WiX Toolset How can I pass three parameters to set a property using a C# customaction

Question

I'm a C# and WiX relative newbie

My goal was to pass three parameters (InputString, SearchString, ReplaceString) in order to transform a path for use in an erlang (erl.ini) file, which requires double backslashes in Windows.

My hope was to be able to access an OutputString to set a property in my WiX project.

Here's my C# customaction code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller;

namespace DGCustomActions
{
    public class CustomActions
    {
        [CustomAction]
        public static ActionResult CASearchAndReplace(Session session)
        {

            try
            {
                session.Log("Begin CASearchAndReplace");

                string InputString = session.CustomActionData["InputString"];
                string SearchString = session.CustomActionData["SearchString"];
                string ReplaceString = session.CustomActionData["ReplaceString"];

                session["OutputString"] = InputString.Replace(SearchString, ReplaceString);

                session.Log("CASearchAndReplace Successful");
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                session.Log("ERROR in custom action CASearchAndReplace: {0}", 
                            ex.ToString());
                return ActionResult.Failure;
            }

            return ActionResult.Success;
        }
    }
}

Here's my attempt at passing parameters and running the customaction

    <CustomAction Id='PassValuesErlangBindir'
                  Execute='immediate'
                  Property='TransformErlangBindir'
                  Value='InputString=[ERLANGERTSBINDIR];SearchString=\;ReplaceString=\\' />

    <CustomAction Id='TransformErlangBindir'
                  BinaryKey='DGCustomActions'
                  DllEntry='CASearchAndReplace'
                  Execute='deferred'
                  Return='check' />

I currently have no code for accessing the OutputString property

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Review my answer here http://stackoverflow.com/a/27449772/2980510 — Rolo, Apr 08 '15 at 01:40
Thanks Rolo. I saw your post yesterday before listing my question. What I'm still missing is how to get a property back in some sort of timed fashion. If I'm getting your suggestion correctly, I would need to set three properties (InputString, SearchString, ReplaceString), then run a CA, then maybe run a SetProperty to pull the OutputString and set it to a property. I would then need to reset InputString, rerun the the CA, and then run a SetProperty to pull the OutputString and set it to a second property. Is that correct? Any suggestions on timing? Thanks — sleon, Apr 08 '15 at 14:20

sleon · Answer 1 · 2015-04-08T17:55:54.737

After reading Rolo's (thank you for the input) earlier post more carefully, I made the following changes which did the trick.

Note: If anyone has suggestions that would make my solution cleaner, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

Here's my updated C# customaction code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller;

namespace DGCustomActions
{
    public class CustomActions
    {
        [CustomAction]
        public static ActionResult SearchAndReplace(Session session)
        {
            session.Log("Begin SearchAndReplace");

            string InputString = session["InputString"];
            string SearchString = session["SearchString"];
            string ReplaceString = session["ReplaceString"];

            session["OutputString"] = InputString.Replace(SearchString, ReplaceString);

            session.Log("SearchAndReplace Successful");

            return ActionResult.Success;
        }
    }
}

Here's my updated set of customactions

<CustomAction  Id="Set.SearchString" Property="SearchString" Value="\" />
<CustomAction  Id="Set.ReplaceString" Property="ReplaceString" Value="\\" />
<CustomAction  Id="Set.OutputString" Property="OutputString" Value="nada" />

<CustomAction  Id="Set.ErlangBindir.InputString" Property="InputString" Value="[ERLANGDIR]erts-$(var.ErlangVersion)\bin" />

<CustomAction Id="Transform.ErlangBindirString"
              BinaryKey="DGCustomActions"
              DllEntry="SearchAndReplace"
              Execute="immediate"
              Return="check" />

<CustomAction  Id="Set.ErlangBindir.OutputString" Property="ErlangBindir" Value="[OutputString]" />

<CustomAction  Id="Set.ErlangRootdir.InputString" Property="InputString" Value="[ERLANGDIR]bin" />

<CustomAction Id="Transform.ErlangRootdirString"
              BinaryKey="DGCustomActions"
              DllEntry="SearchAndReplace"
              Execute="immediate"
              Return="check" />

<CustomAction  Id="Set.ErlangRootdir.OutputString" Property="ErlangRootdir" Value="[OutputString]" />

Here's my updated Install Execute Sequence

<InstallExecuteSequence>
    <!-- Run after InstallInitialize: Sequence="1500" -->
    <Custom Action="Set.SearchString" Sequence="1501" />
    <Custom Action="Set.ReplaceString" Sequence="1502" />
    <Custom Action="Set.OutputString" Sequence="1503" />
    <Custom Action="Set.ErlangBindir.InputString" Sequence="1504" />
    <Custom Action="Transform.ErlangBindirString" Sequence="1505" />
    <Custom Action="Set.ErlangBindir.OutputString" Sequence="1506" />
    <Custom Action="Set.ErlangRootdir.InputString" Sequence="1507" />
    <Custom Action="Transform.ErlangRootdirString" Sequence="1508" />
    <Custom Action="Set.ErlangRootdir.OutputString" Sequence="1509" />
</InstallExecuteSequence>

WiX Toolset How can I pass three parameters to set a property using a C# customaction

1 Answers1