InstallShield XML file changes - change the node attribute during installation

Question

I am creating a web service installation using InstallShield 2012, and I need to modify my application's Web.config file based on user input. I entered the PromptServerAndDatabase dialog right after the DestinationFolder dialog. I also created a Web.config file in the XML File Changes view in InstallShield. Here is my basic web.config file structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <configuration> <configSections> ... </configSections> <appSettings> <add key="DatabaseServer" value="sql08r2">sql08r2</add> <add key="DatabaseName" value="UserDatabaseName">UserDatabaseName</add> </appSettings> ... </configuration> 

At this time, I can successfully change the literal value of the node, but I cannot change the node attribute.

Here is the structure inside InstallShield in the representation of the changes to the XML file:

In addition, the Advanced tab is almost identical for all three nodes. Both nodes associated with the database name use the same property, and node uses the [SERVER_NAME] property (not shown) for the server name:

After starting the installer, the Web.config file was updated successfully. Updated values ​​of DatabaseName and ServerName nodes. However, the value of the "value" attribute in the DatabaseName node is not, although it should reflect the same text as the actual value of the node. Once I get this, I will need to duplicate it for the ServerName node, but I left it for simplicity.

I did some additional research on this, and I found this site, which was very useful in general, but did not solve this problem for me:

http://helpnet.installshield.com/installshield16helplib/XML-XPath.htm

Maybe there is an answer, and I just skipped it, IDK.

Thanks for any help offered regarding this.

Answer 1

OK, so my problem was that I had a major misunderstanding of the General tab and the added attributes. The attributes on the General tab are literally XML node attributes, and the value column of each record in this table is the value for which the attribute will be set. Therefore, changing this value to a property that I changed, he solved my problem. I left the "Advanced" tab as is, because my settings there correctly changed the value of the content of the element. Finally, I modified the XPath request to remove the value attribute, because there is a possibility that the web.config file will be changed in the future. Since there is only one add node with the key value DatabaseName or ServerName in the appSettings node, XPath search for the key = "" was all I needed.

Here's the visual: