[wix-users] Unable to assign Auto Generated GUID for Component ID for Empty Folder

[Vilius Šumskas]

Hi,

a great summary by Edwin! I would also add that keeping Logs in the application directory is not the best practice and goes against Windows designated folder structure, i.e. no write access for standard users to Program Files and all that.

Logs should be kept somewhere in AppData or ProgramData depending on your application and auto-created by the application itself. This way you ensure that they be left intact on application upgrade.

-- 
    Best Regards,
    Vilius

-----Original Message-----
From: wix-users <wix-users-bounces at lists.wixtoolset.org> On Behalf Of Edwin Castro via wix-users
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 8:35 PM
To: Venkatesh H <venh.123 at gmail.com>
Cc: Edwin Castro <egcastr at gmail.com>; WiX Toolset Users Mailing List <wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org>
Subject: Re: [wix-users] Unable to assign Auto Generated GUID for Component ID for Empty Folder

Heat does not support auto generation of GUID for an empty directory as the error message indicated. You cannot coerce it to do so. You can put a file in the "empty" directory, but then it is no longer empty isn't it.

You could use XSLT to transform the generated .wxs source *but* you'd have to generate the GUID yourself anyway and figure out some method to keep it consistent between regenerations to ensure the component rules are not broken. In fact, generating a consistent GUID for an empty directory is difficult because of a lack of data to use to make it consistent. That's the reason heat doesn't do it for you already. The effort spent trying to solve this problem might be better spent hardcoding your empty directories or ensuring each directory has at least one file in it that is installed by the MSI so heat can auto generate your GUID.

Alternatively, the application itself could create the Logs directory on its own at runtime. The installer could delete the files inside the Logs directory and the Logs directory at uninstall if that's why you want the installer to create the empty directory to begin with. If you need to do this conditionally, then you could use a semi-custom action to populate the appropriate table with an immediate custom action depending on your specific conditions.

https://www.joyofsetup.com/2007/07/01/semi-custom-actions/

I don't really know what the real goal is behind installing an empty directory so I can't offer other suggestions.

--
Edwin G. Castro


On Tue, Apr 12, 2022 at 9:03 AM Venkatesh H <venh.123 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks a lot Edwin. But, I wanted to harvest an empty folder and be 
> able to auto generate the component guid.
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 12, 2022 at 4:04 AM Edwin Castro <egcastr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Consider not harvesting the empty directory and adding an authored 
>> component instead.
>>
>> <Fragment>
>>   <DirectoryRef Id="MYFOLDER">
>>     <Directory Id="LogsFolder" Name="Logs" />
>>   </DirectoryRef>
>>   <Component Id="CmpLogsFolder" Guid="ENTER_REAL_GUID_HERE"
>> Directory="LogsFolder>
>>     <CreateFolder />
>>   </Component>
>> </Fragment>
>>
>> Then make sure to add an appropriate ComponentRef to your Feature.
>>
>> <Feature ...>
>>   <ComponentRef Id="CmpLogsFolder" />
>>   <ComponentGroupRef Id="MyCompGroup" /> </Feature
>>
>> --
>> Edwin G. Castro
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 11, 2022 at 5:02 AM Venkatesh H via wix-users < 
>> wix-users at lists.wixtoolset.org> wrote:
>>
>>> In my Visual Studio Wix Project, I have a Heat command used to 
>>> harvest a directory in PreBuild Event.
>>>
>>> *"%wix%bin\heat.exe" dir "%MyFolderPath%" -out 
>>> "$(ProjectDir)Files\HeatOutput.wxs" -cg MyCompGroup -pog -gg -ag -g1 
>>> -ke -sfrag -sreg -srd -dr MYFOLDER*
>>>
>>> In my folder to harvest, I added an empty folder called Logs. Then 
>>> when I ran the build, I got the following error.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *The Component/@Guid attribute's value '*' is not valid for this 
>>> component because it does not meet the criteria for having an 
>>> automatically generated guid. Components using a Directory as a 
>>> KeyPath or containing ODBCDataSource child elements cannot use an 
>>> automatically generated guid.
>>> Make sure your component doesn't have a Directory as the KeyPath and 
>>> move any ODBCDataSource child elements to components with explicit 
>>> component
>>> guids.*
>>>
>>> So, can I not harvest an empty folder and have an auto generated 
>>> Component ID? Please help me fix this.
>>>
>>> *Environment Details*
>>> Visual Studio 2019 Professional
>>> WiX Tool Set 3.11.2
>>>
>>> ____________________________________________________________________
>>> WiX Toolset Users Mailing List provided by FireGiant 
>>> http://www.firegiant.com/
>>>
>>

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