Allow to run wix with additional extension

[2ndTaleStudio]

Hi there,

currently the use of the WixUIExtension is hardcoded when compiling the wxs file. I'd appreciate if there could be an option passed to also allow the WixUtilExtension to be used for example.

Example: cargo wix --ext WixUtilExtension could be passed to call light.exe with the additional -ext attribute.

[2ndTaleStudio]

Never mind...
I've seen this is already available. I only needed to add the corresponding namespace to the main.wxs file to get this WixUtilExtension to work

[volks73]

I am happy you found a resolution. Just to clarify because it is not called out specifically in the documentation: The WixUtilExtension is already included in the invocation of the compiler (candle.exe) and linker (light.exe) for the create/default subcommand. Add the namespace to the main.wxs enables the Intelisense in Visual Studio per the "How To: Use WiX Extensions" document.

I might re-open this because while there only appears to be the two WiX-developed extensions: (1) WixUI and (2) WixUtil, and there also appears to be no harm in always included these, there might be more in the future or custom ones created by developers specific for their projects that then would like to import into the compiler/linker. The -e,--compiler-extension and -E,--linker-extension options could be added to the create/default command. It is unclear to me the difference between a compiler and linker extension, but the WixUtil extension is only included in the linker while the WixUI is included in both, so there needs to be mechanism to include extensions in either or both the compiler and linker.

[volks73]

I have created #96 to track adding documentation about inclusion of the various extensions

[volks73]

I think #97 is probably the better way to approach this, as implementing separate options for compiler and linker extensions seems like unnecessary re-implementation. Thus, I am going to close this.

[volks73]

Just to close the loop on this, with #97 implemented as of 104b374, extensions can be added to the compiler (candle.exe) or linker (light.exe) using the -C and -L options, respectively. For example:

C:\Path\to\project> cargo wix -C -ext -C UserCompilerExtension1 -C -ext -C UserCompilerExtension2 -L -ext -L UserLinkerExtension

While I acknowledge this is a little verbose and clumsy, I am not sure how often this enhancement is needed and the extensions can be included using the [package.metadata.wix] section of the package's manifest with the compiler-args and linker-args fields, which are TOML arrays. For example,

[package.metadata.wix]
compiler-args = ["-ext", "UserCompilerExtension1", "-ext", "UserCompilerExtension2"]
linker-args = ["-ext", "UserLinkerExtension"]