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visual-studio-2017custom-actionvisual-studio-setup-projebuildconfigurationvdproj

Visual Studio Installer Project Custom Action based on Build Configuration

Is it possible in an Installer Project to conditionally run a Custom Action based on the project build configuration (e.g. Debug, Release, etc.)?

Also to include/exclude files based on the Build Configuration?

Can I do any of these in Visual Studio 2017 or by manually editing the .vdproj file?

Solution

  • Once you have defined your project, let's suppose the custom action is a .NET installer project (it's not mandatory, but it's like that in my sample).

    Just go the the list of Custom Actions (right-click on Project/View/Custom Actions), select your special custom action, and in the "Condition" property in the property grid, you can use the following test:

      OriginalDatabase >< "Debug"

    The funny syntax (>< means "contains") is documented in Conditional Statement Syntax, OriginalDatabase (case-sensitive) is a property that contains the full path name of the .msi file path that's being installed.

    This is documented in Windows Installer's Property Reference. You can use this type of syntax in all Condition properties that are defined on various items (custom actions, files, etc.). Note "Debug" may be too simple as a discriminant piece of text, but you get the idea.

    enter image description here

    Of course, that supposes you've changed the .msi output name to include the "Debug" text, in Debug configuration, something like this:

    enter image description here

    Another option would be to always embed the custom action, but do nothing in it if some property is set (to indicate release mode for example). You can use CustomActionData to pass information to custom actions.