Quite literally the most complicated piece of software for no apparent reason.

[karshPrime]

It's honestly quite frustrating how poorly designed this program appears to be. surely using C# on visual studio isn't the only way to release software on windows, right? apparently sodding no. sure released this oPeN sOuRcE utility for all to use, but goddamn is the documentation not just a link loop of "oh migrate to from v4 oh migrate from v3 oh download our visual studio plugin for which c# project steps are here" and what not. cant find a single page where the schematics of Product.wxs are discussed in a straight forward way.

no.

$ wix --version
5.0.1xxx

$ wix build Product.wxs -o installer.msi
'http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v5/wxs'. Please make the Wix element look like the following: .

okay replaced it with v4, nope.
C:\path\to\project\Product.wxs(3) : error WIX0005: The Wix element contains an unexpected child element 'Product'.

like hell I went to 'http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v5/wxs' to see if that'd contain any "template", but no that redirects to some 70s pop-punk rock on youtube??? how is that even legit.

wrote a program. successfully compiled. assembled binary and dlls into one location, yet cant get it to produce an installer package. like hell. swear if it wasn't a uni task I would have given up hours ago instead of sitting on my computer with 100 tabs opened (90 of which are of no use because of poor backward compatibility), remaining 10 are just hyperlinks to one other. jesus.

[OlegSirenko]

It looks like you don't understand the basic principles of Wix Toolset development.
First, you need to decide which version of Wix you will use.
From the point of view of the documentation, Wix v3 is a much more preferable option. You can find the documentation at this link: https://www.firegiant.com/docs/wix/v3/tutorial/. Or find the books "Wix Toolset Developer Guide" and "Wix Toolset Cookbook".

If you want to use the 5th version, then you can find a playlist on YouTube: dojo development Wix Toolset

[OlegSirenko]

Also on FireGiant you could find basic guides for Wix v4 and v5.

[jwdomes]

Then how do I get wix build to treat my .wxs file like a V5?

[jwdomes]

I have to say, I agree with @karshPrime. I have a simple question - how do I setup my .wxs file to use the v5 schema? I cannot believe that this isn't a trivial find.

<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs"> works for v4.

How do I get v5 functionality in order to e.g. move away from GUID for UpgradeCode?

[robmen]

Ahh, this is another example why you want to be using the SDK. Those errors appear because static validation is part of the standard build process. Using wix.exe you need to do both the build command and the msi validate command to get the same behavior. If you only use wix build then you could be shipping your MSI with static validation errors that will impact your install later.

[jwdomes]

There's a lot of chatter all over the forums about ICE57. Again, though, I don't see any straightforward explanation of how to solve this or suppress the warning. This is the kind of thing I keep running into. Seemingly endless caveats.

[robmen]

You don't provide enough context (.wxs code, in this case) for anyone here to help you.

[jwdomes]

I was eventually able to fix the issue through trial and error. I appreciate your time and responses.

[robmen]

So, after kicking off this thread by complaining about the documentation, your final contribution is "I eventually figured it out." That doesn't help people going forward. Why not provide a constructive write-up that explains the path you took so that others can learn from your experience, and more experienced developers can see the missteps beginners take, so we can see if there are opportunities to improve the documentation?