WiXInstaller

The WiXInstaller type represents a Windows installer built with the WiX Toolset.

WiXInstaller instances allow you to collect .wxs files for processing and to turn these into an installer using the light.exe tool in the WiX Toolset.

Constructors

WiXInstaller()

WiXInstaller() is called to construct a new instance. It accepts the following arguments:

id

(string) The name of the installer being built.

This value is used in Id attributes in WiX XML files and must conform to limitations imposed by WiX. Notably, this must be alphanumeric and - cannot be used.

This value is also used to derive GUIDs for the installer.

This value should reflect the name of the entity being installed and should be unique to prevent collisions with other installers.

filename

(string) The name of the file that will be built.

WiX supports generating multiple installer file types depending on the content of the .wxs files. You will have to provide a filename that is appropriate for the installer type.

File extensions of .msi and .exe are common. If using add_simple_installer(), you will want to provide an .msi filename.

Methods

Sections below document methods available on WiXInstaller instances.

WiXInstaller.add_build_files()

This method registers additional files to make available to the build environment. Files will be materialized next to .wxs files that will be processed as part of building the installer.

Accepted arguments are:

manifest

(FileManifest) The file manifest defining additional files to install.

WiXInstaller.add_build_file()

This method registers a single additional file to make available to the build environment.

Accepted arguments are:

build_path

(string) The relative path to materialize inside the build environment

filesystem_path

(string) The filesystem path of the file to copy into the build environment.

force_read

(bool) Whether to read the content of this file into memory when this function is called.

Defaults to False.

WiXInstaller.add_install_file()

Add a file from the filesystem to be installed by the installer.

This methods accepts the following arguments:

install_path

(string) The relative path to materialize inside the installation directory.

filesystem_path

(string) The filesystem path of the file to install.

force_read

(bool) Whether to read the content of this file into memory when this function is called.

Defaults to False.

WiXInstaller.add_install_files()

Add files defined in a FileManifest to be installed by the installer.

This method accepts the following arguments:

manifest

(FileManifest) A FileManifest defining files to materialize in the installation directory. All these files will be installed by the installer.

WiXInstaller.add_msi_builder()

This method adds a WiXMSIBuilder instance to this instance, marking it for processing/building.

This method accepts the following arguments:

builder

(WiXMSIBuilder) A WiXMSIBuilder representing a .wxs file to build.

WiXInstaller.add_simple_installer()

This method will populate the installer configuration with a pre-defined and simple/basic configuration suitable for simple applications. This method effectively derives a .wxs which will produce an MSI that materializes files in the Program Files directory.

Accepted arguments are:

product_name

(string) The name of the installed product. This becomes the value of the <Product Name="..."> attribute in the generated .wxs file.

product_version

(string) The version string of the installed product. This becomes the value of the <Product Version="..."> attribute in the generated .wxs file.

product_manufacturer

(string) The author of the product. This becomes the value of the <Product Manufacturer="..."> attribute in the generated .wxs file.

program_files

(FileManifest) Files to materialize in the Program Files/<product_name> directory upon install.

WiXInstaller.add_wxs_file()

Adds an existing .wxs file to be processed as part of building this installer.

Accepted arguments are:

path

(string) The filesystem path to the .wxs file to add. The file will be copied into a temporary directory as part of building the installer and the destination filename will be the same as the file’s name.

preprocessor_parameters

(Optional[dict[string, string]]) Preprocessor parameters to define when invoking candle.exe for this .wxs file. These effectively constitute -p arguments to candle.exe.

WiXInstaller.set_variable()

Defines a variable to be passed to light.exe as -d arguments.

Accepted arguments are:

key

(string) The name of the variable.

value

(Optional[string]) The value of the variable. If None is used, the variable has no value and is simply defined.