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wixwindows-installer

WiX: How to display a Feature element's "description" text?

I'm building an MSI installer with WiX, and the installation requires the user to select from a couple of Features:

<Feature Id='DefaultFeature' Title="Backend Server" Level='1' Absent="disallow" AllowAdvertise="no" Description="Mandatory, must be installed.">
  <!-- ... -->
</Feature>
<Feature Id='DatabaseComponents' Title="User Database" Level="1" AllowAdvertise="no" Description="Deselect this to enable Active Directory support instead.">
  <!-- ... -->
</Feature>
<!-- more features -->

Note the Description attribute. The documentation says about the Description:

This localizable string is displayed by the Text Control of the Selection Dialog.

But: It's not displayed anywhere:

screenshot

What am I doing wrong here?

Solution

  • As seen here: Add a dedicated control with type Text to the dialog that holds the SelectionTree, and subscribe to the SelectionDescription event:

    <Control Id="ItemDescription" Type="Text" X="215" Y="60" Width="145" Height="120">
  <Text/>
  <Subscribe Event="SelectionDescription" Attribute="Text"/>
</Control>