wix 3.7 set property based on script/logic/code

Question

We have developed a pretty comprehensive wix installer msi package, which includes some 10+ c# custom actions.

My problem is that I have yet to figure out how to programmatically "set" a property.

Basically what I want to do is to parse an existing property into a new property.

This parsing would be nice to do in c#, but could also be done in RegEx, JavaScript or w/e.

However I am unable to do this from my c# custom actions ("Cannot access session details from a non-immediate custom action") and as far as I can read I can only change a property from a type 51 custom action. However a type 51 cannot use my c# custom actions. So its catch 22.

Can anyone give give me an example on how to perform the following in wix: Perform a regular expression/string manipulation using the value of one property and setting another with the result.

It seems obvious to me that this should be possible, but after a lot of searching I am still in the dark.

Any help would be appreciated.

Edit #1: After 3 years of working with wix, I still feel like an amateur, but here goes: I thought the only way to send properties and work with them in a custom action was this pattern:

 <CustomAction Id="CA.SetCreateMessageQueueProperty"
                  Property="CA.CreateMessageQueue"
                  Value="MsmqData=.\Private$\[MYAPPLICATIONNAME]/ObservationReportingService.svc,Observation delivery queue"
                  Return="check"/>
    <CustomAction Id="CA.CreateMessageQueue" 
                  BinaryKey="BI.CA" 
                  DllEntry="CreateMessageQueue" 
                  Execute="deferred" 
                  Return="check"
                  Impersonate="no"/>
    <InstallExecuteSequence>
      <Custom Action="CA.SetCreateMessageQueueProperty"
              After="InstallFiles"/>
      <Custom Action="CA.CreateMessageQueue" After="CA.SetCreateMessageQueueProperty">
        <![CDATA[((&FE.Afs=3) AND NOT (!FE.Afs=3))]]>
      </Custom>
    </InstallExecuteSequence>

In the custom action c# assembly:

[CustomAction]
        public static ActionResult CreateMessageQueue(Session session)
        {
            return session.DoCustomAction("CreateMessageQueue",
                () =>
                    {
                        string msmqData = session.ExtractString("MsmqData");

                        //create actual message queue
                            }
                        }
                    });
        }

internal static ActionResult DoCustomAction(this Session session, string name, Action action)
        {
            session.Log("Begin " + name);
            session.Log("session.CustomActionData.Count:" + session.CustomActionData.Count);
            try
            {
                action.Invoke();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                session.Log(string.Format("Exception: {0}\nInner Exception: {1}", ex, ex.InnerException));
                return ActionResult.Failure;
            }
            return ActionResult.Success;
        }

Why do you really need a deffered custom action? They are intended to perform updates of the environment and not some calculations of the properties. If I understand correctly, all properties should be set before deffered script execution. — Sasha

Natalie Carr Natalie Carr · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-13T09:22:12

I am thinking you are trying to retrieve an existing property and assign it to a new one during a deferred custom action.

<CustomAction Id="SetProperty" Return="check" Property="NameOfCustomActionYouAreUsingToRetrieveProperty" Value="[PROPERTY]"></CustomAction>

As deferred custom actions in the InstallExecuteSequence cannot access the installer properties we have to add the property to CustomActionData.

I wrote my custom actions in C++ but I will post the code and you will get an idea to change it to C# code.

extern "C" UINT __stdcall NameOfCustomActionYouAreUsingToRetrieveProperty(MSIHANDLE hInstall)
{
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
UINT er = ERROR_SUCCESS;
LPWSTR szValueBuf = NULL;

hr = WcaInitialize(hInstall, "NameOfCustomActionYouAreUsingToRetrieveProperty");
ExitOnFailure(hr, "Failed to initialize");

WcaLog(LOGMSG_STANDARD, "Initialized.");

hr = WcaGetProperty(L"CustomActionData",&szValueBuf);
ExitOnFailure(hr, "failed to get CustomActionData");

hr = MsiSetProperty(hInstall, "NEWPROPERTY",  szValueBuf);
ExitOnFailure(hr, "failed to set the new property");

LExit:
er = SUCCEEDED(hr) ? ERROR_SUCCESS : ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE;
return WcaFinalize(er);     
}

wix 3.7 set property based on script/logic/code

2 Answers