WiX: Passing Install path to managed custom action

Question

new Day, new Problem;-) Still got to struggle with managed custom action. I already managed it to call an custom action and passing some test data to it. Now I want to replace the testdata with the real data i need. And here the problems starts: I want to call a batch file which was installed in a subdirectory of my installation. Therefore i need to pass the installation path to the custom action. Afaik this can be done using the customactiondata mechanism. But this does not work. When I log the installation I can see that outside of the customaction INSTALLLOCATION is pointing to the correct path, but as soon as i look in the customaction the customactiondata property is empty...

What am I doing wrong?

Merge Module which calls the custom action:

<Module Id="DflHelpInstaller" Language="1033" Version="1.0.0.0">
    <Package Id="f952de58-1dc6-46b3-872a-7a49e2d9ea0a" Manufacturer="DflHelpInstaller" InstallerVersion="200" />

<Binary Id='RegisterDflHelpDll' SourceFile="$(var.REGISTERHELP.TargetDir)RegisterDflHelp.CA.dll" />

    <CustomAction Id='RegisterDflHelp' BinaryKey='RegisterDflHelpDll'  DllEntry='RegisterDflHelp' Execute='deferred' />

    <CustomAction Id="RegisterDflHelp.SetProperty" Return="check" Property="RegisterDflHelp" Value='[INSTALLLOCATION]' Execute='immediate' />

   
    <InstallExecuteSequence>
      <Custom Action='RegisterDflHelp.SetProperty' After='CostFinalize' />
      <Custom Action='RegisterDflHelp' After='InstallFiles' />
    </InstallExecuteSequence>

    <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
        </Directory>
    <ComponentGroupRef Id="HelpGroup"/>

    </Module>
</Wix>

Outline of the installer Project which use the MergeModule:

....

<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
        <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" SourceName="PFFiles">
<Directory Id="Company" Name='$(var.COMPANY)'>
  <Directory Id="INSTALLLOCATION" SourceName='$var.v[SDK_VERSION]'>
    <Component Id="MyBanner" Guid="C8C28B92-9326-4991-BFB1-BBDFDF3653AB">
      <File Id ="Banner.bmp" Source="Banner.bmp" KeyPath="yes" DiskId="1"/>
    </Component>
    <Merge Id ="DflHelpInstaller" SourceFile="DflHelpInstaller.msm" Language="1033" DiskId="1" />
      </Directory>
</Directory>

....

    <Feature Id="Complete" Title="Setup" Description="Installs the SDK on your local machine." Display="expand" Level="1" ConfigurableDirectory="INSTALLLOCATION">
      <ComponentRef Id="Banner" />
      <ComponentRef Id ="UNINSTALLER"/>
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="ReferenceGroup"/>
      <MergeRef Id="DflHelpInstaller"/>
</Feature>

CustomAction:

   public class CustomActions
   { 
        [CustomAction]
        public static ActionResult RegisterDflHelp(Session session)
        {
            session.Log("Begin CustomAction1");
            session.Log("Before Access to customactiondata");
 
            //should contain the installation path - unfortunately it is empty! why?
            string cad = session["CustomActionData"];
            Debugger.Break();


            RegisterHelp(cad);

            session.Log("End of custom action..");
            return ActionResult.Success;
        }

Continence

Answer 1

If you delineate your data like ...

<CustomAction Id="MyCustomActionData" Return="check" Property="MyCustomAction" Value='PROPERTY0=[PROPERTY0];PROPERTY1=[PROPERTY1];PROPERTY2=[PROPERTY2]' Execute='immediate' />

You can access the data like:

string property0 = session.CustomActionData["Property0"];
string property1 = session.CustomActionData["Property1"];
string property2 = session.CustomActionData["Property2"];

In the previous example you would use:

<CustomAction Id="RegisterDflHelp.SetProperty" Return="check" Property="RegisterDflHelp" Value='INSTALLLOCATION=[INSTALLLOCATION]' Execute='immediate' />

then

string cad = session.CustomActionData["INSTALLLOCATION"];

Unroot

I had to reference the properties with the same upper case property name (for example, session.CustomActionData["PROPERTY0"]). – Kahlil

Answer 2

I accomplished this using the following in the .WXS file:

<Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
 <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder" Name="PFiles">
  <Directory Id="ManufacturerDir" Name="Company" ShortName="Company">
   <Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name="TheApp">
    <Directory Id="BatchFileLocation" Name="BatchFiles">
     <Component Id="BatchFilesComp" ... >
      <File Id="SomeFile_BAT" Source="BatchFiles\SomeFile.bat" Name="SomeFile.bat" ... />
     </Component>
    </Directory>
   </Directory>
  </Directory>
 </Directory>
</Directory>

And in the custom Action:

var batchDirectory = session.GetTargetPath("BatchFileLocation");
var batchFile = batchDirectory + "SomeFile.bat"

Now, I haven't yet figured out how to avoid the duplication of the filename, but this does successfully return where the batch file was installed.

Discomposure

Answer 3

After several hours of struglling, the following worked for me:

string UserDefinedInstallDir = session["INSTALLDIR"];

Hope it helps somenone else!

Chev

Answer 4

Your passing the value correctly but try this way to reference it.

        string[] keys = new string[session.CustomActionData.Keys.Count];
        session.CustomActionData.Keys.CopyTo(keys, 0);
        string cad = keys[0];

This should set cad to the installation path like you want it.

Ratline

Answer 5

Have you tried querying the INSTALLLOCATION property directly from within the managed CA?

string cad = session["INSTALLLOCATION"];

One of the beauties of using DTF is that you have read/write access to all the MSI properties without having to use command-lines etc. So even if INSTALLLOCATION cannot be queried like a normal property you could define your own MSI property set it to the value of INSTALLOCATION and query that one inside your CA instead.

Changchangaris

Not if it's an "deferred" sequence, which is what he is doing. Only handful properties are available in deferred sequence. – Engrave

Answer 6

In order to add a new property to the Session object :

public static ActionResult CustomAction1(Session session)

with the installation directory path for example :

<Directory Id="ProgramFiles64Folder" Name="name">
            <Directory Id="INSTALLDIR" Name="name1">

Just add a new CustomAction of type property :

<CustomAction Id="CustomAction1.SetProperty" Return="check" Property="INSTALLDIR_PROP" Value='[INSTALLDIR]' Execute='immediate' />

And add a new InstallExecuteSequence

<Custom Action='CustomAction1.SetProperty' After='CostFinalize' />

Then in the code you access this new property like this :

public static ActionResult CustomAction1(Session session)
{
        session.Log("MY NEW ADDED PROPERTY " + session["INSTALLDIR_PROP"]);

        return ActionResult.Success;
}

Provender

Answer 7

Example for WixSharp:

[CustomAction]
public static ActionResult RunAfterInstall(Session session)
{
    System.Diagnostics.Process process = new();
    process.StartInfo.FileName = string.Format("{0}\\{1}", session["INSTALLDIR"], $"\\{Definitions.AppName}.exe");
    //process.StartInfo.FileName = @$"%ProgramFiles%\{Definitions.AppName}";
    process.StartInfo.Arguments = "--start-notification";
    //process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
    process.Start();

    return ActionResult.Success;
}

Dedicate