Question

I have created a simple Wix 3 Merge Module in VS 2005 ( .wxs )

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <Wix xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi'>   <Module Id='TestMergeModule' Language='1033' Version='1.0.0.0'>     <Package Id='ef2a568e-a8db-4213-a211-9261c26031aa' Manufacturer='Me' InstallerVersion='200' />     <Directory Id='TARGETDIR' Name='SourceDir'>       <Directory Id='MergeRedirectFolder'>         <Component Id='Test_ModuleComponent' Guid='{1081C5BC-106E-4b89-B14F-FFA71B0987E1}'>           <File Id='Test' Name='$(var.Project.TargetFileName)' Source='$(var.Project.TargetPath)' DiskId='1' />         </Component>       </Directory>     </Directory>   </Module> </Wix> 

And I have added the project ‘Project’ as a reference to this Merge Module, however I continue to get this error

Error 7 Undefined preprocessor variable ‘$(var.Project.TargetFileName)’.

Any suggestions, I am sure I am just missing the obvious here.

Answer 1

Good practice dictates that you always assume this is your issue and it is not a bug, but after a lot of wasted time I though I would just check, and, it looks like it might be because this is not supported for C++ projects (which mine is )

From WIX3 bug report page

Date: 2008-10-17 14:53 Sender: jasongin Any C++ project is not MSBuild. C++ projects in VS use a different project system that is more difficult to interoperate with. That’s why Votive v3 does not yet support references to C++ projects. We know C++ project references is an important feature, but it’s not done yet. The work is tracked by feature request 1585281.

This is an open feature request.. but has been for a long time now it seems, so not sure if it will ever be fixed 🙁