[wix-users] Patch Creation Steps

[Ven H]

Thanks a lot for your response Jacob. I figured it out on my own. It was
not a version issue. It was an issue in the Patch.wxs file. I am generating
my components using Heat. Hence in my Patch.wxs file, under PatchFamily
element, I was using a FeatureRef (ComponentGroupRef is not allowed as a
child). The other option is the usual ComponentRef element. If I use
FeatureRef element as a child of PatchFamily element, it was throwing this
error, but with ComponentRef element, it works fine.
Anyway, *thanks a lot to all who helped* and *hope this helps someone*.

Regards,
Venkatesh

On Mon, Dec 4, 2017 at 9:32 PM, Hoover, Jacob <Jacob.Hoover at greenheck.com>
wrote:

> Without your MSI source, this is just speculation…
>
>
>
> It seems you are violating one of the component rules, where going from
> 1.0 to 1.1 you moved the key path of Sample.txt and didn’t change the
> component id. This is NOT allowed in a patch. You need to create a new
> component with a new GUID in 1.1, and you need to leave the existing
> component there.  You can change the 1.0 sample.txt to a null byte file,
> mark it as transitive, and condition it to never install.
>
>
>
> https://petermarcu.blogspot.com/2009/05/wix-removing-
> files-with-patches.html
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Ven H [mailto:venh.123 at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Sunday, December 3, 2017 10:42 AM
> *To:* Hoover, Jacob <Jacob.Hoover at greenheck.com>
> *Cc:* WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [wix-users] Patch Creation Steps
>
>
>
> Thanks a lot, Jacob. But I have a requirement to build patches since only
> a couple of fixes / changes in files may have to be pushed. Also, I am
> trying to learn Patch from the following links.
>
>
>
> http://petermarcu.blogspot.in/2007/06/wix-building-patch-
> using-new-patch_29.html
>
>
>
> http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/patching/wix_patching.html
>
>
>
> It looks like Patch works only if the file (Sample.txt in this case), is
> inside the Version (1.0 or 1.1) folder. What if it is nested inside another
> folder inside the version folder or if it is inside a different folder.
> Then it is throwing Object reference error during the Pyro command
> invocation. It will be great if anyone who has already implemented Patches
> successfully can also provide their inputs. I have also tried with
> different values for Patch Classification like Update, Service Pack, Hotfix
> and so on. But the behavior seems to be the same. There seems to be very
> less documentation on this. Also, I am wondering how to implement scenarios
> like Hotfix. If Patch is the answer, then yes, I have to get it working to
> push a couple of fixes, rather than taking the Major Upgrade route. I am
> not sure if this is a bug in Pyro / Torch, but somehow, I have been
> struggling a lot to get this working. My customer's MSI will have many
> files which are in predefined folders already. If they just want to deploy
> any one file (or two), then I am not sure how I can get it working. There
> only seem to be samples out there (with a single Sample text file and 2
> versions) and no real world examples.
>
>
>
> The error is given below including the Stack Trace.
>
>
>
> pyro.exe : error PYRO0001 : Object reference not set to an instance of an
> object.
>
>
>
> Exception Type: System.NullReferenceException
>
>
>
> Stack Trace:
>
>    at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.MediaRow.get_LastSequence()
>
>    at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.Patch.AttachTransforms(ArrayList
> transforms)
>
>    at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.Tools.Pyro.Run(String[] args)
> in C:\build\work\eca3d12b\wix3\src\tools\pyro\py
>
> ro.cs:line 201
>
>
>
> Unhandled Exception: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not
> set to an instance of an object.
>
>    at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.MediaRow.get_LastSequence()
>
>    at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.Patch.AttachTransforms(ArrayList
> transforms)
>
>    at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.Tools.Pyro.Run(String[] args)
> in C:\build\work\eca3d12b\wix3\src\tools\pyro\py
>
> ro.cs:line 250
>
>    at Microsoft.Tools.WindowsInstallerXml.Tools.Pyro.Main(String[] args)
> in C:\build\work\eca3d12b\wix3\src\tools\pyro\p
>
> yro.cs:line 92
>
>
>
> It will be great, if anyone can please help me with this. I have been
> struggling with this for so many days without any success.
>
>
> Regards,
> Venkatesh
>
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 11:23 PM, Hoover, Jacob <Jacob.Hoover at greenheck.com>
> wrote:
>
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1405100/change-my-
> component-guid-in-wix
>
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32142191/remove-or-
> rename-files-during-minor-updatewix-3-9-patch
>
> If you don't have a solid understanding of Windows Installer, you should
> stick to major upgrades, auto-generated component ID's, and follow best
> practices.
>
> https://www.joyofsetup.com/2008/12/30/paying-for-upgrades/
>
> https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/
> bb204770(v=vs.85).aspx
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On Behalf
> Of Ven H via wix-users
> Sent: Friday, December 1, 2017 11:22 AM
> To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
> Cc: Ven H <venh.123 at gmail.com>
> Subject: [wix-users] Patch Creation Steps
>
> Hi,
>
> I am really sorry to be asking this question again, as I am new to WiX and
> I am not getting much help with Patch creation. I am currently following
> the below link to create a Patch.
>
> http://petermarcu.blogspot.in/2007/06/wix-building-patch-
> using-new-patch_29.html
>
>  If I follow it exactly like, <File Id="SampleFile" Name="Sample.txt"
> Source=".\$(var.Version)\Sample.txt" />, the patch gets created. So,
> basically, in this case, the Sample.txt file has to be inside 1.0 and 1.1
> with different content for the patch to get created. In my case, I cannot
> strictly follow this approach. My Sample.txt could be in a different folder
> with different content (say, Test/Sample.txt for version 1.0 and
> TestPatch/Sample.txt for version 1.1). But in this case, the Pyro command
> throws Object Reference error. I am finding it really difficult to debug
> this. So, are there any predefined folder structures to be followed for
> enabling patch creation? Please help.
>
>
> Regards,
> Venkatesh
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
> WiX Toolset Users Mailing List provided by FireGiant
> http://www.firegiant.com/
>
>
>