You could use a bind path (named or unnamed), which I have seen recommended over the use of preprocessor variables in this forum.
Unnamed bind path: file source would be: <File Id="..." KeyPath="yes" Source="\a\b.txt" and in wixproj or in Properties/Tool Settings/Additional Parameters/Linker -b somefolder\somepath\appfolder or -b "somefolder\somepathwithWhitespace\appfolder\\" Using a named bind path is similar except that the bindpath is defined as: -b mybindname=somefolder\somepath\appfolder then the file source is: <File Id="..." KeyPath="yes" Source="!(bindpath.mybindname)\a\b.txt" It will work with or without the separator between !(bindpath....) and the rest of the path, but if you do not explicitly author File/@Id, and if the rest of the path is just a file name, then I would make sure to always author the separator to avoid the whole string "!(bindpath..." becoming the File/@Id. With regard to using heat (or HarvestDirectory) you specify your bindname as a "PreprocessoVariable" even though it is not a preprocessor variable (which I found confusing initially). <PreprocessorVariable>wix.mybindname</PreprocessorVariable> and then specify a XSLT transform <Transforms>some.xslt;..\..\Common\Transforms\bindpath.xslt</Transforms> which replaces the $(wix.mybindname) with !(bindname.mybindname), like this <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"; xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" xmlns:wix="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi"; exclude-result-prefixes="msxsl"> <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/> <xsl:template match="@* | node()"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates select="@* | node()"/> </xsl:copy> </xsl:template> <xsl:key name="thumbs.db-search" match="wix:Component[contains(wix:File/@Source, 'Thumbs.db')]" use="@Id" /> <xsl:template match="wix:Component[key('thumbs.db-search', @Id)]" /> <xsl:template match="wix:ComponentRef[key('thumbs.db-search', @Id)]" /> <xsl:key name="svn-search" match="wix:Component[contains(wix:File/@Source, '*.svn')]" use="@Id" /> <xsl:template match="wix:Component[key('svn-search', @Id)]" /> <xsl:template match="wix:ComponentRef[key('svn-search', @Id)]" /> <xsl:template name="string-replace-all"> <xsl:param name="text" /> <xsl:param name="replace" /> <xsl:param name="by" /> <xsl:choose> <xsl:when test="contains($text, $replace)"> <xsl:value-of select="substring-before($text,$replace)" /> <xsl:value-of select="$by" /> <xsl:call-template name="string-replace-all"> <xsl:with-param name="text" select="substring-after($text,$replace)" /> <xsl:with-param name="replace" select="$replace" /> <xsl:with-param name="by" select="$by" /> </xsl:call-template> </xsl:when> <xsl:otherwise> <xsl:value-of select="$text" /> </xsl:otherwise> </xsl:choose> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="@Source['!(wix.']" > <xsl:attribute name="Source"> <xsl:variable name="projectName"> <xsl:value-of select="/wix:Wix/wix:Fragment/wix:ComponentGroup/@Id"/> </xsl:variable> <xsl:call-template name="string-replace-all"> <xsl:with-param name="text" select="." /> <xsl:with-param name="replace" select="'!(wix.'" /> <xsl:with-param name="by" select="'!(bindpath.'" /> </xsl:call-template> </xsl:attribute> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> For more reading here are a couple of more links: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/BindPath-and-supporting-patches-td7598792.html#a7598817 http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/Automatically-harvest-files-in-VS-2013-td7597592.html#a7597597 -- View this message in context: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/Heat-source-path-tp7599991p7599995.html Sent from the wix-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live exercises http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual- event?utm_ source=Sourceforge_BPM_Camp_5_6_15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VA_SF _______________________________________________ WiX-users mailing list WiX-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wix-users
