Software Deployment

Try changing COMPUTERNAME to ComputerName. Properties are case sensitive.

If that doesn't work look up the Formatted data type in msi.chm and that will show you how you can embed "[" characters. That may be the problem.

Hope this helps!
Owen

thx Owen, but i am afraid no joy with formatting either.
I fear i may have to use a custom action which is not what i had hoped.
with that in mind does anyone have a snippet of code that executes an xpath query and gives me the ability to store the returned value in a property so that i can use it in a component condition?

Try using the property like this [%COMPUTERNAME%]




________________
Regards,
Rakesh.

tried that too, no joy! such a nightmare!

/MachineInventory/Machines/Machine[\[]@name="[ComputerName]"[\]]/Attributes/Attribute[\[]@name="City"[\]]

From Formatted

If a substring of the form [\x] is found, it is replaced by the character x , where x is one character, without any further processing. Only the first character after the backslash is kept; everything else is removed. For example, to include a literal left bracket ([), use [\[]. The text [\[]Bracket Text[\]] resolves to [Bracket Text].

What does the log resolve [ComputerName] to?

thx for the help.
when looking at the log it seems as if the CA ISXmlAppSearch does not attempt to resolve the string whatsoever.

for example if i set the Element column of the ISXmlLocator table to any of the following it does not get resolved and shows up character for character in the lof.

Value in table What appears in log as element value to look for
[ComputerName] [ComputerName]
[%ComputerName%] [%ComputerName%]
[\[]ComputerName] [\[]ComputerName]
[[ALLUSERS]] [[ALLUSERS]]

It is as if no attempt is made to resolve any part of the expression when using the xml app search.
Can anyone confirm this?

I'm sorry but I've never used the ISXmlAppSearch table. Where is the CA scheduled? Is it deferred?

are you using the default WIX xml CA's ?

I have a bunch of examples for that which use almost identical syntax. Let me know if you want them .

i am using installshield 8 which adds in the CA xmlappsearch. the problem is that it does not resolve the xpath string. if you have some examples that can sort my problem i would appreciate it

just to let anyone know we called installshield on this issue and it turns out that the IS custom action that is used when you create an xml appsearch does not resolve the xpath it is passed. therefore what i was trying to do would never work!

//configuration/appSettings/add[\[]@key='azmanStore'[\]]/@value

//FormManagement/ReplaceItems/ReplaceItem/NewUrl

//appSettings/add[\[]@key='AUDIT_QUEUE'[\]]/@value

//MonitoredProcessStartInfo[\[]ProcessName='ISS RuleBase'[/]]/EnvironmentVariables/Parameter[\[]@key='SSAMSQBIN'[/]]/@value

//configuration/applicationSettings/SIS.Framework.Auditing.MsmqDistributor.Properties.Settings/setting[\[]@name='AuditQueuePath'[\]]/value

try a single ' around the "[Computername]"

ie

'[Computername]'