Simplifying Harvesting with HarvestFile

Often a few harvested files need special handling. For example, a service executable needs to be the file KeyPath of the Component with the <ServiceInstall/> element. It is possible to do this by adding a <File/> element for the service executable and adding an Exclude element to the harvest element used to bring in all of the files. But the <HarvestFile/> element provides an easier option.

The <HarvestFile/> element behaves much like the <File/> element with two extra abilities:

1. It supports the SelfReg attribute to harvest registration out of the file. See the SelfReg documentation for more information about harvesting registration.

2. It automatically excludes the file from all other harvest directives.

The second ability deserves an example. Consider the service executable example again. Let's say the build process output all files to the build folder. We want to include all of the files in the build folder in our installation package and we need to add the <ServiceInstall/> element to register the service executable. We can do that like this:

<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"
     xmlns:fg="http://www.firegiant.com/schemas/v3/wxs/fgwep.xsd">
  <Fragment>
    <ComponentGroup Id="AllComponents" Directory="INSTALLFOLDER">
      <Component>
        <fg:HarvestFile Source="build\MyService.exe" />
        <ServiceInstall Name="MyService" Start="auto" Type="ownProcess" />
      </Component>

      <Component>
        <fg:HarvestFolder Source="build" />
      </Component>
    </ComponentGroup>
  </Fragment>
</Wix>

Notice that the <HarvestFolder/> element does not need an <Exclude/> element to prevent the MyService.exe from being added twice. The <HarvestFile/> element took care of including the file in the <Component/> element with the <ServiceInstall/> element and excluding from the <HarvestFolder/> element.