Set a WiX burn bootstrapper variable from a bundled MSI?

1
votes

We have a burn bootstrapper bundle that installs a bunch of prerequisites, launches our main install, then runs a few extension installers silently. We've recently had to add a couple of new components to the installation bundle, both of which require configuration information that's already gathered from other products launched earlier in the install. So basically:

  1. Package 1 is installed and a UI is presented. It asks for a service user and password.
  2. Package 2 was added to our bundle. It also needs a service user and password, the same as for package 1.
  3. Package 3 was added to our bundle. It also needs a service user and password, the same as for package 1.

We'd like to keep from having to have the user configure the same information three separate times. One possible solution we saw was to write our own WiX bootstrapper application, but that seems fairly heavy handed. Another possibility we considered was perhaps there was a way to have package one call a custom action which sets the value of a burn variable. We could then call packages two and three's installers with the burn variable passed in as part of their silent install commandline. Is there a way to do this? If so, what would it involve?

1
wixburn

1 Answers

0
votes

We did eventually find a solution to this, making use of the extended bootstrapper application from Neil Sleightholm. This allows creation of custom actions in the bootstrapper. We created a WiX burn custom action which in OnDetect launches a separate thread. That thread opens a named pipe and listens for pairs of variable names and values to be sent through: when it gets such a pair, it uses the engine's SetVariableValue command to set the value. In the called install, we created a custom action which connects to the named pipe and sends across variable names and values according to what it gathered. The variables' new values successfully get passed on to subsequent installs, however install conditions are evaluated before any installs are launched, so those cannot make use of variables whose values are set by installs.