Wix Boolean Property Values Don't Work

Question

I have the following property:

<Property Id="UPDATEDB">1</Property>

A checkbox in the UI bound to that property:

<Control Id="updateDatabase" Type="CheckBox" CheckBoxValue="1" Height="15" Width="95" X="20" Y="74" Text="Update Database" Property="UPDATEDB" />

And a Custom Action which does something based on the value of this property

<CustomAction Id="RunDbMigration" Directory="INSTALLDIR" Return="check"
          ExeCommand='[DBMIGRATIONDIR]\DbMigration.exe' />

<InstallExecuteSequence>
  <Custom Action="RunDbMigration" After="InstallFinalize">UPDATEDB=1 AND NOT Installed</Custom>
</InstallExecuteSequence>

If I try to pass a value of 0 for UPDATEDB from the command line:

msiexec /i "Setup.msi" /l* UPDATEDB=0

or

msiexec /i "Setup.msi" /l* UPDATEDB="0"

the value of the checkbox is checked anyway. That said, the 0 passed in seems to be respected and the RunDbMigration action is not run...

What's going on here? Why is this such rocket science?

Answer 1

As others have mentioned, Checkboxes are not boolean in a 1/0 sense, they're boolean in a null/not-null sense.

To unset from the command line - you would want to use something like

msiexec /i "Setup.msi" /l* UPDATEDB=""

Chances are that your condition is looking specifically for the value of 1 before executing your custom action, which is why your CA isn't being run.

Answer 2

Installer properties are either set to a value or they are not set. Internally the value is just a string, so "0", "1", "true" and "false" are the same.

A checkbox control is checked when its property is set to a value (doesn't matter what) and unchecked when its property is empty.

This command line sets the property and checks the checkbox:

msiexec /i "Setup.msi" /l* UPDATEDB="0"

This command line doesn't set the property, so the checkbox is not checked:

msiexec /i "Setup.msi" /l*

Answer 3

The problem is the CheckBoxValue="1". You find the solution for your question here: http://windows-installer-xml-wix-toolset.687559.n2.nabble.com/How-to-conditionally-check-uncheck-a-checkbox-td5539262.html