Error WIX0094: .wxs Files Not Loading

[burrito227]

• Which version of WiX are you building with?

4.0.0

wix --version returns 4.0.0+8c757c0f

• Which version of Visual Studio are you building with (if any)?

2022

• Which version of .NET are you building with?

4.8

• Describe the problem and the steps to reproduce it.

I am a WiX newbie.

We recently converted our WiX v3 project to v4 using the heatwave tool. The build fails with the following error codes:

Error	WIX0094	The identifier 'WixComponentGroup:CMPGRP_MyProductWebServ' could not be found. Ensure you have typed the reference correctly and that all the necessary inputs are provided to the linker.	MyProduct_Install	C:\Users\MyUser\Documents\MyProduct\branches\MyProduct_1.22\MyProduct_Install\Product.wxs	20	

Error	WIX0094	The identifier 'WixComponentGroup:CMPGRP_MyProductWinServ' could not be found. Ensure you have typed the reference correctly and that all the necessary inputs are provided to the linker.	MyProduct_Install	C:\Users\MyUser\Documents\MyProduct\branches\MyProduct_1.22\MyProduct_Install\Product.wxs	26

The weird part is that the two files (MyProductWebServComp.wxs and MyProductWinServComp.wxs) are generated during the build. I can see the two files pop up in the solution explorer about 2-5 seconds before the build fails. If a second build is ran consecutively after the failed build, the second build succeeds since the old files are there.

We have the HeatDirectory defined in in our wixproj,

  <Target Name="BeforeBuild">
    <HeatDirectory Directory="$(OWinServiceBinariesDir)" PreprocessorVariable="var.OWinSPath" Transforms="WinServExcludes.xslt" OutputFile="MyProductWinServComp.wxs" ComponentGroupName="CMPGRP_MyProductWinServ" GenerateGuidsNow="true" DirectoryRefId="DIR_MyProductWINSERV" ToolPath="$(WixToolPath)" SuppressFragments="true" SuppressRegistry="true" SuppressRootDirectory="true" />
    <HeatDirectory Directory="$(OWebServiceBinariesDir)" PreprocessorVariable="var.OWebSPath" Transforms="WebServExcludes.xslt" OutputFile="MyProductWebServComp.wxs" ComponentGroupName="CMPGRP_MyProductWebServ" GenerateGuidsNow="true" DirectoryRefId="DIR_MyProductWEBSERV" ToolPath="$(WixToolPath)" SuppressFragments="true" SuppressRegistry="true" SuppressRootDirectory="true" />
  </Target>

And then an example in our Product.wxs file,

    <Feature Id="FEAT_Web" Title="MyProduct Web Service Installation" Level="1" ConfigurableDirectory="DIR_MyProductWEBSERV">
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="CMPGRP_MyProductWebServ" />
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="CMPGRP_WebServSetup" />
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="CMPGRP_WebConfig" />
    </Feature>

I saw a discussion where somebody was getting the same error, but sounded like different issue... I've tried adding with no change.

<EnableProjectHarvesting>true</EnableProjectHarvesting>

and

<PackageReference Include="WixToolset.Heat" Version="4.*" />

Does anybody have any idea what I am missing?

[BMurri]

Remove the BeforeBuild target after moving the two HeatDirectory elements out of it. Convert both into HarvestDirectory elements inside of an ItemGroup, changing the Directory attribute to Include and dropping the OutputFile and ToolPath attributes.

Note that it's not recommended to use GenerateGuidsNow, so I'd recommend removing that as well.