WiX V3 wixproj converted to WiX V4 wixproj HEAT questions

[MarkStega]

1. I was a little surprised to find that after converting my V3 project to V4 that I was still seeing V3 HEAT output
   I found that the V4 project file still had

<PropertyGroup>
		<PreBuildEvent>
			call "$(wix)\bin\heat.exe" dir "$(SolutionDir)CommunicationService.2012\bin" -dr APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY1  -cg ServiceComponents1 -gg -g1 -sfrag -srd -scom -sreg -template fragment -var "var.CommunicationService.TargetDir" -out "$(SolutionDir)WiX\HeatService1.wxs"  -t $(ProjectDir)Filter.xslt
			call "$(wix)\bin\heat.exe" dir "$(SolutionDir)FileCleanupService\bin" -dr APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY2  -cg ServiceComponents2 -gg -g1 -sfrag -srd -scom -sreg -template fragment -var "var.FileCleanupService.TargetDir" -out "$(SolutionDir)WiX\HeatService2.wxs"  -t $(ProjectDir)Filter.xslt
			call "$(wix)\bin\heat.exe" dir "$(SolutionDir)LCIFileInterfaceService\bin" -dr APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY3  -cg ServiceComponents3 -gg -g1 -sfrag -srd -scom -sreg -template fragment -var "var.LCIFileInterfaceService.TargetDir" -out "$(SolutionDir)WiX\HeatService3.wxs"  -t $(ProjectDir)Filter.xslt
			call "$(wix)\bin\heat.exe" dir "$(SolutionDir)PATFileInterfaceService\bin" -dr APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY4  -cg ServiceComponents4 -gg -g1 -sfrag -srd -scom -sreg -template fragment -var "var.PATFileInterfaceService.TargetDir" -out "$(SolutionDir)WiX\HeatService4.wxs"  -t $(ProjectDir)Filter.xslt
			call "$(wix)\bin\heat.exe" dir "$(SolutionDir)PersistentStorageService\bin" -dr APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY5  -cg ServiceComponents5 -gg -g1 -sfrag -srd -scom -sreg -template fragment -var "var.PersistentStorageService.TargetDir" -out "$(SolutionDir)WiX\HeatService5.wxs"  -t $(ProjectDir)Filter.xslt
			call "$(wix)\bin\heat.exe" dir "$(SolutionDir)ReportService\bin" -dr APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY6  -cg ServiceComponents6 -gg -g1 -sfrag -srd -scom -sreg -template fragment -var "var.ReportService.TargetDir" -out "$(SolutionDir)WiX\HeatService6.wxs"  -t $(ProjectDir)Filter.xslt
			call "$(wix)\bin\heat.exe" dir "$(SolutionDir)RIAOFileInterfaceService\bin" -dr APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY7  -cg ServiceComponents7 -gg -g1 -sfrag -srd -scom -sreg -template fragment -var "var.RIAOFileInterfaceService.TargetDir" -out "$(SolutionDir)WiX\HeatService7.wxs"  -t $(ProjectDir)Filter.xslt
			call "$(wix)\bin\heat.exe" dir "$(SolutionDir)SystemMonitorService\bin" -dr APPLICATIONROOTDIRECTORY8  -cg ServiceComponents8 -gg -g1 -pog:Binaries -pog:Content -sfrag -srd -scom -sreg -template fragment -var "var.SystemMonitorService.TargetDir" -out "$(SolutionDir)WiX\HeatService8.wxs"  -t $(ProjectDir)Filter.xslt
		</PreBuildEvent>
	</PropertyGroup>

This was easily removed.

I added a new itemgroup (just to get started) with a single HarvestDirectory

	<ItemGroup>
		<HarvestDirectory Include="..\CommunicationService.2012\CommunicationService.csproj"
						HarvestDirectoryTransforms=".\Filter.xslt"
						ProjectOutputGroups="Binaries;Content;Satellites" />
	</ItemGroup>

Finally questions:

1. I don't see a property to direct the output (which is showing up in obj\_CommunicationService.wxs)

2. The generated wxs has a reference to CommunicationService.exe and CommunicationService.exe.config. However none of the dll's in the project output are included. Is that expected and just something different than the WiX3 generated file or am I missing another parameter?

3. Is there a 'conversion' document that shows what the old switches in a HEAT invocation correspond to in V4?

[rseanhall]

1. The output file is automatically included in the build so it shouldn't matter what the name is.
2. HarvestDirectory is supposed to point to a directory not a project file. You might have enabled project harvesting where project references are harvested which is where that file is coming from.
3. You should migrate your direct invocations of heat.exe dir to HarvestDirectory elements in v3 to make sure you get the results you are expecting. Then they should just work when the project is migrated to v4. The documentation on v3 HarvestDirectory is at https://wixtoolset.org/docs/v3/msbuild/target_reference/harvestdirectory/. If it's not obvious how to map the switches then you'd have to look at the source code because I don't think there's documentation linking the switches to the MSBuild parameters.

[MarkStega]

Sean,

Sorry the issue was that I started trying to use HarvestProject before I discovered the documentation line that says it shouldn't be used as it is unreliable. And when I tried to modify the question I missed the csproj.

I'd suggest moving the 'DoNotUse' warning to the top of the document. I took a quick look and can't find the repo for the new documentation. I'd happily make changes/clarifications and do a PR if that is possible.

[rseanhall]

The v4 documentation is at https://wixtoolset.org/docs/tools/heat/. The v3 documentation doesn't really matter any more but its source is at https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix3/tree/develop/src/chm/documents/msbuild/target_reference and is built to https://github.com/wixtoolset/web/tree/master/src/Docusaurus/versioned_docs/version-v3/msbuild/target_reference.

[MarkStega]

@rseanhall I have been using the V4 documentation, but what I was actually asking was for the location of the documentation repository so that I could update and submit pull requests...

[barnson]

Every page has an Edit this page link that points to the file in the Web repo.

[MarkStega]

@barnson @rseanhall
Indeed there is an edit link which brings me to the source repository. However, when I try to create a fork of wixtoolset/web so that I can edit and then create a PR I receive an error of '500'.

[barnson]

GitHub's having issues: https://twitter.com/githubstatus/status/1640340056815673345

[MarkStega]

@barnson -- You were correct, it was the widespread github failure; Creating a fork works as expected now.