[wix-users] CustomAction - both Read AND Write Properties

Wed Oct 16 12:54:47 PDT 2019

Read: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/msi/obtaining-context-information-for-deferred-execution-custom-actions

Take a look at the way we write custom actions in the WiX toolset itself. Those are (where makes sense) table driven to be reusable.

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Walter Dexter via wix-users
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2019 12:40 PM
To: WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Cc: Walter Dexter <wfdexter at gmail.com>
Subject: [wix-users] CustomAction - both Read AND Write Properties

Can someone confirm this is impossible so I can stop banging my head on the wall - or tell me how to do it?

I'm writing a CustomAction in C#. I wanted to pass in some of the MSI properties, lookup some stuff in files on the file system and set some more of the MSI properties.

   - If I set the Execute attribute to "immediate" then CustomActionData
   (that I setup with a type 51 custom action) doesn't get passed in, but I
   can update the MSI properties from the CA.
   - If I set the Execute attribute to "deferred" then CustomActionData
   does get passed in, but I can't update the MSI properties from the CA.
   - There don't appear to be any other Execute attribute values that make
   any sense to make it any better.

I'm pasting in the relevant chunk of my WXS file below.

What's going on here is the DLL CA looks in a strangely formatted text file
("DNS.TXT") to get the DNS servers from "nar.na.test" and "nar.na.corp"
records, then IN_STAGING property is used to decide which set to write to the INI file.

IN_STAGING is set if a flag file (staging.flag) exists. I'm just working off the requirements handed me, but I assume that file would be created on our test systems but not in production locations.

If there's something else I've done that is stupid I'm glad to hear that feedback as well. :)

I'm probably going to give up and just hard-code the three properties in the CA DLL but I didn't really want to. I wanted the DLL to be as non-specific as possible and all that sort of stuff passed in from the MSI so when they decide that everything needs to be somewhere else I can just tweak a property and move on.

Thanks for any help-
Walt

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<!-- Where to find the DNS addresses -->
<Property Id="DNS_TXT_FILE"    Value="c:\pos_backup\network\dns.txt"
Secure="yes" />

<!-- staging and production domain names --> <Property Id="STAGING_DOMAIN"  Value="nar.na.test" Secure="yes" />
<Property Id="PROD_DOMAIN"     Value="nar.na.corp" Secure="yes" />

<!-- config file to update -->
<Property Id="CONFIG_INI_PATH"
Value="c:\pos_backup\storage\xpestaging\tools\config.ini" Secure="yes" />

<CustomAction Id="CA_GetDNSDLL_Properties" Return="check"
Property="CA_GetDNSDLL"

Value="DNS_TXT_FILE=[DNS_TXT_FILE];STAGING_DOMAIN=[STAGING_DOMAIN];PROD_DOMAIN=[PROD_DOMAIN]"
/>

<Property Id="PRI_PROD" Secure="yes" /> <Property Id="SEC_PROD" Secure="yes" /> <Property Id="PRI_STAGING" Secure="yes" /> <Property Id="SEC_STAGING" Secure="yes" />

<!-- Determine if staging.flag file exists and therefore if system is in staging. Otherwise production --> <Property Id="IN_STAGING" Secure="yes" >
    <DirectorySearch Id="DS_IN_STAGING" Path="DIR_ISPCONFIG" >
        <FileSearch Id="FS_IN_STAGING" Name="staging.flag" />
    </DirectorySearch>
</Property>

<!-- Get the DNS addresses -->
<Binary Id="GetDNSDLL"
SourceFile="..\..\source\GetDNSCA\obj\x86\Release\GetDNS.CA.dll" /> <CustomAction Id="CA_GetDNSDLL" BinaryKey="GetDNSDLL" DllEntry="GetDNS"
Execute="immediate" Return="check" />

<Feature Id="W10_CONFIGINI_DNS" Title="Set CONFIG.INI DNS for Windows 10 project" Level="1" >

    <!-- Not in staging = production. -->
    <Component Id="CMP_PROD_DNS" Directory="DIR_STAGING"
Guid="{869128EF-0FCA-4B44-B935-CA22079134FE}" Transitive="yes" >
        <File Id="FILE_PRODDNS_CONFIG_INIDLL"
Source="files/config.proddns.dll" KeyPath="yes" />
        <IniFile Id="IF_PROD_DNS_PRI" Name="config.ini" Action="addLine"
Directory="DIR_STAGING" Section="Network" Key="DNS_PRIMARY"
Value="[PRI_PROD]" />
        <IniFile Id="IF_PROD_DNS_SEC" Name="config.ini" Action="addLine"
Directory="DIR_STAGING" Section="Network" Key="DNS_SECONDARY"
Value="[SEC_PROD]" />
        <Condition><![CDATA[NOT IN_STAGING]]></Condition>
    </Component>

    <!-- In staging = staging. -->
    <Component Id="CMP_STAGING_DNS" Directory="DIR_STAGING"
 Guid="{1F10F5D4-BDD7-4718-8BD2-3F5CFAA391EB}" Transitive="yes" >
        <File Id="FILE_STAGDNS_CONFIG_INIDLL"
Source="files/config.stagdns.dll" KeyPath="yes" />
        <IniFile Id="IF_STAGING_DNS_PRI" Name="config.ini" Action="addLine"
Directory="DIR_STAGING" Section="Network" Key="DNS_PRIMARY"
Value="[PRI_STAGING]" />
        <IniFile Id="IF_STAGING_DNS_SEC" Name="config.ini" Action="addLine"
Directory="DIR_STAGING" Section="Network" Key="DNS_SECONDARY"
Value="[SEC_STAGING]" />
        <Condition><![CDATA[IN_STAGING]]></Condition>
    </Component>

</Feature>

<InstallExecuteSequence>
    <RemoveExistingProducts After="InstallInitialize" />
    <!-- These three also for Windows 10 Config.ini change -->
    <!-- Suppress the INI value remove because the uninstall will also be deleting the whole file. -->
    <!-- CA_GetDNSDLL pulls the DNS addresses out of the DNS.TXT file. -->
    <Custom Action="CA_GetDNSDLL_Properties" Before="CA_GetDNSDLL" />
    <!-- <Custom Action="CA_GetDNSDLL" Before="CostFinalize" /> was this before I changed the CA above to deferred from immediate.-->
    <Custom Action="CA_GetDNSDLL" Before="WriteIniValues" /> </InstallExecuteSequence>

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