[wix-users] Executing Batch File

Fri Apr 6 10:48:19 PDT 2018

The "Builtin Deferred Custom Action which has a ExeCommand attribute" is
implemented by the Windows Installer engine directly. There is no way to
hide the console window when using a "Builtin Deferred Custom Action which
has a ExeCommand attribute". WiX provided CAQuietExec and WixQuietExec to
run commands without showing the console window.

--
Edwin G. Castro

On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 10:43 AM, Ven H <venh.123 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Also, for a Builtin Deferred Custom Action which has a ExeCommand
> attribute, how can we ensure it doesn't pop up console window?
>
> Regards,
> Venkatesh
>
> On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 9:43 PM, Edwin Castro via wix-users <
> wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org> wrote:
>
>> I have found the Saw Tooth Diagram described at
>>
>> https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/rflaming/2006/09/21/uac-in-
>> msi-notes-the-saw-tooth-diagram/
>>
>> indispensable for understanding how the Windows Installer engine works.
>>
>> --
>> Edwin G. Castro
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 7:13 AM, Edwin Castro <egcastr at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > The documentation describing how to reference the full path to a file
>> > getting installed is at
>> >
>> > https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa368609.aspx
>> >
>> > The WiX documentation doesn't cover this because it is a Windows
>> Installer
>> > concept. To be fair, the WiX documentation should probably have links
>> to it
>> > so that newbies can find it easier.
>> >
>> > The Windows Installer logically performs multiple passes of the
>> > InstallExecuteSequence. In the first "pass", only immediate mode custom
>> > actions are executed (with full access to tables and properties) and an
>> > execute script is generated. The second "pass" occurs when the generated
>> > execute script is executed when deferred custom actions are executed
>> (with
>> > access only to custom action data and a very limited number of
>> properties).
>> > The third "pass" only executes if a deferred action fails. In this last
>> > pass, the generated execute script is executed in reverse starting from
>> the
>> > action prior to the action that failed but only rollback actions are
>> > executed.
>> >
>> > The purpose if the first "pass" is to make decisions on what actions
>> > should be taken. The second "pass" actually modifies the target system.
>> And
>> > the third "pass" rollsback in case of failure.
>> >
>> > Your WixQuietExec action for running bcpImp.bat must be deferred (runs
>> in
>> > the second pass). The SetProperty for the command line implements an
>> > immediate custom action (first pass) to set the custom action data for
>> the
>> > deferred action. You'll need to consider what should happen, if
>> anything,
>> > during rollback in the third pass (if you need a rollback action it
>> must be
>> > scheduled before your deferred action).
>> >
>> > One consequence of all this is that you cannot communicate between
>> > deferred actions!! Since you want the return code only to determine if
>> it
>> > succeded then you can simply set Return="check" on the CustomAction
>> element
>> > as per the WiX documentation. This ensures that the Windows Installer
>> waits
>> > for the deferred action to complete (it runs synchronously) and checks
>> the
>> > return code to be zero indicating success. With this you just need to
>> > schedule the follow up scripts/commands after this one and the later
>> ones
>> > only get executed if the previous ones succeeded.
>> >
>> > Additionally, if and only if, your .bat script only executes a single
>> > command, then you can use WixQuietExec to run the command directly
>> instead
>> > of using the .bat script. Obviously, if your .bat script runs multiple
>> > commands, then you'll definitely want to use the .bat script. Just
>> ensure
>> > the .bat only returns a zero exit code on success and non-zero on
>> failure.
>> >
>> > --
>> > Edwin G. Castro
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Thu, Apr 5, 2018, 05:38 Joel McBeth via wix-users <
>> > wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Here is the documentation for using the Execution custom action:
>> >> http://wixtoolset.org/documentation/manual/v3/customactions/
>> qtexec.html
>> >>
>> >> CAQuietExec is being depreciated for WixQuietExec. You don't use
>> >> ExeCommand with WixQuietExec. I would look at the examples in the link
>> >> above.
>> >>
>> >> Also a tip, if you are installing bcpimp.bat you can directly reference
>> >> the file by ID. I couldn't quickly find the documentation on this with
>> a
>> >> good example, but check out this stack overflow:
>> >> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9664652/how-do-i-
>> >> reference-the-installed-path-of-a-file-in-a-registry-value
>> >>
>> >> Although that might all be pointless as I don't think you can capture
>> the
>> >> output of WixQuietExec, and if you could I'm not sure you could easily
>> >> parse it without a custom action.  That being said, you should probably
>> >> just write your own custom action to do all of this instead of using
>> >> WixQuietExec.
>> >>
>> >> For point 3, you can probably schedule the BCP custom action to run
>> >> before the SQL scripts are installed.
>> >>
>> >> -----Original Message-----
>> >> From: wix-users [mailto:wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org] On
>> >> Behalf Of Ven H via wix-users
>> >> Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2018 3:34
>> >> To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
>> >> Cc: Ven H <venh.123 at gmail.com>
>> >> Subject: [wix-users] Executing Batch File
>> >>
>> >> I am trying to execute a batch file through my MSI. I am using the
>> >> BuiltIn Custom Action with the following code. The batch file is meant
>> for
>> >> BCP.
>> >> Hence I am passing the arguments to the command using properties, as
>> >> given below in Product.wxs
>> >>
>> >> <CustomAction Id="test" ExeCommand="[INSTALLFOLDER]bcpImp.bat
>> >> "[SQLSERVER]\[SQLINSTANCE]"  "[SQLUSER]"
>> >> "[SQLPASSWORD]"  "[SQLDB]"  "[SQLTABLE]"
>> >> "[BCPIMPFILE]"" Execute="deferred" Return="check"
>> >> Directory="INSTALLFOLDER"  />
>> >>
>> >> <InstallExecuteSequence>
>> >>       <Custom Action="test" After="InstallFiles">NOT Installed</Custom>
>> >>     </InstallExecuteSequence>
>> >>
>> >> This works fine and the data gets imported. But I have a couple of
>> issues.
>> >>
>> >> 1. During execution, it pops up a Console Window. To suppress it, if I
>> >> use DllEntry="CAQuietExec", I get an error that "The CustomAction
>> element
>> >> may only have one of the following target attributes specified at a
>> time."
>> >> So, I cannot have DllEntry and ExeCommand specified at the same time
>> in my
>> >> CustomAction element. Hence I am not able to execute the BCP command
>> >> quietly. Is this achievable?
>> >>
>> >> 2. To understand whether the custom action executed successfully and to
>> >> capture it's return value, I tried assigning a Property. In that case
>> I had
>> >> to remove the Directory attribute, otherwise, it was not getting
>> compiled.
>> >> But, I got a runtime exception "A program required for this install
>> could
>> >> not be run.". So I am not sure how to read the return value. I need
>> this
>> >> because, I want to execute some more SQL scripts, after the data is
>> >> imported through BCP. So, I want to check if the BCP import ran
>> >> successfully, then accordingly, I want to execute more sql scripts. Is
>> this
>> >> possible?
>> >>
>> >> 3. To reiterate the second part of the above issue, I would like to
>> >> execute some sql scripts after the execution of the custom action. Is
>> this
>> >> possible? If yes, how?
>> >>
>> >> Please help.
>> >>
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>> >>
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>> >> http://www.firegiant.com/
>> >>
>> >
>>
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>> http://www.firegiant.com/
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>
>