How do I handle multiple App.config files in my WIX Project?

Question

I'm trying to figure out a way to handle multiple app.config files. Each app.config file is for a different enviornment.

Currently, I have multiple .SED Files(each .SED file references to one enviornment) that in their post-command(PostInstallCmd) they execute a .bat file that looks for a certain app.config and puts in the directory needed. However, the problem with this method is that the command prompt opens up after the installation and I am unable to figure out how to suppress the command prompt.

I am not sure if my way is the best idea to go about handling multiple App.Config. That is why I am throwing it out there to see if there is a better method or if someone has a solution to the method I already have.

Answer 1

If you keep your config files in separate components, you can add a condition element to your components.

Component conditions are evaluated during the CostFinalize standard action (source), so you'd have to use a custom action that runs before file costing to gather info about the environment. You can use the built-in OSInfo custom actions or predefined properties to do so.

Just set the File/@Name attribute to the same across all the config files if they have different names on your build server. Unfortunately, this will set off ICE30, but if the conditions are mutually exclusive, you can safely ignore it.

Your xml would look something like:

<Component Guid="PUT-GUID-HERE">
    <Condition>VersionNT = 602</Condition>
    <File Name="app.config" Source="config1.config" />
</Component>
<Component Guid="PUT-GUID-HERE">
    <Condition>NOT VersionNT = 602</Condition>
    <File Name="app.config" Source="config2.config" />
</Component>

Note that you'll have to specify component guids, because they have the same target path. The auto generated guid would be the same for both.