获取在C＃中的WiX安装程序中设置的事件源的名称

Question

I need to do some custom writing to the Event Log from a C# application. Because I won't have administrator permissions at run-time, I'm creating the event source in the WiX installer, as so:

<u:EventSource Name="SourceName" Log="Application" EventMessageFile="[NETFRAMEWORK40FULLINSTALLROOTDIR]EventLogMessages.dll" />

and then writing by:

 EventLog.WriteEntry("SourceName", message, EventLogEntryType.Error);

The issue here, is that SourceName must be kept in sync between my installer, and C# codebase - it previously has got out of sync.

I'm currently using the main file's name to link the two, as below:

<?define MainExe="MyMain.exe" ?>
<u:EventSource Name="$(var.MainExe)" Log="Application" EventMessageFile="[NETFRAMEWORK40FULLINSTALLROOTDIR]EventLogMessages.dll" />

and:

var name = Application.ResourceAssembly.ManifestModule.Name;
EventLog.WriteEntry(name, message, EventLogEntryType.Error);

But this feels very hacky. Is there a proper to dynamically get the name of an event source set up in a WiX installer, or do I just have to bodge the best I can?

Answer 1

I think you are taking DRY a little too far. Maintain it in two places. If you really can't do that the WiX installer could transform the app.config and save in a setting what the name of the event source is. But really, it's OK to have 1 constant in the .wxs and 1 in the .cs.

The only time I've ever done the config file is when I was doing product line and different consumers of a framework would be distinct branded applications with their own unique logs.