Missing Files in Output Folder (But Present in the MSI Package)

[BenniKo]

Hello Everybody,

I am building an MSI package using WiXSharp and have encountered an issue with files that are added to the MSI package but not appearing in the WiX output folder.

My final installer should include some external DLLs and JSON files, all of which are placed within the release folder.
The MSI package that is generated contains all the files as expected.
However, the output 'wix' folder in my 'bin' directory does not contain the .json files. All .exe and .dll are correctly placed in the 'wix' output folder.

I’m unsure why this discrepancy occurs. Why are these files missing in the output "wix" folder?

Has anyone else encountered a similar issue?

Any comments, help, or solutions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Here are some details:

• I am building an MSI package using WiX Toolset 5.0.2 and WiXSharp 2.7.1.
• I’m using Visual Studio Professional 2022.
• My target framework is .NET Framework 4.7.2.

Here’s a part of my setup.cs:

...
	string product_builds_output_dir = @"..\bin\Release";
	var main_app = new Feature(Constants.PRODUCT_NAME, "Main application binaries");
	Dir product_inst_dir;
	
	var project = new Project(
		Constants.PRODUCT_NAME
		// ---- BEGIN InstallDir ----
		, new Dir(Constants.PER_MACHINE_INSTALL_TARGET_DIR 
			, product_inst_dir = new Dir(Constants.PRODUCT_NAME

			, new Files(main_app, Path.Combine(product_builds_output_dir, "*.dll"))
			, new Files(main_app, Path.Combine(product_builds_output_dir, "*.json"))
			, new Files(main_app, Path.Combine(product_builds_output_dir, "*.exe"))
....

[oleg-shilo]

I am not sure I can map your observations to any build scenarios WixSharp supports.

However, the output 'wix' folder in my 'bin' directory does not contain the .json files.

The WixSharp indeed creates wix folder, but it is not in the bin folder, and it never contains any dll's but wxs files only.
At least it is the behaviour if you create the project for the WiSharp project temp[late:

The fact that the msi includes the right files and builds correctly, tells me that your expectations might not be fully correct.
If you still want to find the exact answers, please share the test project that shows the problem, so Ican have a look at it.

[BenniKo]

@oleg-shilo, thank you very much for your response.

It turned out that there was an issue within the postbuild step, which had nothing to do with WiX or WiXSharp.

Therefore, could this discussion be deleted!?

[oleg-shilo]

Great, thank you for letting me know