From MSI to WiX, Part 19 - The Art of Custom Action, Part 1

Article
07/02/2008

The main page for the series is here.

Code for this topic is attached.

Introduction

Today we will start exploring custom actions, how to write them, what makes custom action good custom action and everything else related to custom actions.

Let's start with very simple sample. We have an application which creates a new file during run-time and this file is not part of originally installed files. On uninstall we need to delete this file as well. The name of the file is well known.

Here is the source for our test console application:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using System.IO;

namespace Test

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

using (StreamWriter fs = File.CreateText("Test.txt"))

{

fs.Write("Hello");

}

Console.WriteLine("Bye");

}

During run time our program creates Test.txt file which we want to remove on our test application uninstall. Because new file name is well known, all we need to do is to add RemoveFile element:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Product Id="{2F59639E-4626-44f8-AAF0-EE375B766221}"

Name="Test Application"

Language="1033"

Version="0.0.0.0"

Manufacturer="Your Company">

<Package Id="????????-????-????-????-????????????"

Description="Shows how to delete run-time file with known file name."

Comments="This will appear in the file summary stream."

InstallerVersion="200"

Compressed="yes" />

<Component Id="ProductComponent"

Guid="{8F4CC43A-9290-4c93-9B97-B9FC1C3579CC}">

<File Id="Test.exe" DiskId="1" Name="Test.exe"

Source="..\Test\bin\Debug\Test.exe" KeyPath="yes" />

</Component>

</Directory>

</Feature>

</Product>

</Wix>

To test our install, install application, go to installation folder and run Test.exe. Application will create Test.txt file. Uninstall application and make sure that installation folder is gone.

There is no need for custom action in here. Things are more complicated if our program creates file or files with unknown at installation creation package time.

Here is an updated version of Test application. It creates a file with arbitrary name:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using System.IO;

namespace Test

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

using (StreamWriter fs = File.CreateText(DateTime.Now.Ticks.ToString()+ ".log"))

{

fs.Write("Hello");

}

Console.WriteLine("Bye");

}

Because we don't know the name of the new file we need custom action which will find this new file and delete it. This custom action must be deferred and, for simplicity sake, we will be using VBScript custom action type 38 (see introduction to custom actions for more details). Because our custom action is deferred, we will pass all required parameters through CustomActionData property (see here for details).

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Product Id="{2F59639E-4626-44f8-AAF0-EE375B766221}"

Name="Test Application"

Language="1033"

Version="0.0.0.0"

Manufacturer="Your Company">

<Package Id="{58BCF2DD-16A0-4654-B289-F13AADA240CD}"

Description="Shows how to delete run-time file with known file name."

Comments="This will appear in the file summary stream."

InstallerVersion="200"

Compressed="yes" />

<Component Id="ProductComponent"

Guid="{8F4CC43A-9290-4c93-9B97-B9FC1C3579CC}">

<File Id="Test.exe" DiskId="1" Name="Test.exe"

Source="..\Test\bin\Debug\Test.exe" KeyPath="yes" />

</Component>

</Directory>

<![CDATA[

On error resume next

Dim fso

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

fso.DeleteFile(Session.Property("CustomActionData") + "*.log")

Set fso = Nothing

]]>

</CustomAction>

<CustomAction Id="SetCustomActionData"

Property="RemoveTempFile" Value="[INSTALLLOCATION]" />

<Custom Action="SetCustomActionData" Before="RemoveTempFile">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action="RemoveTempFile" Before="RemoveFiles">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

</InstallExecuteSequence>

</Feature>

</Product>

</Wix>

Few things to notice in here. First of all, we need to set CustomActionData property before our RemoveTempFile custom action. RemoveTempFile custom action must be scheduled before RemoveFiles standard action because this standard action decides on whether installation folder will be removed or not. If at the end of RemoveFiles standard action folder is not empty, folder won't be deleted. That's why we want to delete extra files before RemoveFiles standard action. Also, both custom actions are conditioned to run on complete uninstall only.

Let's test our installer. Install application and run Test.exe a few times. After every run you will see a new file being created. Now uninstall the application. Installation folder should disappear.

So, are we successfully solved the problem? Let's create an uninstall failure condition. In all good installation packages all changes made during uninstall should be rolled back in case of uninstall failure. Let's see how we are doing. The easiest way to create an uninstall failure is to schedule deferred custom action type 54 right before InstallFinalize standard action. We can't use custom action type 19 because this custom action does not allow setting execution option (in other words, it is always immediate custom action) and we want to fail an installation after we ran our RemoveTempFile custom action.

Here is our updated WiX source file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Product Id="{2F59639E-4626-44f8-AAF0-EE375B766221}"

Name="Test Application"

Language="1033"

Version="0.0.0.0"

Manufacturer="Your Company">

<Package Id="{58BCF2DD-16A0-4654-B289-F13AADA240CD}"

Description="Shows how to delete run-time file with known file name."

Comments="This will appear in the file summary stream."

InstallerVersion="200"

Compressed="yes" />

<Component Id="ProductComponent"

Guid="{8F4CC43A-9290-4c93-9B97-B9FC1C3579CC}">

<File Id="Test.exe" DiskId="1" Name="Test.exe"

Source="..\Test\bin\Debug\Test.exe" KeyPath="yes" />

</Component>

</Directory>

<![CDATA[

On error resume next

Dim fso

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

fso.DeleteFile(Session.Property("CustomActionData") + "*.log")

Set fso = Nothing

]]>

</CustomAction>

<CustomAction Id="SetCustomActionData"

Property="RemoveTempFile" Value="[INSTALLLOCATION]" />

<![CDATA[

Function Main()

Main = 3

End Function

]]>

</Property>

<CustomAction Id="FakeFailure"

VBScriptCall="Main"

Property="FailureProgram"

Execute="deferred" />

<Custom Action="SetCustomActionData" Before="RemoveTempFile">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action="RemoveTempFile" Before="RemoveFiles">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action='FakeFailure' Before='InstallFinalize'>REMOVE="ALL" AND TESTFAIL</Custom>

</InstallExecuteSequence>

</Feature>

</Product>

</Wix>

FakeFailure custom action is running VBScript stored in the FailureProgram property. This script just returns the value 3 which means that script has failed. This return code will force Windows Installer engine to fail an uninstall and roll back all changes made up to this point. We also put a condition on FakeFailure custom action to run on uninstall and only if TESTFAIL property is defined. The reason for this is that we don't want our installation package to be stuck in uninstall failure. Doing that will require use of MsiZap tool to remove our installation from the system. Instead, we allow uninstall to succeed normally, but if we want to fail an installation we must use command line to do that:

msiexec /uninstall Project.msi TESTFAIL=YES

Let's install our test application, run Test.exe few times. Make sure that we have few files created in the same folder where Test.exe is located. Now try to uninstall program by running above mentioned command in the command window. Installation will fail. Go back to installation folder where Test.exe file is located and observe that all files created by Test.exe are gone.

Depending on what those files are that may be OK, but that could be a big problem. Imagine, that our Test.exe is a personal finance management software (something like Microsoft Money) and it stores last synchronization with bank's server data. By removing those extra files we are forcing our software to resynch the whole transaction history on the next run. That's bad.

So, how we can fix the problem. Remember, that in addition to immediate and deferred custom actions we have also rollback (runs during rollback installation phase) and commit (runs at the end of successful transaction) custom actions. Changes that we are going to make are:

Deferred custom action will move files to be deleted into temporary folder
Commit custom action will delete files from the temporary folder
Rollback custom action will move files back from temporary folder to installation folder

Because scripts will be larger than custom action type 38 can store we will be using custom action type 6 instead (again, see introduction to custom actions for more details).

Here is the deferred custom action (MoveTempFile.vbs):

Function Main()

On Error Resume Next

Dim properties, tempFile, fso, folder

Const msiDoActionStatusSuccess = 1

properties = Split(Session.Property("CustomActionData"), ";", -1, 1)

tempFile = properties(1) & "{42A7DCCB-868B-4D11-BBBE-5A32B8DF5CC9}\"

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set folder = fso.CreateFolder(tempFile)

fso.DeleteFile tempFile & "*.log", true

fso.MoveFile properties(0) & "*.log", tempFile

Set folder = Nothing

Set fso = Nothing

Main = msiDoActionStatusSuccess

End Function

In CustomActionData we will pass both INSTALLLOCATION and TempFolder properties. This script will create subfolder in the TempFolder. Subfolder's name is the UpgradeCode Guid. It will move log files from installation folder to temporary folder.

Commit script (CommitTempFile.vbs) will delete log files from temporary folder:

Function Main()

On Error Resume Next

Dim properties, tempFile, fso, folder

Const msiDoActionStatusSuccess = 1

properties = Split(Session.Property("CustomActionData"), ";", -1, 1)

tempFile = properties(1) & "{42A7DCCB-868B-4D11-BBBE-5A32B8DF5CC9}\"

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

fso.DeleteFile tempFile & "*.log", true

Set fso = Nothing

Main = msiDoActionStatusSuccess

End Function

And Rollback script will move files back from temporary folder to installation folder:

Function Main()

On Error Resume Next

Dim properties, tempFile, fso

Const msiDoActionStatusSuccess = 1

properties = Split(Session.Property("CustomActionData"), ";", -1, 1)

tempFile = properties(1) & "{42A7DCCB-868B-4D11-BBBE-5A32B8DF5CC9}\"

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

fso.MoveFile tempFile & "*.log", properties(0)

Set fso = Nothing

Main = msiDoActionStatusSuccess

End Function

Here is the updated WiX source code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Product Id="{2F59639E-4626-44f8-AAF0-EE375B766221}"

Name="Test Application"

Language="1033"

Version="0.0.0.0"

Manufacturer="Your Company"

UpgradeCode="{42A7DCCB-868B-4D11-BBBE-5A32B8DF5CC9}">

<Package Id="{58BCF2DD-16A0-4654-B289-F13AADA240CD}"

Description="Shows how to delete run-time file with known file name."

Comments="This will appear in the file summary stream."

InstallerVersion="200"

Compressed="yes" />

<Component Id="ProductComponent"

Guid="{8F4CC43A-9290-4c93-9B97-B9FC1C3579CC}">

<File Id="Test.exe" DiskId="1" Name="Test.exe"

Source="..\Test\bin\Debug\Test.exe" KeyPath="yes" />

</Component>

</Directory>

<CustomAction Id="MoveTempFile"

BinaryKey="MoveTempFileScript"

VBScriptCall="Main"

Execute="deferred"

Return="check" />

<CustomAction Id="CommitTempFile"

BinaryKey="CommitTempFileScript"

VBScriptCall="Main"

Execute="commit"

Return="check" />

<CustomAction Id="RollbackTempFile"

BinaryKey="RollbackTempFileScript"

VBScriptCall="Main"

Execute="rollback"

Return="check" />

<CustomAction Id="SetMoveData"

Property="MoveTempFile" Value="[INSTALLLOCATION];[TempFolder]" />

<CustomAction Id="SetCommitData"

Property="CommitTempFile" Value="[INSTALLLOCATION];[TempFolder]" />

<CustomAction Id="SetRollbackData"

Property="RollbackTempFile" Value="[INSTALLLOCATION];[TempFolder]" />

<![CDATA[

Function Main()

Main = 3

End Function

]]>

</Property>

<CustomAction Id="FakeFailure"

VBScriptCall="Main"

Property="FailureProgram"

Execute="deferred" />

<Custom Action="SetMoveData" Before="MoveTempFile">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action="MoveTempFile" Before="RemoveFiles">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action="SetCommitData" Before="CommitTempFile">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action="CommitTempFile" After="MoveTempFile">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action="SetRollbackData" Before="RollbackTempFile">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action="RollbackTempFile" After="MoveTempFile">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action='FakeFailure' Before='InstallFinalize'>REMOVE="ALL" AND TESTFAIL</Custom>

</InstallExecuteSequence>

</Feature>

</Product>

</Wix>

You can test it now to make sure that on uninstall failure all files get restored.

So, are we done yet? Not quite. Why? Because there is much better alternative for this type of tasks. What we can do is populate RemoveFile table, just like WiX did for us in our first sample when we wanted to remove file with well-known name. Just open msi file from Step 1 using Orca tool. You will see RemoveFile table on the left:

FileKey	Component_	FileName	DirProperty	InstallMode
Test.txt	ProductComponent	Test.txt	INSTALLLOCATION	2

Time to make an excuse: Those who pay attention to what they read have alredy noticed that FileName column of RemoveFile table has WildCardFilename type and therefore allows using wildcards. So, why I did not make my component something like this and called it done:

<Component Id="ProductComponent"

Guid="{8F4CC43A-9290-4c93-9B97-B9FC1C3579CC}">

<File Id="Test.exe" DiskId="1" Name="Test.exe"

Source="..\Test\bin\Debug\Test.exe" KeyPath="yes" />

</Component>

Well, my goal was to show why do we need rollback and commit custom actions. Let's imagine for a moment that we are dealing with unknown at compile time set of file extensions and continue with our discussion.

So, what we are going to do with our immediate custom action is populate this table with the names of the files created by our application during run-time. After that, Windows Installer will take care of Commit and Rollback actions, so we won't need these custom actions anymore. Custom action must be an immediate custom action because during deferred phase session and database handle are no longer accessible.

Here is the source of the custom action:

Function Main()

On Error Resume Next

Dim fso, folder, files

Dim DirProperty, ComponentId, InstallFolder

Dim database, view, record

Const msiDoActionStatusSuccess = 1

Const msiViewModifyInsertTemporary = 7

InstallFolder = Session.Property("INSTALLLOCATION")

ComponentId = "ProductComponent"

DirProperty = "INSTALLLOCATION"

Set database = Session.Database

Set view = database.OpenView("SELECT `FileKey`, `Component_`, `FileName`, `DirProperty`, `InstallMode` FROM `RemoveFile`")

view.Execute

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set folder = fso.GetFolder(InstallFolder)

Set files = folder.Files

For Each file in files

If fso.GetExtensionName(file.name) = "log" Then

Set record = installer.CreateRecord(5)

record.StringData(1) = file.name

record.StringData(2) = ComponentId

record.StringData(3) = file.name

record.StringData(4) = DirProperty

record.IntegerData(5) = 2

view.Modify msiViewModifyInsertTemporary, record

End If

view.Close

Set view = Nothing

database.Commit

Set database = Nothing

Set files = Nothing

Set folder = Nothing

Set fso = Nothing

Main = msiDoActionStatusSuccess

End Function

It opens installer's database and inserts temporary records into RemoveFile table.

Here is updated WiX source code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<Product Id="{2F59639E-4626-44f8-AAF0-EE375B766221}"

Name="Test Application"

Language="1033"

Version="0.0.0.0"

Manufacturer="Your Company"

UpgradeCode="{42A7DCCB-868B-4D11-BBBE-5A32B8DF5CC9}">

<Package Id="{58BCF2DD-16A0-4654-B289-F13AADA240CD}"

Description="Shows how to delete run-time file with known file name."

Comments="This will appear in the file summary stream."

InstallerVersion="200"

Compressed="yes" />

<Component Id="ProductComponent"

Guid="{8F4CC43A-9290-4c93-9B97-B9FC1C3579CC}">

<File Id="Test.exe" DiskId="1" Name="Test.exe"

Source="..\Test\bin\Debug\Test.exe" KeyPath="yes" />

<!--

Uncomment next line and comment out MoveTempFile custom action

to test wildcard file removal option

-->

</Component>

</Directory>

<CustomAction Id="MoveTempFile"

BinaryKey="MoveTempFileScript"

VBScriptCall="Main"

Execute="immediate"

Return="check" />

<![CDATA[

Function Main()

Main = 3

End Function

]]>

</Property>

<CustomAction Id="FakeFailure"

VBScriptCall="Main"

Property="FailureProgram"

Execute="deferred" />

<Custom Action="MoveTempFile" Before="RemoveFiles">REMOVE="ALL"</Custom>

<Custom Action='FakeFailure' Before='InstallFinalize'>REMOVE="ALL" AND TESTFAIL</Custom>

</InstallExecuteSequence>

</Feature>

</Product>

</Wix>

One thing to notice here is that I am using new EnsureTable element. WiX does not create standard tables if they are empty. Because we don't have anywhere in our WiX code RemoveFile elements WiX will not create RemoveFile table. Having EnsureTable element tells to WiX compiler that RemoveFile table must be created even though it is empty.

In Part 2 we will try to make this custom action reusable.

Code is attached.

The Art of Custom Actions1.zip

Comments

Anonymous
July 03, 2008
Спасибо, ждем следующих частей!
Anonymous
December 02, 2008
good day Alex! Thanks a lot for your work. This is nice set of tutorial. Can you answer for my question - i want to call function in custom dll and save return value to custom property. Can I do this using standart set of action type? Or it is possible to do only by set a property value inside dll (using MsiGetProperty and MsiSetProperty)? May be you have new article about this?
Anonymous
March 13, 2009
Why go through all this? Why not just add an empty file placeholder to your deployment tree? Done!
Anonymous
July 30, 2009
Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks a lot. i was looking for this, for a long long time.
Anonymous
November 12, 2009
Thank you so much for this comprehensive and clear article. I was deciding whether to use WIX or NSIS and your examples gave me the confidence on using WIX.
Anonymous
February 27, 2010
I don't know if this is the correct place to pose this question, but here goes... I have a C++ Custom Action that is called when the Finish button on the ExitDialog is clicked. I need to know whether or not this was at the end of a Remove (not an install, not an upgrade) operation. The literature indicates that the REMOVE property is a good thing to check. My problem is that the REMOVE property always comes back blank. On the other hand, scheduling a test C++ Custom Action in the InstallExecuteSequence (after InstallFinalize) shows that REMOVE=ALL. Why can't I see this in a different CustomAction that, in fact, runs later? I presume that my two CAs are running in different MSIEXEC processes. But in any event, how would I go about getting the "real" value of REMOVE from a CA that is called as a result of a click on the Finish button?

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From MSI to WiX, Part 19 - The Art of Custom Action, Part 1

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