WiX Online Meeting #72 Highlights

New/old issue triage

• Bug 4816 | Invalid description of the error when trying to ‘heat’ symlink to folder which not exist describes an inaccurate error message when running Heat.exe against a directory containing a symbolic link to a directory that doesn’t exist. Consensus of attendees was that it was an esoteric combination of issues so we deferred it.

• Bug 4815 | v3.9.1208.0 fails to install is a report of an install failure but without logs, we pointed the reporter to the wix-users mailing list for support.

• Bug 4813 | iis:WebDirProperties/Name is not modularized and Bug 4812 | iis:WebAppPool/Name is not modularized both report issues using WixIIsExtension from a merge module. Rob, declaring them easy fixes, volunteered to fix both in WiX v3.11.

• Bug 4811 | When building cfglib, warning (treated as error) C4473: not enough arguments to swscanf_s reports that at least one project in WiX v4.0 doesn’t successfully build with a post-RC build of Visual Studio 2015. We assigned the issue to Mike to fix when Visual Studio 2015 is released and available to everybody, just about two weeks from now.

• Bug 4810 | Custom BA prereq not showing buttons in .NET install dialog after .NET was uninstalled reports a long-standing bug in WixStdBA: When a bundle using a managed bootstrapper application is installed but an appropriate version of .NET has been uninstalled, the prerequisites window has no visible buttons to trigger the reinstall of .NET. Oops. Sean volunteered to fix this in WiX v3.11.

• Bug 4809 | Runtime error if WixStdBA.dll will be replaced by custom WixStdBa.dll reports that using a WixBalExtension WixStandardBootstrapperApplication element and an extra Payload element to overwrite the stock WixStdBA DLL with a custom BA DLL doesn’t work. We agreed and also agreed that it shouldn’t work—WixStandardBootstrapperApplication pulls in the stock WixStdBA DLL and ensures it’s correctly included in the bundle .exe. Using it with a custom BA is relying on a known bug in Light.exe that allows files to overwrite each other during binding.

WiX v3.10 review

We’re still on track to ship WiX v3.10 sometime within a few weeks of Visual Studio 2015’s 20-July release date. None of today’s bugs met the bar for WiX v3.10 so we’ve had only minor fixes since the RC.

We don’t have a strict date to meet for WiX v3.10. The current plan is to aim for an early-to-mid August ship date and to still feel good about ourselves if we slip toward the end of August. Heath suggested we should ship on 7-August because it’s his birthday. I’m voting for 10-August, National S’mores Day. Other less tasty suggestions are welcome.