Question

My installer, created wth WiX is localized via .wxl files. It is possible in WiX to specify multiple cultures and light.exe will be called multiple times, creating an installer for each language (this is available while building installer from Visual Studio).

All works file except for EULA. It is defined in .wxs file via

<WixVariable Id='WixUILicenseRtf' Value='en.rtf' />

And i don’t know a good way to change this value from .wxl localization file. Using

<WixVariable Id='WixUILicenseRtf' Value='!(loc.EulaFile)' />
<String Id='EulaFile'>en.rtf</String>

Is not working, sice .wxl files are used at link-time and .wxs is compiled before them, so compiler can’t find !(loc.EulaFile). Searching forums i have found two workarounds. First is to create a custom license dialog for each language – it seems to work, but it’s a very hard way and bloat source code a lot. Second way is to drop Visual Studio / Votive build and to call light.exe multiple times, specifying different license file each time via -d command-line key.

Is it any way to solve this problem and use localized EULA files so project can be built in VisualStudio + Voltive without a need to copy-paste lots of dialogs? Localizing installers is a very common problem, so maybe some solution exist that i don’t know about?

Answer 1

There is another way to do this, and although it is a bit messy it is less messy than the two workarounds the OP has mentioned. And credit where credit is due, this answer is almost 100% based on this post http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/mladenp/archive/2010/04/15/WiX-3-Tutorial-Custom-EULA-License-and-MSI-localization.aspx by Mladen Prajdić.

The following is based on WiX 3.5.

You create a slightly modified copy of the LicenseAgreementDlg dialog and include it in your project.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--
    Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

    The use and distribution terms for this software are covered by the
    Common Public License 1.0 (http://opensource.org/licenses/cpl1.0.php)
    which can be found in the file CPL.TXT at the root of this distribution.
    By using this software in any fashion, you are agreeing to be bound by
    the terms of this license.

    You must not remove this notice, or any other, from this software.
-->

<!-- This is a modified version of LicenseAgreementDlg to support selection of localized versions of 
     the license file. It is very much based on this article: 
     http://sqlserverpedia.com/blog/sql-server-bloggers/wix-3-tutorial-custom-eula-license-and-msi-localization/  -->

<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
    <Fragment>
        <UI>
            <Dialog Id="LicenseAgreementKludge" Width="370" Height="270" Title="!(loc.LicenseAgreementDlg_Title)">
                <Control Id="BannerBitmap" Type="Bitmap" X="0" Y="0" Width="370" Height="44" TabSkip="no" Text="!(loc.LicenseAgreementDlgBannerBitmap)" />
                <Control Id="BannerLine" Type="Line" X="0" Y="44" Width="370" Height="0" />
                <Control Id="BottomLine" Type="Line" X="0" Y="234" Width="370" Height="0" />
                <Control Id="Description" Type="Text" X="25" Y="23" Width="340" Height="15" Transparent="yes" NoPrefix="yes" Text="!(loc.LicenseAgreementDlgDescription)" />
                <Control Id="Title" Type="Text" X="15" Y="6" Width="200" Height="15" Transparent="yes" NoPrefix="yes" Text="!(loc.LicenseAgreementDlgTitle)" />
                <Control Id="LicenseAcceptedCheckBox" Type="CheckBox" X="20" Y="207" Width="330" Height="18" CheckBoxValue="1" Property="LicenseAcceptedKludge" Text="!(loc.LicenseAgreementDlgLicenseAcceptedCheckBox)" />
                <Control Id="Print" Type="PushButton" X="112" Y="243" Width="56" Height="17" Text="!(loc.WixUIPrint)">
                    <Publish Event="DoAction" Value="WixUIPrintEula">1</Publish>
                </Control>
                <Control Id="Back" Type="PushButton" X="180" Y="243" Width="56" Height="17" Text="!(loc.WixUIBack)" />
                <Control Id="Next" Type="PushButton" X="236" Y="243" Width="56" Height="17" Default="yes" Text="!(loc.WixUINext)">
                    <Publish Event="SpawnWaitDialog" Value="WaitForCostingDlg">!(wix.WixUICostingPopupOptOut) OR CostingComplete = 1</Publish>
                    <Condition Action="disable"><![CDATA[LicenseAcceptedKludge <> "1"]]></Condition>
                    <Condition Action="enable">LicenseAcceptedKludge = "1"</Condition>
                </Control>
                <Control Id="Cancel" Type="PushButton" X="304" Y="243" Width="56" Height="17" Cancel="yes" Text="!(loc.WixUICancel)">
                    <Publish Event="SpawnDialog" Value="CancelDlg">1</Publish>
                </Control>
                <Control Id="LicenseText" Type="ScrollableText" X="20" Y="60" Width="330" Height="140" Sunken="yes" TabSkip="no">
                    <Text SourceFile="$(var.ProjectDir)\!(loc.LicenseRtf)" />  <!-- this value has been modified -->
                </Control>
            </Dialog>
        </UI>
    </Fragment>
</Wix>

In your main WiX source file you add the following code to “patch” your new dialog into the dialog sequencing instead of the original one:

  <Publish Dialog="WelcomeDlg" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="LicenseAgreementKludge">1</Publish>
  <Publish Dialog="LicenseAgreementKludge" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="WelcomeDlg">1</Publish>
  <Publish Dialog="LicenseAgreementKludge" Control="Next" Event="NewDialog" Value="InstallDirDlg">LicenseAcceptedKludge = "1"</Publish>
  <Publish Dialog="InstallDirDlg" Control="Back" Event="NewDialog" Value="LicenseAgreementKludge">1</Publish>

Note that this is based on using the WixUI_InstallDir dialog collection – for other collections, such as WixUI_Mondo, you will probably have to modify the above by looking at the source.

Finally, in each of your localization files you place one line like this:

<String Id="LicenseRtf">en-us\MerliniaSMSGatewayLicense.en-us.rtf</String>

<String Id="LicenseRtf">da-dk\MerliniaSMSGatewayLicense.da-dk.rtf</String>

And, of course, you place the localized license file as indicated. I’m placing the license files (and localization files) in subfolders, but this is not necessary.

Like I said, it’s a bit messy, but it does work.