How to set XmlFile Value "as is", meaning without XML encoding

[eykh]

Hi,

is there a way to have XmlFile accept the contents of a MSI property as a value without encoding it to XML?
Our use case: We deploy our msi on a server and pass some XML content on the commandline. This content needs to be put into a certain XML element. This used to work on WIX V3 for years, when we used some config-file-search-n-replace extension for Wix. Well, this extension is no longer available for V4.

The resulting XML file should look like this:

<AddIns>
    <add serverUrl="https://..." layerName="layer1" isDefault="true" displayName="bla"/>
    <add serverUrl="https://..." layerName="layer2" isDefault="false"/>
    <add serverUrl="https://..." layerName="layer3" isDefault="false" >
</AddIns>

But we get:

<AddIns>&lt;add serverUrl="https://..." layerName="layer1" isDefault="true" displayName="bla"/&gt;  ... </AddIns>

I guess you get the point. Do you have any advice, proposal, alternatives?

Any help is appreciated!

[robmen]

Sounds like an interesting feature to add.

[eykh]

Well, I see that the current implementation is correct, because it "protects" the XML from being messed up by weird string content. But if even you think, that this use case is something that could be added, I would rather propose to add something like a generic search-and-replace-in-template-file thingy. We used SystemTools:TemplateFile from https://dblock.github.io/msiext/, which seems to be no longer maintained and thus does not work with WIX V4.

This template file idea would be a catch-all solution (even for .ini files, whatever) and would not "pollute" the current XmlFile implementation.

Does this make sense?

[robmen]

Yes, that exists already. See @barnson's response.

[barnson]

https://wixtoolset.org/docs/schema/util/formatfile/

[eykh]

I was not aware of this! And I guess, most users aren't. I can't find any reference of this element on the net. The documentation also does not "ring any bell" for me, that this could be used to do search & replace or "templating" on arbitrary files types.

Do you know of any link to an example usage of this element? Is the parent File element supposed to be a config file with formatted placeholders like [SERVERPORT] or so? What is the BinaryRef for then? Sorry, I don't get it, yet.

[barnson]

It's new to WiX v4. Yes, the file is formatted according to MSI formatting rules. The BinaryRef is a copy of the file, accessible at a time when data can be formatted.

[eykh]

Thank you! It looks like this is the perfect solution for template config files!
Could you please comment on how I used it?

<Binary Id="binConfigTemplate" SourceFile="pathTo\myTemplate.config"/>
<Component Id="cmpConfigFile" Directory="INSTALLDIR">        
    <File Id="filConfigFile" Source="pathTo\myTemplate.config" KeyPath="yes">
        <util:FormatFile  BinaryRef="binConfigTemplate"/>                
    </File>
</Component>

The file myTemplate.config is of an arbitrary text format and contains formatted content:

...
blabla
[MYMSIPROPERTY] bla bla
Better check the [SERVERURL]
...

It works, but do I use it the right way? I wonder if there's a way to avoid including the template file twice (as a Binary and as a File).
Any comments?