Wix, show custom status message in ProgressDlg

Question

I'm trying to show a custom status message in default wix's ProgressDlg, following this answer:

WiX: dynamically changing the status text during CustomAction

So far, I got this code in my custom action:

public class CustomActions
    {
        [CustomAction]
        public static ActionResult CustomAction1(Session session)
        {
            Debugger.Launch();
            session.Log("Begin CustomAction1");
            MessageTest(session);
            return ActionResult.Success;
        }


        private static void MessageTest(Session session)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
            {
                using (Record r = new Record(0))
                {
                    r.SetString(0, $"Hello worls {i}");
                    session.Message(InstallMessage.ActionData, r);
                }
                Thread.Sleep(1000);
            }
        }
    }

Then, in Product.wxs have the following xml fragment:

<Binary Id="CuCustomInstallActionsBinary" SourceFile="$(var.ConsoleApplication1_TargetDir)CustomAction1.CA.dll" />
<CustomAction Id="CuCustomActionOnAfterInstall" BinaryKey="CuCustomInstallActionsBinary" DllEntry="CustomAction1" Execute="deferred" HideTarget="no" Return="check" Impersonate="no" />

    <InstallExecuteSequence>
      <Custom Action="CuCustomActionOnAfterInstall" Before="InstallFinalize"><![CDATA[(NOT Installed) AND (NOT REMOVE)]]></Custom>
    </InstallExecuteSequence>

But nothing is been shown in UI. The status message remains empty while the custom action runs.

Is there anything else that should be done to acomplish this? Maybe suscribing to <Subscribe Event="ActionData" Attribute="Text" /> Do I have to implement my own custom ProgressDlg for this?

You can apply one custom message per custom action by making use of the ActionText table in the MSI. — jbudreau
@jbudreau As long as I understand, ActionText shows current action name, but I need to show custom messages instead, that's why I think I need ActionData — Oscar
If you look at the ActionText table it's got 3 columns: 'Action' (which should match the name of the custom action that's executing), 'Description' (this is the place to put your customized/localized display string), and 'Template' (this is used to print ActionData to the MSI log file). Open your finished MSI file and view the ActionText table to get an idea of how each column is populated. — jbudreau
@jbudreau I didn't even have an ActionText table in my test msi file. I'm able to add it using Orca. Please, could you elaborate more about how to use this table to display custom messages dinamically using the Record class? Or point me to some online example or documentation? I need custom dynamic messages, not static messages declared in wxs file. Thanks — Oscar

Oscar Oscar · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-14T10:24:24

I found the answer after @jbudreau tips. The Record instance must have 3 fields, it's the same number of columns in ActionText MSI table. The first field must be set to custom action name, second is the UI message to show, and the third is the template value, not used in my case. Also, call to session.Message() must include parameter InstallMessage.ActionStart. So, the final code is:

public void UpdateStatus(string message)
{
   using (Record r = new Record(3))
   {
     r.SetString(1, "CuCustomActionOnAfterInstall");
     r.SetString(2, message);
     session.Message(InstallMessage.ActionStart, r);
   }
}

I haven't tested if it's necessary to have an entry in ActionText, what is accomplished by placing in Product.wxs file a ProgressText inside Product tag. Without this, the resulting MSI file won't contain the ActionText table

<UI>
      <ProgressText Action="CuCustomActionOnAfterInstall">Running post install configuration.</ProgressText>
</UI>

Wix, show custom status message in ProgressDlg

1 Answers