Is there a predefined or preferred way to update the Progress Dialog during CA's or BeforeInstall/AfterInstall code?

[kplatter]

I have code that does different tasks in CA and AfterInstall and would like to update the Progress Dialog so that it indicates what is being done instead of just "Status: ". Is there a predefined or preferred way to go about doing this?

I found the following code and it seems to sort of work but does not seem to be completely accurate or complete...

            //set the UI Status ACTIONSTART
            Record statusRecordObj = new Record(3);
            statusRecordObj.SetString(1, actionName);
            statusRecordObj.SetString(2, actionDescription);
            //below line defines a template for display on each message tick
            statusRecordObj.SetString(3, "[1]");
            session.Message(WixToolset.Dtf.WindowsInstaller.InstallMessage.ActionStart, statusRecordObj);

            //resets the progress bar.
            Record progressRecordObj = new Record(4);
            progressRecordObj.SetInteger(1, 0); //0 = reset bar
            progressRecordObj.SetInteger(2, numTicksExpected + 1);
            progressRecordObj.SetInteger(3, 0); //0 = left-to-right, 1= R-to-L
            progressRecordObj.SetInteger(4, 0); //0 = calc time remaining
            session.Message(WixToolset.Dtf.WindowsInstaller.InstallMessage.Progress, progressRecordObj);

            //tell the progress bar to increment for each ActionData message
            progressRecordObj.SetInteger(1, 2); //Action Info
            progressRecordObj.SetInteger(2, 1); //numTicks each ActionData
            progressRecordObj.SetInteger(3, 1); //increment bar for each ActionData
            session.Message(WixToolset.Dtf.WindowsInstaller.InstallMessage.Progress, progressRecordObj);

[oleg-shilo]

I do not see any other way. MSI/WiX does not offer anything to directly support this scenario.

You can have a slight (arguably simpler) modification of your sample though.
In the progress dialog you are subscribed for all messages but process only progress messages. You can monitor the message flow for a custom message (e.g. a Log message with a special flag in the content) sent from your CA/event. And when received you can update your dialog as you need.

You will need to add a case for case InstallMessage.Info:, which I think is a message that is sent when you do Session.Log(...).