Looking for a simple way to include all files in a project's BIN folder in my MSI

Question

I have many files (hundreds) in my project's output BIN folder. I simply need to have an installer to include the files in the bin folder in an MSI installer.

In my WIX installer project, I have the following target to use the harvest tool and generate a list of all files in a bin folder, later on, I reference them in my WIX definitions:

  <Target Name="GenerateHeat">
    <HeatDirectory Directory="..\MyApp\bin\Debug" 
       PreprocessorVariable="var.HeatPath" OutputFile="HarvestedFiles.wxs"
       ComponentGroupName="HarvestedFiles" DirectoryRefId="FOLDER1" 
       AutogenerateGuids="true" ToolPath="$(WixToolPath)" 
       SuppressFragments="true" SuppressRegistry="true" SuppressRootDirectory="true" />
  </Target>

Is there any way to simply include all files in a bin folder and include them in the MSI without generating the intermediate file list? I prefer to specify the BIN folder name and WIX includes them in a <ComponentGroup>, so I can reference it in my <Product>

Update and clarification

This question is not about how MSI works. This is about how WIX can copy the content of a folder into an MSI without specifying every single file name in a <Component> and <File> sandwich.

Answer 1

Is there any way to simply include all files in a bin folder and include them in the MSI without generating the intermediate file list?

This is not possible with built-in functionality of the free version of WiX. As Stein Åsmul points out, the commercial branch of WiX might have something like that.

If commercial WiX is not an option and you are ready to invest significant time in C# development, using mostly undocumented API, you could write a WiX compiler extension that adds entries to the File and Component tables based on a given source directory path. It could also generate component groups, that can be referenced elsewhere.

I have done exactly this in the past but it certainly wasn't a trivial task. One should also have very good knowledge of component rules and MSI in general before doing things like generating component GUIDs. You will find some pseudo code below. Before going down this route, it would be worth looking around if someone else has created an open-source WiX extension like that.

This is the kind of authoring that could be achieved with such a compiler extension:

<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"
     xmlns:ex="MyExtensionUri">
  <Product ... >
    <Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="MyFeature" Level="1">
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="ProductComponents" />
    </Feature>
  </Product>

  <Fragment>
    <ex:ComponentGroupFromFiles Id="ProductComponents"
      Directory="INSTALLFOLDER"
      Source="MyApp\bin"
      Wildcard="*"/>
  </Fragment>
</Wix>

Here is some pseudo code for a compiler extension. This is mainly intended to serve as keywords for exploring the WiX source "Compiler.cs".

Override Wix.CompilerExtension.ParseElement() to parse the attributes of your extension element.

Create component group and reference it by the product:

Wix.Row compGroupRow = Core.CreateRow(sourceLineNumbers, "WixComponentGroup");
compGroupRow[0] = myComponentGroupId;

Core.CreateWixGroupRow( sourceLineNumbers, Wix.ComplexReferenceParentType.Product, Core.ActiveSection.Id, Wix.ComplexReferenceChildType.ComponentGroup, myComponentGroupId );

For each component/file:

// Add record to the Component table
Wix.Row compRow = Core.CreateRow( sourceLineNumbers, "Component" );
// TODO: Assign data to compRow[0..5] according to MSI "Component" table documentation

// Add this component to the component group.
Core.CreateComplexReference( sourceLineNumbers, Wix.ComplexReferenceParentType.ComponentGroup, myComponentGroupId, "", Wix.ComplexReferenceChildType.Component, myComponentId, false );

// Add record to the File table.
Wix.Row fileRow = Core.CreateRow( sourceLineNumbers, "File" );
// TODO: Assign data to fileRow[0..2] and [6] according to MSI "File" table documentation. Columns 3, 4, 5, 7 are written by the WiX binder at a later time! Set them to null (if nullable) or 0.

// Create required metadata for WiX
Wix.WixFileRow wixFileRow = (Wix.WixFileRow) Core.CreateRow(sourceLineNumbers, "WixFile");
// TODO: Assign wixFileRow.File, wixFileRow.Directory, wixFileRow.DiskId, wixFileRow.Source
//       Set wixFileRow.Attributes to 1 if you have generated a short file name.

// Add reference to the Media table
Core.CreateWixSimpleReferenceRow( sourceLineNumbers, "Media", diskId );

Useful utilities for generating Component / File table column data:

Core.GenerateIdentifier()
Core.GenerateShortName()

How to add components to a merge module? This is left as an exercise for the reader. 😉 Just find the code in WiX's "Compiler.cs".

Answer 2

Unless your talking about a web application / website (think node.js directory structure) I recommend against this.

For the some package manager authored all these thousands of files for me story (^^^) then use Heat.

For all the other normal scenarios I created IsWiX. It helps me reduce the complexity and friction of authoring/maintaining installers while keeping me in control of what does/doesn't ship and when something does or doesn't get installed (features).

https://iswix.com/2007/06/20/dealing-with-very-large-number-of-files/

https://github.com/iswix-llc/iswix-tutorials

Answer 3

FireGiant: I believe the commercial branch of WiX (FireGiant), has a module for this. HeatWave Harvesting - or something like that. It is part of the WiX expansion pack if I am not mistaken. It allows advanced harvesting to create MSI files and perhaps other formats that I am not aware of. I know next to nothing about the module apart from that. Oh, it also supports COM extraction from 64-bit COM files - which is not working in heat.exe at the moment.

Tallow: Back in the days of WiX2 there was a tool called Tallow that was developed by someone whose name I can not recall. It generated WiX markup to install files from a given input folder and even kept component GUIDs in sync (as far as I recall). I saw some copies of it on github.com, but the repository I downloaded had several malware hits, so no link.

Paraffin: A tool I have never used is Paraffin - supposedly a better Tallow - https://github.com/Wintellect/Paraffin. I can't say much about it since I have not tried it. Give it a quick look? I am not sure if it is maintained at all to be honest, but it sure beats rolling your own solution from scratch.

Answer 4

That would be against the whole design concept of Windows Installer.

Windows Installer manages the health/installation status of Components. It does this across all versions of all products that are installed. To make this workable, there are "Components Rules." To make the rules manageable over component lifecycles, a component should be atomic: one file (or multi-file .NET assembly) and/or registry key.

(If you have a choice, you don't have to use Windows Installer if you don't appreciate its design.)

Also, you should consider whether, how and where whatever is in your bin folder should be installed. Its basic intent is for debugging in place. It may contain thing that 1) you aren't licensed to redistribute, 2) you are licensed to redistribute only in specific ways, 3) might already be part of the target systems, 4) might be best redistributed with their original installer from the vendor 5) you don't actually want to deliver to users, …. For these concerns, you can either narrow down the harvesting or filter out specific results.

Tip: If you want to modularize your installation, you could build sets of components into different MSI files and use WiX's bootstrapper to install them together.