I created an MSI at work using Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 and Wix 3.6. I have this copy of VS from school, but if my company ever wants to edit the msi after I'm gone, it will need to be on a freeware tool, so I'm migrating the installer project to WixEdit.
I finally got the xml to compile into an MSI, and it appeared to be working. However, after testing out a few of the features, I noticed the UI sequence is broken in one particular situation:
The installer browses for a file on the client's machine and if the file is found, a dialog called Custom_DirDataFound pops up. Otherwise (if the file is not found), a Custom_DirData dialog is shown. No matter what happens in these dialogs, the next dialog to pop up when 'next' is clicked should be Custom_NewInstall.
Both these dialogs move to the correct Custom_NewInstall dialog with the MSI I compiled in Visual Studio. However, in the WixEdit MSI, only Custom_DirDataFound will go to Custom_NewInstall when 'next' is pressed. Custom_DirData on the other hand will skip two dialogs and go straight to Custom_VerifyReadyDlg.
Here is a snippet of my main UI file (Custom_Mundo) that defines the Custom_DirData 'next' button events:
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirData" Control="Next" Event="SetTargetPath" Value="DATALOCATION" Order="1">1</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirData" Control="Next" Event="DoAction" Value="WixUIValidatePath" Order="2">NOT WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirData" Control="Next" Event="SpawnDialog" Value="InvalidDirDlg" Order="3"><![CDATA[NOT WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH AND WIXUI_INSTALLDIR_VALID<>"1"]]></Publish>
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirData" Control="Next" Property="COPY" Value="Yes">NOTFOUND = 0</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirData" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="Custom_NewInstall" Order="4">WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH OR WIXUI_INSTALLDIR_VALID="1"</Publish>
Here are the Custom_DirDataFound entries for comparison:
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirDataFound" Control="Next" Event="SetTargetPath" Value="DATALOCATION" Order="1">1</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirDataFound" Control="Next" Event="DoAction" Value="WixUIValidatePath" Order="2">NOT WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirDataFound" Control="Next" Event="SpawnDialog" Value="InvalidDirDlg" Order="3"><![CDATA[NOT WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH AND WIXUI_INSTALLDIR_VALID<>"1"]]></Publish>
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirDataFound" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="Custom_NewInstall" Order="4">WIXUI_DONTVALIDATEPATH OR WIXUI_INSTALLDIR_VALID="1"</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="Custom_DirDataFound" Control="Next" Property="COPY" Value="Yes">FOUND = 0</Publish>
As you can see, Custom_NewInstall should clearly be spawned when next is pressed. This main UI file (Custom_Mundo) and Custom_DirData are identical to their equivalents in Visual Studio, yet their behaviour is different during install.
I ran a log file for both installers (VS and WixEdit) and the entries for these dialogs are almost identical (only the last entry is different):
VS Version:
Action 13:18:02: Custom_DirData. Dialog created
MSI (c) (98:AC) [13:18:07:734]: Doing action: WixUIValidatePath
MSI (c) (98:AC) [13:18:07:734]: Note: 1: 2205 2: 3: ActionText
Action 13:18:07: WixUIValidatePath.
Action start 13:18:07: WixUIValidatePath.
MSI (c) (98:2C) [13:18:07:759]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Users\Stephane\AppData\Local\Temp\MSIB9A4.tmp, Entrypoint: ValidatePath
Action ended 13:18:07: WixUIValidatePath. Return value 1.
Action 13:18:07: Custom_NewInstall. Dialog created
WixEdit:
Action 12:50:27: Custom_DirData. Dialog created
MSI (c) (84:DC) [12:50:28:530]: Doing action: WixUIValidatePath
MSI (c) (84:DC) [12:50:28:530]: Note: 1: 2205 2: 3: ActionText
Action 12:50:28: WixUIValidatePath.
Action start 12:50:28: WixUIValidatePath.
MSI (c) (84:1C) [12:50:28:548]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Users\Stephane\AppData\Local\Temp\MSI6859.tmp, Entrypoint: ValidatePath
Action ended 12:50:28: WixUIValidatePath. Return value 1.
Action 12:50:28: Custom_VerifyReadyDlg. Dialog created
I don't understand how this is possible. I'm not too optimistic about finding a solution right away on this forum, as it seems like a pretty obscure error, but if anyone has any troubleshooting tips, I would be more than happy to hear them!
PS. WixEdit seems to be using an older version of Wix, whereas I used Wix 3.6 with VS. I had to make a few changes to the xml to get it running on WixEdit, but none of the changes affected any of the dialogs in question (Custom_Mundo, Custom_DirData, Custom_DirDataFound and Custom_NewInstall)
If you have got the MSI compiled correctly in vs you could try to use "Dark.exe" (part of the WiX toolkit) to decompile it into XML that you can open in WiX edit.