WiX Dynamically Populated ComboBox

Question

In WiX I have a vbScript for use in a Custom Action that will return ListItems of Network Printers. I want to use these ListItems to populate the ComboBox at Install Time because I won't know the printer names on the users system until after starting the installation.

Here is the vbScript. It currently outputs to a text file pending how to work with it to answer my question.

Const ForWriting = 2

Set objNetwork = CreateObject("Wscript.Network")

strName = objNetwork.UserName
strDomain = objNetwork.UserDomain
strUser = strDomain & "\" & strName

strText = ""

strComputer = "."

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colPrinters = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * From Win32_Printer Where Local = FALSE")

For Each objPrinter in colPrinters
    strText = strText & "<ListItem Text=""" & objPrinter.Name &""" Value="""& objPrinter.Name &"""/>" & vbcrlf
Next

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set objFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile _
    ("C:\Scripts\Printers.txt", ForWriting, True)

objFile.Write strText

objFile.Close

And this is the output :

<ListItem Text="\\xfiles\Canon iR3030 PCL6" Value="\\xfiles\Canon iR3030 PCL6"/>
<ListItem Text="\\xfiles\HP2110" Value="\\xfiles\HP2110"/>

I am hoping to be able to use this output as ListItems for my ComboBox.

<Control Type="ComboBox" Property="cboPrinters_Prop" Id="cboPrinters" Width="206" Height="16" X="19" Y="139" ComboList="yes">
   <ComboBox Property="cboPrinters_Prop">
      <ListItem Text="" Value=""/>
   </ComboBox>
</Control>

If there is a better way or I am approaching this all wrong(I keep trying to think like a developer) please feel free to correct me. I am thick skinned... :)

Answer 1

As I suspected toward the end of my original post there was a different way and I was going about it wrong. At least somewhat. Being new to WiX I didn't take into consideration the fact that the values should be added to the database. Given that I hadn't run across this yet in my experiences I got to learn something new.

So here's what I did to get the values to display in my ComboBox:

1.) Script above was modified to use the collection to send the appropriate values to the database table named ComboBox.

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2.) Using Orca I added the ComboBox table. BTW it just holds the information for ListItems used in, wait for it... ComboBoxes.

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3.) Added the appropriate Custom Action.

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4.) Called it just before the form loads.

Here's the vb Script:

Const ERROR_SUCCESS = 0
Const ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE = 1603
Const msiViewModifyInsertTemporary = 7

Function LogInfo(msg) 
    Dim rec
    Set rec = Session.Installer.CreateRecord(1) 
    rec.StringData(0) = msg
    LogInfo = Session.Message(&H04000000, rec)
End Function



Function GetNetworkPrinters()
Dim oView, oReccombo
Dim r

LogInfo "INSIDE GetNetworkPrinters"
Set objNetwork = CreateObject("Wscript.Network")

strName = objNetwork.UserName
strDomain = objNetwork.UserDomain
strUser = strDomain & "\" & strName

strText = ""

strComputer = "."

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colPrinters = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * From Win32_Printer Where Local = FALSE")


Set oView = Session.Database.OpenView("SELECT * FROM `ComboBox`")
oView.Execute
r = 1
For Each objPrinter in colPrinters
r = r + 1

LogInfo "THE PRINTER NAME IS " & objPrinter.Name

Set oReccombo = Session.Installer.CreateRecord(4)
oReccombo.StringData(1) = "cboPrinters_Prop"
oReccombo.IntegerData(2) = r
oReccombo.StringData(3) = objPrinter.Name
oReccombo.StringData(4) = objPrinter.Name
LogInfo "Made it to the call to insert the record"
oView.Modify msiViewModifyInsertTemporary, oReccombo

Next
oView.Close

GetNetworkPrinters = ERROR_SUCCESS

Set oView = Nothing
End Function

Add a Binary entry:

<Binary Id="GetNetworkPrinters" SourceFile="*Enter the full path to the script here* \GetNetworkPrinters.vbs" />

Add the Custom Action:

<CustomAction Id="AddPrintersToComboBox" BinaryKey="GetNetworkPrinters" VBScriptCall="GetNetworkPrinters" Execute="immediate" Return="check" HideTarget="no" Impersonate="yes" />

Add the Call to the Custom Action in the InstallUISequence and the AdminUISequence:

<Custom Action="AddPrintersToComboBox" Before="MaintenanceForm"></Custom>

That is it... Now of course the script needs to be cleaned up to generate better log information and also needs better (some) error handling but it definitely works.

I hope this helps others...