WiX: Functional Preprocessing
The preprocessor in WiX has a new feature called Functional Preprocessing. It is a way for WiX users to define functions that they can use in their authoring to dynamically fill in content.
Most people who use WiX are familiar with preprocessor variables which look like:
"$(var.VariableName)"
The preprocessor now has support for functions in addition to variables which look like:
"$(func.FunctionName(arg1,arg2,arg3))"
While there have been no additions as of yet to the standard WiX preprocessor function library many functions have been implemented and are being used in people's preprocessor extensions. In an extension you tell the preprocessor that you would like to have all functions with a specific qualifier be handled by your extension.
Example:
Say you want to keep track of all of your component GUID's in a single file. The file has 4 pieces of data for each GUID. Id, Language, Architecture, and of course the GUID.
MyComponentId, English, Intel, 365453-34235-32525-23325345223
If you implement a preprocessor extension to handle "guid" functions and define a function called "GetGuid" that takes 3 arguments you could represent the guid in your authoring as:
"$(guid.GetGuid(MyComponentId,English,Intel))"
This function would be replaced in your authoring with "365453-34235-32525-23325345223".
There are a lot of possible uses of this type of functionality. I'd love to hear how other people use it.
