Pass parameters from bootstrapper to msi bundle package

Question

I\'m using VS2010 and WiX 3.6 to create MSI packages and bundle them into Bootstrapper setup. Here\'s my Boostrapper code.

Answer 1

This has now been implemented and it's available as of the Wix 3.6 RC release on May 21.

Here is the general idea of how it works:

<Wix>
<Bundle>
    <Variable Name="CommandLineArg" bal:Overridable="yes"/>
    <Chain>
      <MsiPackage>
        <MsiProperty Name="CommandLineArg" Value="[CommandLineArg]"/>
      </MsiPackage>
    </Chain>
</Bundle>
</Wix>

You have to make a bundle variable that is overridable at the command line and then pass that variable to your msi.

Answer 2

That is currently not available in the standard bootstrapper: WixStdBa doesn't make the commandline properties available - ID: 3489809

You can implement such functionality if you create your own bootstrapper application.

EDIT: Although you can't pass the parameters to your bootstrapper via command line, you can still collect the information in your bootstrapper various ways:

ex: Setting a variable

<Variable Name="PARAM1" Value="SomeValue" Persisted="yes" Type="string" />

ex: Searching registry

<util:RegistrySearch Root="HKLM" Key="Software\SomeProduct" Value="SomeKey" Variable="PARAM1" Result="value"/>