Happy Pi Day! Today, let us celebrate pi in all its delicious forms: pie, pizza, brie, bratwurst (cross sections count!), cake (in circular form), and, of course, ice cream in a round bowl.
Speaking of pi...
WiX v3.14
The next release of WiX v3.x will not be v3.12 as one might assume. Instead, we're skipping ahead to WiX v3.14 to be able to call it "WiX Pi[e]." The focus in WiX Pi is to make it easier to move from WiX v3.x to v4.0. For example, WiX Pi will drop support for .NET Framework 2.0 and MSBuild 3.5 because WiX v4.0 has also dropped support for .NET Framework 2.0 and MSBuild 3.5. If your project currently relies on .NET Framework 2.0 or MSBuild 3.5, getting it to build with WiX v3.14 means you won't have that work to do when moving to WiX v4.0.
We'll begin baking WiX Pie almost immediately after WiX v3.11 ships.
Issue triage
Wix bundle does not give appropriate error message if WixMbaPrereqPackageId does not point to package, from @wldevries, points out a weakness in the use of "magic variables": It's tougher to provide build-time error checking. We took this issue into WiX v4.x to improve the user experience.
Documentation Error: OnExecutePackageBegin in IBootstrapperApplication.h , from @andorz, demonstrates a bit of bad text that was almost certainly not the result of copying and pasting. We took this issue into WiX v4.x.
WiX build tools installer should point to Marketplace, from @barnson, is an excellent suggestion that, as Votive doesn't ship in WiX v3.11, the WiX v3.11 should have a link to make it easy to get the Visual Studio Extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace. It's such an excellent suggestion that Sean volunteered to make this change in WiX v3.11.
Managed Bootstrapper Application crashes when OnDetectCompatiblePackage is invoked, from @gmatzen, describes a simple bug that causes a crash -- isn't that annoyingly often the case? -- in managed-code bootstrapper applications that run bundles with forward-compatible packages. We took this issue in WiX v3.11.
Adding project reference should add a skeleton element to .wxs file, from @geckert2016, is a suggestion for adding some smarts to Votive. Smarts are always appreciated so we took this issue into WiX v4.x for someone to implement said smarts.
Wix v3.11 error - The "ReadRegistry" task could not be loaded from the assembly .....WixTasks.dll, from @andreibarsa, uncovered a nasty problem with the DTF targets to build managed-code custom actions. This is fixed in WiX v3.11 RC.
VS 2017 plugin toolset -> tool settings error under properties page, from @bbuerger, reports a problem with the new Visual Studio Extension in VS2017; specifically, that a page in the project properties window is missing. Rob took this issue for WiX v3.11.
Bootstrapper.ErrorType enum is missing ErrorType.Apply, from @tjl10, reports that the managed wrapper type for errors in Burn does not match the native type. That's not good, so Sean volunteered to make this change in WiX v3.11.
Unable to create an internet shortcut with util:InternetShortcut, from @jcasale, reports a backward-compatibility-breaking change in the recently-added support for icons on InternetShortcuts. I took this to get fixed for WiX v3.11.
.NET 3.5 prerequisite, from @demidov71, requests a way of using WiX v3.11 without .NET 3.5. As mentioned above, WiX v3.x supports .NET Framework 2.0 and MSBuild 3.5 and to do so requires .NET Framework 2.0 to be installed. That's required some annoying steps since Windows 8 and later required .NET 3.5 to be downloaded before it could be installed. But until WiX v3.14, we're not breaking backward compatibility.
-srd "Suppress harvesting the root directory as an element" does not work, from @Djutza, reports an inexplicable problem that might, hopefully, just be a typographical issue of uses dashes instead of hyphens. We await work from the original reporter.
VS 2017 Build Tools + Wix Project build, from @PavelA85, reports another annoying consequence of moving MSBuild under Visual Studio with Visual Studio 2017's new support for multiple instances: We don't have a way of installing WiX's MSBuild tasks and targets into the Visual Studio instance and instead use the WiX Visual Studio Extension VSIX to install targets that point to the MSBuild tasks and targets installed by the WiX build tools installer. Unfortunately, you cannot install a VSIX into the Visual Studio Build Tools SKU, so Rob took this issue to find an alternative for WiX v3.11.
WiX v3.11 status
We released WiX v3.11 and Visual Studio Extension Release Candidates on 7-March. As you can see from the above triage, we're getting good pickup and good reports. But we have six open issues split among Sean, Rob, and me, so we're going to get those fixed by this weekend, then ship Release Candidate 2 next Tuesday, 21-March. At the next meeting (#124, 28-March), we'll take a look at issues and general feeling about how ready WiX v3.11 is to ship.
Be on the lookout for the announcement of RC2 and help re-kick the tires!