How to Log Tracing Infomation from Your VBS WiX CustomAction

Today I will show you how to log tracing information from your custom actions into your MSI's log. We will still use the product.wxs sample. You can follow the steps below:

Create an xml file: product.wxs (copied from WiX.chm) as below
This WiX file will create an MSI file to copy readme.txt into %sysdrv%/program files/test program/

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<WiX xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/WiX/2003/01/wi'>
   <Product Id='12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012' Name='Test Package' Language='1033'
            Version='1.0.0.0' Manufacturer='Microsoft Corporation'>
      <Package Id='12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012'
                Description='My first Windows Installer package'
                Comments='This is my first attempt at creating a Windows Installer database'
                Manufacturer='Microsoft Corporation' InstallerVersion='200' Compressed='yes' />
 
      <Media Id='1' Cabinet='product.cab' EmbedCab='yes' />
 
      <Directory Id='TARGETDIR' Name='SourceDir'>
         <Directory Id='ProgramFilesFolder' Name='PFiles'>
            <Directory Id='MyDir' Name='TestProg' LongName='Test Program'>
               <Component Id='MyComponent' Guid='12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012'>
                  <File Id='readme' Name='readme.txt' DiskId='1' src='readme.txt' />
               </Component>
            </Directory>
         </Directory>
      </Directory>
 
      <Feature Id='MyFeature' Title='My 1st Feature' Level='1'>
         <ComponentRef Id='MyComponent' />
      </Feature>
      <InstallExecuteSequence>
         <Custom Action="test" Sequence='1'/>
      </InstallExecuteSequence>

      <Binary Id='Customization.vbs' src='Customization.vbs'/>
      <CustomAction Id='test' BinaryKey='Customization.vbs' VBScriptCall='Hello' Return='check'/>
   </Product>
</WiX>

Create a customization VBS code: Customization.vbs

               Function LogInfo(msg) Dim rec
                    Set rec = Session.Installer.CreateRecord(1) 
                    rec.StringData(0) = msg
                    LogInfo = Session.Message(&H04000000, rec)
                End Function
                                
                Function Hello
                    LogInfo "Customization is being called here."
                End function

Compile:
```
c:\WiX\candle product.wxs
```
Link:
```
c:\WiX\light product.WiXobj 
```

Test your MSI:

c:\WiX\msiexec /i product.msi /L*v log.txt

Open log.txt, search "Customization is being called here" to locate your the tracing information. Now you can log your debugging information to the calling MSI's log file for diagnostics.

How to Log Tracing Infomation from Your VBS WiX CustomAction

See also