Use WiX browser dialog to set edit box value

Question

I\'m trying to create a WiX installer dialog that provides a series of textboxes that users need to fill in with directory locations.

What I would like to do is put

Answer 1

In order to have multiple directories (filled by the BrowseDlg) in the same dialog window, an extra indirection is required. Notice also the numbering within the <Publish></Publish> tags :

<Control Id="WorkingDirFolderLabel"        Type="Text"           Width="220" Height="12" X="10"  Y="50" Text="Working directory:"/>
<Control Id="WorkingDirFolder"             Type="PathEdit"       Width="250" Height="17" X="10"  Y="62" Property="_WorkingDirBrowseProperty" Indirect="yes"/>
<Control Id="WorkingDirBrowse"             Type="PushButton"     Width="56"  Height="17" X="265" Y="62" Text="Browse..." >
    <Publish Property="_BrowseProperty"  Value="[_WorkingDirBrowseProperty]"  Order="2">1</Publish>
    <Publish Event="SpawnDialog" Value="BrowseDlg" Order="3">1</Publish>
</Control>

<Control Id="DocsDirFolderLabel"        Type="Text"           Width="220" Height="12" X="10"  Y="100" Text="Documentation area:"/>
<Control Id="DocsDirFolder"             Type="PathEdit"       Width="250" Height="17" X="10"  Y="112" Property="_DocsDirBrowseProperty" Indirect="yes" />
<Control Id="DocsDirBrowse"             Type="PushButton"     Width="56"  Height="17" X="265" Y="112" Text="Browse..." >
    <Publish Property="_BrowseProperty"  Value="[_DocsDirBrowseProperty]"  Order="2">2</Publish>
    <Publish Event="SpawnDialog" Value="BrowseDlg" Order="3">2</Publish>
</Control>

Then pass the references as before (no need to define extra properties) :

<Publish Dialog="PrevDlg" Control="Next" Property="_WorkingDirBrowseProperty" Value="TARGETWORKINGDIRECTORY" Order="1">1</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="PrevDlg" Control="Next" Property="_DocsDirBrowseProperty" Value="TARGETDOCSDIRECTORY" Order="1">1</Publish>
<Publish Dialog="PrevDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="BackupConfigDlg" Order="2">1</Publish>

Answer 2

None of the above or anywhere else worked for me. What did work is so more simple and straight forward.

Like many, I need to prompt the Installer user for the target locations of SQL Server .mdf and .ldf files, which will likely reside outside of any pre-installation Directory structure. In fact, my preceding Dialog prompts the user for the target database server. Given that, I then custom act on that preceding Dialog's "Next" button to (a) find the mdf & ldf paths of the server's "master" database and then (b) default the new database's respective paths to those of the master db.

But hours of frustration making PathEdit play nice with BrowseDlg proved futile. What I ended up doing was creating a placeholder Property called PATH_TEMP_BROWSE. It is the "SetTarget" call in the BrowseDlg that forces us to enlist the Wix Directory tree. Get rid of that line in your own custom rip-off of BrowseDlg and instead pass around the user's selected directory via PATH_TEMP_BROWSE thusly:

<Dialog Id="DirectoryBrowserDlg" Width="370" Height="270" Title="Dir Browse">
  <Control Id="Path" Type="PathEdit" X="25" Y="202" Width="320" Height="18" Property="PATH_TEMP_BROWSE" Indirect="yes" />
  <Control Id="OK" Type="PushButton" X="240" Y="243" Width="56" Height="17" Default="yes" Text="!(loc.WixUIOK)">
    <!-- NO! -->
    <!--<Publish Event="SetTargetPath" Value="[_BrowseProperty]">1</Publish>-->
    <Publish Event="EndDialog" Value="Return">1</Publish>
  </Control>

  ...

  <Control Id="DirectoryCombo" Type="DirectoryCombo" X="70" Y="55" Width="220" Height="80" Property="PATH_TEMP_BROWSE" Indirect="yes" Fixed="yes" Remote="yes">
    <Subscribe Event="IgnoreChange" Attribute="IgnoreChange" />
  </Control>

  ...

  <Control Id="DirectoryList" Type="DirectoryList" X="25" Y="83" Width="320" Height="98" Property="PATH_TEMP_BROWSE" Sunken="yes" Indirect="yes" TabSkip="no" />

  ...

</Dialog>

Then, to make use of my pop-up modal DirectoryBrowserDlg within my installation Dialog that prompts the user for the new database name as well as its logical files...

<Control  Id="MdfPath"
          Type="PathEdit"
          X="37"
          Y="184"
          Width="313"
          Height="18"
          Property="PATH_DBMDFCS"
          />
<Control  Id="MdfBrowse"
          Type="PushButton"
          X="350"
          Y="184"
          Width="22"
          Height="17"
          Text="Browse..."
          >
  <Publish Property="PATH_TEMP_BROWSE" Value="PATH_DBMDFCS" Order="1">1</Publish>
  <Publish Event="SpawnDialog" Value="DirectoryBrowserDlg" Order="2">1</Publish>
  <Publish Property="PATH_DBMDFCS" Value="PATH_TEMP_BROWSE" Order="3" />
</Control>

Do the same for your .ldf file.

K.I.S.S

Answer 3

The selected answer to this question is way too much work. You don't need to do all that.

Set your PathEdit control to the directory to configure as you normally would. Then, in the actions of the browse button, set _BrowseProperty to the NAME (not value of) of your property to configure and then SpawnDialog. That's it.

<Control Type="PathEdit" Id="TxtDir" Width="155" Height="15" X="105" Y="57" Property="OUTPUTDIRECTORY"/>
<Control Id="btnDirBrowse" Type="PushButton" Width="56" Height="17" X="260" Y="57" Text="Browse..." >
  <Publish Property="_BrowseProperty" Value="OUTPUTDIRECTORY" Order="1">1</Publish>
  <Publish Event="SpawnDialog" Value="BrowseDlg" Order="2">1</Publish>
</Control>

Answer 4

Windows Installer doesn't support file browsing, so there is no direct support for this in WiX. The best solution is still a custom action executed when clicking browse button.

You can find a sample custom action here: http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msi/ca.htm

Answer 5

I did end up finding a way to do it completely in Wix. Wix comes with a browse dialog called BrowseDlg. Here's what I did:

1. I created a dialog that includes a PathEdit control and PushButton control. Notice that the PathEdit control has the Indirect property set to yes. This means that whatever you set Property to is just a pointer to something else.

       <Dialog Id="BackupConfigDlg" Width="370" Height="270" Title="Backup Configuration">
           <Control Type="Text" Id="lblInstructions" Width="348" Height="13" X="10" Y="10">
               <Text>{\WixUI_Font_Title}Please select the directory you want to backup.</Text>
           </Control>
           <Control Type="Text" Id="lblBackupDirectory" Width="69" Height="9" X="10" Y="40" Text="Backup directory:">
           </Control>
           <Control Type="PathEdit" Id="Folder" Width="219" Height="15" X="82" Y="38" Property="_BrowseProperty" Indirect="yes" />
           <Control Type="PushButton" Id="Browse" Width="56" Height="17" X="304" Y="37" Text="Browse..." />
           <Control Type="Line" Id="line" Width="362" Height="2" X="4" Y="229" />
           <Control Id="Cancel" Type="PushButton" X="239" Y="240" Width="56" Height="17" Cancel="yes" Text="Cancel">
               <Publish Event="SpawnDialog" Value="CancelDlg">1</Publish>
           </Control>
           <Control Type="PushButton" Id="Install" Width="56" Height="17" X="300" Y="240" Text="Install">
               <Publish Event="EndDialog" Value="Return" />
           </Control>
       </Dialog>
   

2. The browse dialog (that we'll eventually get to) expects to set an object in the Directory table, so we need to create a Directory object that will only be used to hold the value we browse to. Since we won't put any components in it, nothing on the file system will change relating to the directory we choose. I call mine TARGETBACKUPDIRECTORY.

       <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
           <Directory Id="TARGETBACKUPDIRECTORY">
           </Directory>
           ...
       </Directory>
   

3. Now we need to create a property that points to the Directory object.

   <Property Id="BACKUPDIRECTORY" Value="TARGETBACKUPDIRECTORY" />
   

4. We now need to make sure that the _BrowserProperty property is properly bound to BACKUPDIRECTORY (because it points to the Directory object we want set) before this dialog opens. If you don't, you will get an error during the install process when you attempt to open the dialog. In my example, PrevDlg is a dialog that appears before BackupConfigDlg. What's happening here is that when the Next button is pushed, I set the _BrowserProperty property to BACKUPDIRECTORY, I then open the dialog. It must take place in that order so I use the Order property to enforce it. I do the same thing when the browse button is pushed, not sure I need to do, but I do it just for safe measure.

       <Publish Dialog="PrevDlg" Control="Next" Property="_BrowseProperty" Value="[BACKUPDIRECTORY]" Order="1">1</Publish>
       <Publish Dialog="PrevDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="BackupConfigDlg" Order="2">1</Publish>
       <Publish Dialog="BackupConfigDlg" Control="Browse" Property="_BrowseProperty" Value="[BACKUPDIRECTORY]" Order="1">
       </Publish>
       <Publish Dialog="BackupConfigDlg" Control="Browse" Event="SpawnDialog" Value="BrowseDlg" Order="2">
       </Publish>
   

That's what worked for me.

Answer 6

I have a very easy solution. We can use the ConfigurableDirectory attribute of feature to enable the browse directory. It works well for me.

<Feature Id="OCMSnapshotConfigAppFeature" Title="OCM Snapshot Configuration" Level="1" ConfigurableDirectory="INSTALLDIR">