How to reference PackageReferences in .wxs files?

[oliversaggau]

I used WiX 3 for a while now and I'm now finally looking into migrating to WiX 4/5/6. I'm especially interested in being able to use PackageReference which was introduced in WiX 4. This might be kind of a noob question, but I can't seem to figure out how to reference a NuGet PackageReference in .wxs files, for example a Bootstrapper from a NuGet package as Payload. When using a ProjectReference I can simply use $(var.MyBootstrapper.TargetDir) but how would this look like with a PackageReference? I couldn't find anything on this topic.

[robmen]

This might be kind of a noob question, but I can't seem to figure out how to reference a NuGet PackageReference in .wxs files, for example a Bootstrapper from a NuGet package as Payload.

Not a noob question. There isn't anything that makes this happen today. PackageReference are only used to reference WiX extensions today.

[oliversaggau]

I think it would be nice to have DefineConstants for PackageReference as well, wouldn't it? I played around a bit with MSBuild, and this is what I came up with:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Some.Package.Reference" Version="1.0" GeneratePathProperty="true"/>
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="CreatePackageReferenceDefineConstants" AfterTargets="ResolveReferences">
  <ItemGroup>
    <WixPackageReference Include="@(PackageReference)">
      <PathProperty>$([System.String]::Copy('%(Identity)').Replace('.', '_'))</PathProperty>
    </WixPackageReference>
    <WixResolvedPackageReference Include="@(WixPackageReference)">
      <Path>$(Pkg%(WixPackageReference.PathProperty))</Path>
    </WixResolvedPackageReference>
    <WixPackageReferenceDefineConstants Include="@(WixResolvedPackageReference)" Condition=" '%(Path)' != '' " />
  </ItemGroup>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);@(WixPackageReferenceDefineConstants->'%(Identity).PackageDir=%(Path)', ';')</DefineConstants>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Target>

PackageReference exposes the path it is consumed from when GeneratePathProperty is set to true. Then after a serious of transformations I have DefineConstants and can do $(var.<id-of-package>.PackageDir) in my .wxs files