Unable to build WixStdBootstrapperApplication - ge

Question

I am trying to make changes to the WixStandardBootstrapperApplication.cpp and generate a dll as per the suggestion from this link. I have downloaded the wix310-debug source and am modifying the file present under wix310-debug\src\ext\BalExtension\wixstdba\ location. There is a wixstdba.vcxproj file under this location which I am trying to open using Visual Studio 2012. Whenever I try to do that I get the error:

Unable to read the project file "wixstdba.vcxproj". The imported project "C:\tools\WixBuild.props" was not found.

I am not sure what should I do to correct this. Also, based on the referenced link, I think I am updating the correct file but let me know if that is not the case. Any help in this would be great. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

In your vcxproj there's a line like this:

<Import Project="$([MSBuild]::GetDirectoryNameOfFileAbove($(MSBuildProjectDirectory), wix.proj))\tools\WixBuild.targets" />

The debug source isn't really the source of wix. It includes all the wix source files but it is not really buildable. This zip has all the built pdbs and is used to debug only.

You want to download the wix source from wixtoolset's github so that you can build wixstdba. But, this is for version 3.10.3 currently and may have some version specific changes but I don't see anything that would be an issue using the dll built here against wix 3.10.2 since the engine and bootstrapper application interfaces should have remained the same.

But, you should be able to build all this with only the WixStdBA project. You will have to copy over the wixstdba folder. Edit the vcxproj and remove the import line mentioned above (it should be near the bottom).

Now, add this project to your a new solution or your installer solution in visual studio. We need to add addition include and library directories. All these include directories will be in your wix install location (default C:\Program Files (x86)\WiX Toolset v3.10) In Properties -> C/C++ -> General -> additional include directories add your wix SDK include path. If you are using visual studio 2013 you can use the full path or you can use "$(WIX)\SDK\vs2013\inc". $(WIX) should reference the WIX environment variable which points to the install directory which is added when installing wix. This should be the better option if you will be building on a build system with wix installed since the location may be different across machines.

Now for addition library directories, we go to the Properties -> Linker -> General -> Additional Library Directoryes and add in the correct lib path. If you are using visual studio 2013 you want to put in $(WIX)\SDK\vs2013\lib\x86. Finally we need to reference the libs that are needed to build the bootstrapper dll. Under Linker -> Input -> Additional Dependencies, add in "dutil.lib;balutil.lib". My additional dependencies has a lot more stuff and I don't remember if it was by default there. Here's my Additional Dependencies in full anyways

dutil.lib;balutil.lib;advapi32.lib;comctl32.lib;comdlg32.lib;gdi32.lib;gdiplus.lib;kernel32.lib;msimg32.lib;odbc32.lib;odbccp32.lib;ole32.lib;oleaut32.lib;shell32.lib;shlwapi.lib;user32.lib;uuid.lib;wininet.lib;winspool.lib;version.lib;%(AdditionalDependencies)

With this you should be able to build the wixstdba project and get a dll built. Without editing any code this should be the exact same as the wix included wixstdba.dll.

You could try referencing this dll instead of the wix included one (have to define your own BootstrapperApplication instead of using the BootstrapperApplicationRef to one of the wix ones) or just drop in this dll into your wix location's bin.