CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowswixwindows-installer
c00000fd
c00000fd

Reputation: 22255

Display end-user message in case of an error in custom action in MSI with Wix

Say, I have the following WIX markup that instructs the MSI installer to call a custom action from the included DLL:

<CustomAction Id="CA_SetProperties_Finalize" 
        Property="CA_OnInstallFinalize" 
           Value="[Installed],[REINSTALL],[UPGRADINGPRODUCTCODE],[REMOVE]" />

<CustomAction Id='CA_OnInstallFinalize' 
       BinaryKey='CADll' 
        DllEntry='msiOnInstallFinalize' 
         Execute='deferred' Impersonate='no' />

<InstallExecuteSequence>
  <Custom Action='CA_SetProperties_Finalize' 
          Before='InstallFinalize'></Custom>
  <Custom Action='CA_OnInstallFinalize' 
           After='CA_SetProperties_Finalize'></Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>

<Binary Id='CADll' SourceFile='Sources\ca-installer.dll' />

And the DLL itself has the following C++ code for the custom action:

#pragma comment(linker, "/EXPORT:msiOnInstallFinalize=_msiOnInstallFinalize@4")

extern "C" UINT __stdcall msiOnInstallFinalize(MSIHANDLE hInstall) 
{
    //Do the work
    if(doWork(hInstall) == FALSE)
    {
        //Error, cannot continue!
        return ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE;
    }

    return ERROR_SUCCESS;
}

What happens is that when my doWork method fails, the installation should not continue, so I return ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE. The issue is that in that case the installer simply quits and the installation GUI window goes away.

So I was curious, is there any way to change the Wix markup to be able to show a user message in case my custom action returns an error?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3964

Answers (3)

Mark Z. Kumler
Mark Z. Kumler

Reputation: 331

for C# users...

                string msg = "XXXXXX code is invalid";
                Record r = new Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller.Record(0);
                r.SetString(0, msg);
                session.Message(InstallMessage.Error, r);
                session.Log(msg);

Upvotes: 2

Mark A Jones
Mark A Jones

Reputation: 181

I was able to convert that code to VB.NET and use it in a Custom action to display a popup on Error

The .Net code looks significantly different 

Private Shared Sub DisplayMSIError(session As Session, msg As String)
  Dim r As New WindowsInstaller.Record(0)
  r.SetString(0, msg)
  session.Message(InstallMessage.Error, r)
End Sub

I also found this on MSDN it uses vbscript http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xc8bz3y5(v=vs.80).aspx

Upvotes: 2

Natalie Carr
Natalie Carr

Reputation: 3797

I use this to create message boxes to handle errors from within my dll:

PMSIHANDLE hRecord = MsiCreateRecord(0);
MsiRecordSetString(hRecord, 0, TEXT("Enter the text for the error!"));
MsiProcessMessage(hInstall, INSTALLMESSAGE(INSTALLMESSAGE_ERROR + MB_OK), hRecord);
return ERROR_INSTALL_USEREXIT;

Upvotes: 5

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