Unresolved reference to symbol in Wix

Question

I am trying to create a installer for MVC4 application using Wix. I found an example that shows how to create an installer for a MVC4 Application at this link

But when I try to build the Wix Setup Project, it gives me errors like below

Error   16  Unresolved reference to symbol 'WixComponentGroup:MyWebWebComponents' 
in section 'Product:{D16E42B5-3C6F-4EE5-B2F4-727BF8B74A92}'.    
C:\Users\Baris\Desktop\New folder\WIXInstallerDemo-master\DemoWebsite.Setup\Product.wxs 15  
1   DemoWebsite.Setup

Error   17  Unresolved reference to symbol 'WixComponentGroup:DemoWebsiteIssConfiguration' 
in section 'Product:{D16E42B5-3C6F-4EE5-B2F4-727BF8B74A92}'.    
C:\Users\Baris\Desktop\New folder\WIXInstallerDemo-master\DemoWebsite.Setup\Product.wxs 16  
1   DemoWebsite.Setup`

I tried adding WixUIExtension as a reference but it doesn't work.

This is the Product.wxs. And feature node's children nodes causes this error

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
    <Product Id="{D16E42B5-3C6F-4EE5-B2F4-727BF8B74A92}" Name="Demo website setup" Language="1033" Version="1.0.0.0" Manufacturer="Me" UpgradeCode="9279b740-8419-45c4-9538-6a45f8e949c7">
    <Package InstallerVersion="200" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine" />

    <MajorUpgrade DowngradeErrorMessage="A newer version of [ProductName] is already installed." />
    <Media Id="1" Cabinet="DemoWebsite.cab" EmbedCab="yes" />

    <Property Id="DB_USER" Value="sa"/>
    <Property Id="DB_PASSWORD" Value="sa"/>
    <Property Id="DB_SERVER" Value="LOCAL"/>
    <Property Id="DB_DATABASE" Value="DemoWebsite"/>

    <Feature Id="ProductFeature" Title="DemoWebsite.Setup" Level="1">
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="MyWebWebComponents" />
      <ComponentGroupRef Id="DemoWebsiteIssConfiguration" />
    </Feature>
    <!-- Specify UI -->
    <UIRef Id="MyUI" />
    <Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value="INETPUB" />
  </Product>

  <Fragment>
    <!-- Will default to C:\ if that is the main disk-->
    <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir">
      <!-- Will reference to C:\inetpub-->
      <Directory Id="INETPUB" Name="Inetpub">
        <!-- Will reference to c:\Inetpub\Demowebsite-->
        <Directory Id="INSTALLFOLDER" Name="DemoWebsite">
        </Directory>
      </Directory>
    </Directory>
  </Fragment>
</Wix>

What am I doing wrong? I know its very specific for SO but I cannot find any solution on the web.

I am using VS 2012- Wix 4.0

Answer 1

The error message says it all: it expects a ComponentGroup-tag containing your components (containing e.g. files or registry keys). If you take a look at the example project that you linked in your question, the <ComponentGroupRef Id="DemoWebsiteIssConfiguration" />-element references a ComponentGroup with the name DemoWebsiteIssConfiguration. You can find this in the file DemoWebsite.Setup\IISConfiguration.wxs:

<ComponentGroup Id="DemoWebsiteIssConfiguration">
  <ComponentRef Id="InstallWebsite" />
  <ComponentRef Id="DemoWebsiteAppPool" />
</ComponentGroup>

It is a ComponentGroup which contains two components or, in this case, references to two components. These components are defined above the ComponentGroup-element in the same file.

Regarding the other ComponentGroupRef with the id MyWebComponents: The referenced ComponentGroup is created dynamically during the build. You can take a look at the file DemoWebsite.Setup\setup.build. This file is a MSBuild-file used to build the setup. It contains a target named Harvest that invokes heat, another tool in the WiX Toolset package. heat will parse e.g. a directory and gather all the files contained within and put them in a ComponentGroup that you can reference in your source file. I.e. you define a reference to a ComponentGroup and then you can create the content of this dynamically. This way you don't have to bother if a file is added to or removed from the project, as heat will gather them dynamically.

 <Target Name="Harvest">
    <!-- Harvest all content of published result -->
    <Exec
        Command='$(WixPath)heat dir $(Publish) -dr INSTALLFOLDER -ke -srd -cg MyWebWebComponents -var var.publishDir -gg -out $(WebSiteContentCode)'
        ContinueOnError="false"
        WorkingDirectory="." />
  </Target>

The name of the dynamically created ComponentGroup is defined with the parameter -cg. you can invoke heat with the parameter -? for a short description of the possible parameters.