Wix: Cannot list out properties created using C# custom action

Question

I am creating a wix installer. In some of the wxs file i have defined some properties and i am also creating some session properties inside C# custom action.

Now my requirement is to list out all session properties. So for this i have queried Property table and got all properties that where defined in .wxs file.

For this i have used below custom action:

Microsoft.Deployment.WindowsInstaller.View listBoxView = session.Database.OpenView(string.Format("select * from Property"));
            listBoxView.Execute();

            while (true)
            {
                using (Record r = listBoxView.Fetch())
                {
                    if (r == null)
                    {
                        break;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                           Console.WriteLine(r[1].ToString(), r[2].ToString());

                        }

                    }
                }
            }
        }

But it does not list out any session property that i have created using c# custom action.

Can someone help me how to list out properties that i created using c# custom action or where these properties get stored?

Thanks much

Answer 1

When you query the property table the way you do in your sample, you get only those properties defined statically in your WiX authoring, and this is expected. At install-time there's a concept called in-memory property collection - this consists out of all the properties defined in various ways: statically in Property table, provided via the command-line, system, defined in custom actions, etc.

You can access all those properties via the Session object. Just call session[name], where name is the name of the property you're going to get. I doubt there's an enumerator defined for properties, but in real life you rarely need to iterate the properties - you rather try to get a certain one.