MSBuild throwing our error WIX0822 The variable 'Platform' with value 'AnyCPU'...

[ColinWPA]

My wixproj builds perfectly inside VS2022, but using MSBuild on the project falls over and reports:

wix.exe : error WIX0288: The variable 'Platform' with value 'AnyCPU' was previously declared with value 'x86'. [C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SetupSmartCellConfigTool\SetupSmartCell
ConfigTool.wixproj]

MY project file specifies the the platform must be x86 and configuration release viz:

Configuration=Release Platform=x86 false 99.99.9999 1.2.102 C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\EMS Config Tool\bin\Release Version=$(ExtVersion);SourceFolder=$(ExtSourceFolder) .... and so on.

So how does the platform get changed to AnyCPU - that is not what I want nor what I have specified.
Prior to switching to v5.0 this did work (in 4.0.4) so is there another option needed on the msbuild command line

Any suggestions to resolve this please?

[robmen]

MSBuild your .sln and you'll likely get the same behavior as VS. A .sln adds a lot of whacky additional context, especially if you configured it via the Build Configuration Manager in VS.

Personally, I try to avoid the differences .sln add but that's more about MSBuild than WiX.

[ColinWPA]

Thanks for the suggestion. So I recreated my wixproj without any .sln file involved, and tried it again, this time specifying the .wiproj file to MSBuild. It is still throwing the same error of

wix.exe : error WIX0288: The variable 'Platform' with value 'AnyCPU' was previously declared with value 'x86'. [C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SmartCellInstaller\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixproj]

I can see that "somewhere" the Platform variable is getting set to "AnyCPU" (but where I don't know) and the error is thrown when my wixproj file tries to set it the required "x86" value,,,,, Note: there is no .sln file in the path. It is almost as if the wix.exe file defaults to "AnyCPU" and doesn't want it to be anything else? Maybe I'm missing some relevant point that makes changing the platform to a value different to the default possible?

[ColinWPA]

invocation: msbuild -p:ExtVersion="1.0.2" -p:ExtSourceFolder="C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\EMS Config Tool\bin\Release -ignore:.sln -t:x86 SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixproj

[ColinWPA]

Still no joy here, to my mind this is a wix.exe issue that probably needs a setting to be passed to it so as to not try to build for all possibly configurations when only one is required. Here is the full trace of the problem:

C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SmartCellInstaller>msbuild -p:ExtVersion=1.2.102 SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixproj
MSBuild version 17.9.8+b34f75857 for .NET Framework
Build started 2024/04/17 08:22:57.

Project "C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SmartCellInstaller\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixproj" on node 1 (default targets).
CoreCompile:
C:\Users\attwelc.nuget\packages\wixtoolset.sdk\5.0.0\tools\net472\x86\wix.exe build -platform x86 -out obj\Debug\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.msi -outputType Package -pdb obj\Debug\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixpdb -pdbType full -culture n
ull -d Platform=x86 -d Configuration=Debug -d OutDir=bin\Debug\ -d InstallerPlatform=x86 -d Platform=AnyCPU -d ProjectDir=C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SmartCellInstaller\ -d ProjectExt=.wixproj -d ProjectFileName=Setup
SmartCellConfigTool.wixproj -d ProjectName=SetupSmartCellConfigTool -d ProjectPath=C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SmartCellInstaller\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixproj -d TargetDir=C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Tr
unk\SmartCellInstaller\bin\Debug\ -d TargetExt=.msi -d TargetFileName=SetupSmartCellConfigTool.msi -d TargetName=SetupSmartCellConfigTool -d TargetPath=C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SmartCellInstaller\bin\Debug\SetupSma
rtCellConfigTool.msi -ext C:\Users\attwelc.nuget\packages\wixtoolset.util.wixext\5.0.0\wixext5\WixToolset.Util.wixext.dll -ext C:\Users\attwelc.nuget\packages\wixtoolset.ui.wixext\5.0.0\wixext5\WixToolset.UI.wixext.dll -ext C:\Users
\attwelc.nuget\packages\wixtoolset.netfx.wixext\5.0.0\wixext5\WixToolset.Netfx.wixext.dll -intermediatefolder obj\Debug\ -trackingfile obj\Debug\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixproj.BindTracking-neutral.txt -nologo Folders.wxs GroupRefs
.wxs Groups.wxs Product.wxs RemoveFiles.wxs
wix.exe : error WIX0288: The variable 'Platform' with value 'AnyCPU' was previously declared with value 'x86'. [C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SmartCellInstaller\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixproj]
Done Building Project "C:\Workspace\90504_SmartCellConfigTool\Trunk\SmartCellInstaller\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixproj" (default targets) -- FAILED.

Clearly, wix.exe has been given a bunch of parameters trying to build everything it could possibly build, but not required.
Can anybody shed any light what the possible parameter settings to pass into the MSBuild command to resolve this.

-NOTE- This is no .sln file anywhere in the folder that could possibly be affecting this.

Thanks in advance.

[robmen]

You are doubly defining the Platform preprocessor variable on the command line.

build -platform x86 -out obj\Debug\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.msi -outputType Package -pdb obj\Debug\SetupSmartCellConfigTool.wixpdb -pdbType full -culture n
ull -d Platform=x86 -d Configuration=Debug -d OutDir=bin\Debug\ -d InstallerPlatform=x86 -d Platform=AnyCPU

Look in you project file to find it.

[robmen]

You have hard-coded the preprocessor variable Platform in your .wixproj.

<DefineConstants>Platform=x86</DefineConstants> 

Remove that line, and this error will go away.

Note: If you paid for support, you'd first get an onboarding review to help align your code for success. Then, you'd get detailed answers to all your questions that would explain the ins and outs of each option.

Right now, I'm just driving by and can see the problems quickly. Free support is, well, free.

[ColinWPA]

Thank you. So how then does the correct configuration and platform get set? You'll see further down the project the test to see if the configuration and platform is set to the correct values, so that the version and source file parameters can be set.... Note that this code was lifted straight out of one of your dojo videos (can't recall which one - and they are not searchable for code so I'd have to watch them till I find the one I want),,,,, Maybe that approach was valid back in the version 4.0.0 - RC days, but has been superseded now?

[ColinWPA]

Ah, passing the configuration and release in as command line parameters works (after taking the constant settings out of the project file.
Great - progress at last! Thanks

[robmen]

At the end of each Deployment Dojo episode (once GitHub is introduced) the code is pushed to the Deployment Dojo BeltTest repository. You can see each episode in the history of the repo.