. Heat will generate
ComponentGroups that you can reference. You will need to run heat before
you run candle/light. The benefit here is that you can choose a static
ComponentGroup Id and always reference it in your project because heat will
generate an empty ComponentGroup if nothing is harvested.


On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 12:47 PM, Francis ANDRE <
francis.andre.kampbell at orange.fr> wrote:

>
>
> Le 30/10/2015 20:13, Edwin Castro a écrit :
>
>> I don't fully understand what you are trying to do. You have a file that
>> you want to appear in the MSI's File table (which will be installed) but
>> you don't want WiX to look for it at build time? OR do you want to install
>> the file only on some versions of your product (in other words, you do not
>> want the file in the MSI's File table because the file is not to be
>> installed)?
>>
> When the file exists, I want it included into the msi and installed
> When the file does not exist, I do not want an error message from Light
> stating that the file is missing
>
> I would like something like below with a new attribute: optional
>
> <File optional="true" Id="FOO.HTML" Name="Foo.html" Source="foo.html"/>
>
> There are zillions of html files and some of them disappears from one
> version to the next. So, I need an simpleway to not bother for those
> missing files without having to chekc the version with an if/then/else.
>
> If this functionality is already present in Wix 3.10, I would like to know
> the how-to
>
> Best
>
> FA
>
>
>
>
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 6:57 AM, Francis ANDRE <
>> francis.andre.kampbell at orange.fr> wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>>
>>> I am a new comer to WiX and using heat as you explained is too much
>>> different from what I am using now with Candle/Light. I would expect
>>> something like a optional attribute on the File element to avoid such
>>> error...
>>>
>>>
>>> Le 30/10/2015 14:23, Phill Hogland a écrit :
>>>
>>> For situations like this I use heat.exe, specifically I prefer to use the
>>>> wix supplied HarvestDirectory MSBuild target by adding something like
>>>> this
>>>> to myProject.wixproj file (or a harvest.targets file that I then import
>>>> into the .wixproj file):
>>>>
>>>>     <PropertyGroup>
>>>>       <HarvestNoLogo>true</HarvestNoLogo>
>>>>       <HarvestVerboseOutput>true</HarvestVerboseOutput>
>>>>       <HarvestAutogenerateGuids>true</HarvestAutogenerateGuids>
>>>>       <HarvestSupressFragments>true</HarvestSupressFragments>
>>>>       <HarvestSuppressUniqueIds>true</HarvestSuppressUniqueIds>
>>>>          </PropertyGroup>
>>>>     <ItemGroup>
>>>>       <HarvestDirectory Include="..\path\dir1">
>>>>         <DirectoryRefId>Dir1Id</DirectoryRefId>
>>>>         <Transforms>transfrom1.xslt</Transforms>
>>>>         <ComponentGroupName>Dir1Group</ComponentGroupName>
>>>>         <PreprocessorVariable>var.Dir1Var</PreprocessorVariable>
>>>>         <KeepEmptyDirectories>false</KeepEmptyDirectories>
>>>>         <SuppressCom>true</SuppressCom>
>>>>         <SuppressRootDirectory>true</SuppressRootDirectory>
>>>>         <SuppressRegistry>true</SuppressRegistry>
>>>>                <Visible>false</Visible>
>>>>     </HarvestDirectory>
>>>>     <HarvestDirectory Include="..\path\Dir2">
>>>>           <DirectoryRefId>Dir2Id</DirectoryRefId>
>>>>           <Transforms>transfrom2.xslt</Transforms>
>>>>           <ComponentGroupName>Dir2Group</ComponentGroupName>
>>>>           <PreprocessorVariable>var.Dir2Var</PreprocessorVariable>
>>>>           <KeepEmptyDirectories>false</KeepEmptyDirectories>
>>>>           <SuppressCom>true</SuppressCom>
>>>>           <SuppressRootDirectory>true</SuppressRootDirectory>
>>>>           <SuppressRegistry>true</SuppressRegistry>
>>>>                    <Visible>false</Visible>
>>>>     </HarvestDirectory>
>>>>     </ItemGroup>
>>>>
>>>> The generated wxs files end up in ..\obj\$(Configuration) and get added
>>>> to the compile source list automatically.  A ComponentGroupRef needs to
>>>> be
>>>> added to the project's authoring.
>>>>
>>>> And in most of my implementations, rather than using:
>>>>           <PreprocessorVariable>var.Dir2Var</PreprocessorVariable>
>>>> I use:
>>>>           <PreprocessorVariable>wix.Dir2Var</PreprocessorVariable>
>>>> And I also use a transform which substitutes '!(bindpath.' for '!(wix.'
>>>> ,
>>>> which then allows me to add a named bindpath to my wixproj
>>>>       <LinkerAdditionalOptions>
>>>>         $(LinkerAdditionalOptions)
>>>>         -nologo
>>>>         -b Dir1Var="\\server\folder\Dir1_ToHarvest\\"
>>>>       </LinkerAdditionalOptions>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On
>>>> Behalf Of Francis ANDRE
>>>> Sent: Friday, October 30, 2015 5:32 AM
>>>> To: wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org
>>>> Subject: [wix-users] Wix 3.10.1.2213: How to avoir an error on missing
>>>> files?
>>>>
>>>> Hi
>>>>
>>>> I am using a component  where some source files can be present or not
>>>> when building the msi. How can be avoided the fatal error when the file
>>>> is
>>>> missing? Is there some kind of relax attribute?
>>>>
>>>> Below is an example where I want to remove the test condition
>>>>
>>>>                            <?if $(var.ProductVersion) =  1.6.1 ?>
>>>>                            <File
>>>> Id="POCO.MONGODB.ELEMENTCOMPARATOR.HTML"
>>>> Name="Poco.MongoDB.ElementComparator.html"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Source="$(var.POCO)\releases\poco-$(var.VERSION)-all-doc\Poco.MongoDB.ElementComparator.html"
>>>> />
>>>>                            <?endif ?>
>>>>
>>>> Thank for any help
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>>
>>>> FA
>>>>
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>>
>>
>
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-- 
Edwin G. Castro

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