In
the previous post we’ve taken a look at
the WiX solution/project structure and project properties. We’re still playing with our super SuperForm application and today we’ll take a look at
the general parts of
the main wxs file, SuperForm.wxs, and
the wxi include file. For wxs file we’ll just go over
the general description of what each part does in
the code comments.
The more detailed descriptions will be in future posts about features themselves. WXI include file Include files are exactly what their name implies. To include a wxi file into
the wxs file you have to put
the wxi at
the beginning of each .wxs file you wish to include it in. If you’ve ever worked with C++ you can think of
the include files as .h files. For example if you include SuperFormVariables.wxi into
the SuperForm.wxs,
the variables in
the wxi won’t be seen in FilesFragment.wxs or RegistryFragment.wxs. You’d have to include it manually into those two wxs files too. For preprocessor variable $(var.VariableName) to be seen by every file in
the project you have to include them in
the WiX project properties->Build->“Define preprocessor variables” textbox. This is why I’ve chosen not to go this route because in multi developer teams not everyone has
the same directory structure and having a single variable would mean each developer would have to checkout
the wixproj file to edit
the variable. This is pretty much unacceptable by my standards. This is why we’ve added a System Environment variable named SuperFormFilesDir as is shown in
the previous Wix Tutorial post. Because
the FilesFragment.wxs is autogenerated on every project build we don’t want to change it manually each time by adding
the include wxi at
the beginning of
the file. This way we couldn’t recreate it in each pre-build event. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><Include> <!-- Versioning. These have to be changed for upgrades. It's not enough to just include newer files. --> <?define MajorVersion="1" ?> <?define MinorVersion="0" ?> <?define BuildVersion="0" ?> <!-- Revision is NOT used by WiX in
the upgrade procedure --> <?define Revision="0" ?> <!-- Full version number to display --> <?define VersionNumber="$(var.MajorVersion).$(var.MinorVersion).$(var.BuildVersion).$(var.Revision)" ?> <!-- Upgrade code HAS to be
the same for all updates. Once you've chosen it don't change it. --> <?define UpgradeCode="YOUR-GUID-HERE" ?> <!-- Path to
the resources directory. resources don't really need to be included in
the project structure but I like to include them for for clarity --> <?define ResourcesDir="$(var.ProjectDir)\Resources" ?> <!--
The name of your application exe file. This will be used to kill
the process when updating and creating
the desktop shortcut --> <?define ExeProcessName="SuperForm.MainApp.exe" ?></Include>
For now there’s no way to tell WiX in Visual Studio to have a wxi include file available to
the whole project, so you have to include it in each file separately.
Only variables set in “Define preprocessor variables” or System Environment variables are accessible to
the whole project for now.
The main WXS file: SuperForm.wxs
We’ll only take a look at
the general structure of
the main SuperForm.wxs and not its
the details. We’ll cover
the details in future posts.
The code comments should provide plenty info about what each part does in general.
Basically there are 5 major parts.
The update part,
the conditions and actions part,
the UI install sequence,
the directory structure and
the features we want to include.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- Add xmlns:util namespace definition to be able to use stuff from WixUtilExtension dll--><Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi" xmlns:util="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/UtilExtension"> <!-- This is how we include wxi files --> <?include $(sys.CURRENTDIR)Includes\SuperFormVariables.wxi ?> <!-- Id="*" is to enable upgrading. * means that
the product ID will be autogenerated on each build. Name is made of localized product name and version number. --> <Product Id="*" Name="!(loc.ProductName) $(var.VersionNumber)" Language="!(loc.LANG)" Version="$(var.VersionNumber)" Manufacturer="!(loc.ManufacturerName)" UpgradeCode="$(var.UpgradeCode)"> <!-- Define
the minimum supported installer version (3.0) and that
the install should be done for
the whole machine not just
the current user --> <Package InstallerVersion="300" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine"/> <Media Id="1" Cabinet="media1.cab" EmbedCab="yes" /> <!-- Upgrade settings. This will be explained in more detail in a future post --> <Upgrade Id="$(var.UpgradeCode)"> <UpgradeVersion OnlyDetect="yes" Minimum="$(var.VersionNumber)" IncludeMinimum="no" Property="NEWER_VERSION_FOUND" /> <UpgradeVersion Minimum="0.0.0.0" IncludeMinimum="yes" Maximum="$(var.VersionNumber)" IncludeMaximum="no" Property="OLDER_VERSION_FOUND" /> </Upgrade> <!-- Reference
the global NETFRAMEWORK35 property to check if it exists --> <PropertyRef Id="NETFRAMEWORK35"/> <!-- Startup conditions that checks if .Net Framework 3.5 is installed or if we're running
the OS higher than Windows XP SP2. If not
the installation is aborted. By doing
the (Installed OR ...) property means that this condition will only be evaluated if
the app is being installed and not on uninstall or changing --> <Condition Message="!(loc.DotNetFrameworkNeeded)"> <![CDATA[Installed OR NETFRAMEWORK35]]> </Condition> <Condition Message="!(loc.AppNotSupported)"> <![CDATA[Installed OR ((VersionNT >= 501 AND ServicePackLevel >= 2) OR (VersionNT >= 502))]]> </Condition> <!-- This custom action in
the InstallExecuteSequence is needed to stop silent install (passing /qb to msiexec) from going around it. --> <CustomAction Id="NewerVersionFound" Error="!(loc.SuperFormNewerVersionInstalled)" /> <InstallExecuteSequence> <!-- Check for newer versions with FindRelatedProducts and execute
the custom action after it --> <Custom Action="NewerVersionFound" After="FindRelatedProducts"> <![CDATA[NEWER_VERSION_FOUND]]> </Custom> <!-- Remove
the previous versions of
the product --> <RemoveExistingProducts After="InstallInitialize"/> <!-- WixCloseApplications is a built in custom action that uses util:CloseApplication below --> <Custom Action="WixCloseApplications" Before="InstallInitialize" /> </InstallExecuteSequence> <!-- This will ask
the user to close
the SuperForm app if it's running while upgrading --> <util:CloseApplication Id="CloseSuperForm" CloseMessage="no" Description="!(loc.MustCloseSuperForm)" ElevatedCloseMessage="no" RebootPrompt="no" Target="$(var.ExeProcessName)" /> <!-- Use
the built in WixUI_InstallDir GUI --> <UIRef Id="WixUI_InstallDir" /> <UI> <!-- These dialog references are needed for CloseApplication above to work correctly --> <DialogRef Id="FilesInUse" /> <DialogRef Id="MsiRMFilesInUse" /> <!-- Here we'll add
the GUI logic for installation and updating in a future post--> </UI> <!-- Set
the icon to show next to
the program name in Add/Remove programs --> <Icon Id="SuperFormIcon.ico" SourceFile="$(var.ResourcesDir)\Exclam.ico" /> <Property Id="ARPPRODUCTICON" Value="SuperFormIcon.ico" /> <!-- Installer UI custom pictures. File names are made up. Add path to your pics. –> <!-- <WixVariable Id="WixUIDialogBmp" Value="MyAppLogo.jpg" /> <WixVariable Id="WixUIBannerBmp" Value="installBanner.jpg" /> --> <!--
the default directory structure --> <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir"> <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder"> <Directory Id="INSTALLLOCATION" Name="!(loc.ProductName)" /> </Directory> </Directory> <!-- Set
the default install location to
the value of INSTALLLOCATION (usually c:\Program Files\YourProductName) --> <Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value="INSTALLLOCATION" /> <!-- Set
the components defined in our fragment files that will be used for our feature --> <Feature Id="SuperFormFeature" Title="!(loc.ProductName)" Level="1"> <ComponentGroupRef Id="SuperFormFiles" /> <ComponentRef Id="cmpVersionInRegistry" /> <ComponentRef Id="cmpIsThisUpdateInRegistry" /> </Feature> </Product></Wix>
For more info on what certain attributes mean you should look into
the WiX Documentation.
WiX 3 tutorial by Mladen Prajdic navigation
WiX 3 Tutorial: Solution/Project structure and Dev resources
WiX 3 Tutorial: Understanding main wxs and wxi file
WiX 3 Tutorial: Generating file/directory fragments with Heat.exe
