How to add "visual studio"-reference to WIX in Visual Studio 2010?

Question

Hello,

I've got a solution with many projects and WIX setup project. I'm using WIX 3.5.

One project (that is referenced from WIX setup project) contains a reference (an ordinary reference in VS) to:

C:\Program Files\WPF Toolkit\v3.5.50211.1\WPFToolkit.dll 

(simply: setup project --- reference --> another project in solution --- reference --> WPFToolkit.dll; note that the "references" are not the same - the first one is some kind of WIX specific reference and the other is ordinary reference in Visual Studio)

I thought that maybe the line (automatically generated) in setup project:

<ComponentGroupRef Id="Product.Generated" />

may solve it for me (i.e. includes also WPFToolkit.dll in installer) but it doesn't.

Obviously, I can add the file manually in my wxs file but it will be harder for maintenance.

Is there a better solution? Thanks!

Answer 1

If you want your install project to be more extensible when adding new WiX Files to a Component, I would suggest to create an external tool (could be a c# console app) to handle the WiX Files generation and add them to your install project. This tool can have a config file where you can setup which WiX Files correspond to each Component.

This tool can be added to an Automated Build process.

Answer 2

What you are seeing is an initial attempt to do exactly what you want via the WiX toolset. On the Property Grid for References to other projects in your .wixproj, you should have the ability to control "Harvesting" and what project output groups are harvested. Unfortunately, there are still some bugs in the feature so it doesn't always work.

If you want to get your hands dirty you can look at the Heat project harvester and how it gets wired into the .wixproj.