Update WixShellExec custom action to allow parameters

[Wiz99327]

Feature requests

Currently, WixShellExec can launch an executable outside of the MSI (e.g., launching an application once it has completed the install). There may be certain situations where one or more parameters must be passed into the executable in order to launch an application.

WixShellExec does not currently support passing in parameters to an executable where necessary. The underlying code uses the ShellExecute(...) API function to launch the application, which supports passing in command line parameters. This can potentially be accomplished by setting these values in a property and then have the WixShellExec CA read in those property values (worst case scenario: the parameters property is empty and NULL is passed into ShellExecute(...), which it currently does now).

I currently implemented a carbon copy of the WixShellExec CA (and ShellExec function) to work around this limitation. It will make things easier (and thus, eliminate redundant code) if this option were implemented in WixShellExec.

[barnson]

We'd take this enhancement in WiX v4 if you want to submit a PR.

[bergmeister]

+1

[robmen]

@bergmeister, this issue is open and unassigned. That means it is waiting for someone to investigate possibilities, discuss possible solutions with the core team then implement the decided solution.

If you are interested in doing so yourself, our developer documentation provides a great checklist for getting started.

If you are not interested then you are waiting for someone else to become interested. If this issue has been open for a long time then there probably isn't much interest in this particular issue. In that case, you'll want to consider how to motivate others to fix it for you. This is a pretty good list of support options.

[bergmeister]

Thanks for the explanation. I could solve my problem in a different way at the end. But I'll have a closer look at the source code and might give it a go if it's doable in a few hours but I cannot promise anything.