How to enable a Feature depending on a condition?

[ChristianSauer]

Question

I want to enable a Feature depending on a condition, but I am unable to do so - it seems to evaluate something, but I am not sure what.

It currently looks like this:

<Wix xmlns="http://wixtoolset.org/schemas/v4/wxs">
    <Package Name="XXXX" Manufacturer="XXXXX" Version="$(var.ProductVersion)" UpgradeCode="XXXXX">
        <MajorUpgrade AllowDowngrades="no" AllowSameVersionUpgrades="yes" DowngradeErrorMessage="!(loc.DowngradeError)" />

        <MediaTemplate EmbedCab="yes" CompressionLevel="high" />

        <Property Id="SERVICEACCOUNT" Hidden="no" Value="LocalSystem"/>
        <Property Id="DOMAINNAME" Hidden="no" Value="False"/>
        <Property Id="DNSHOSTNAME" Hidden="no" Value="False"/>
        <Property Id="KEEPSERVICEACCOUNT" Hidden="no" Value="False"/>
        <Property Id="DOTNET_ENVIRONMENT" Hidden="no" Value="Production"/>
        <Property Id="FORCE_VTE" Hidden="no" Value="False"/>
        <Property Id="FORCE_INSTALL_TDGF" Hidden="no" Value="False"/>

        <Binary Id="CustomActionBinary" SourceFile="CA.dll" />
        <CustomAction Id="SetAccountName" Impersonate="no" BinaryRef="CustomActionBinary" DllEntry="SetAccountName" Return="check" />
        <CustomAction Id="SetAllowedHosts" Impersonate="no" BinaryRef="CustomActionBinary" DllEntry="SetAllowedHosts" Return="check" />
        <CustomAction Id="SetCertificate" Impersonate="no" BinaryRef="CustomActionBinary" DllEntry="SetCertificate" Return="check" />
        <CustomAction Id="SetDotnetEnvironment" Impersonate="no" BinaryRef="CustomActionBinary" DllEntry="SetDotnetEnvironment" Return="check" />
        <CustomAction Id="CreateCustomAppsettings" Impersonate="no" BinaryRef="CustomActionBinary" DllEntry="CreateCustomAppsettings" Return="check" />
        <CustomAction Id="CheckIsVte" Impersonate="no" BinaryRef="CustomActionBinary" DllEntry="CheckIsVte" Return="check" />

        <InstallExecuteSequence>
            <Custom Action="SetAccountName" Before="FindRelatedProducts" Condition="NOT Installed" />
            <Custom Action="SetDotnetEnvironment" Before="FindRelatedProducts" Condition="NOT Installed" />
            <Custom Action="CheckIsVte" Before="CostInitialize" Condition="NOT Installed" />
            <Custom Action="SetAllowedHosts" After="InstallFinalize" Condition="NOT Installed" />
            <Custom Action="SetCertificate" After="InstallFinalize" Condition="NOT Installed" />
            <Custom Action="CreateCustomAppsettings" After="InstallFinalize" Condition="NOT Installed" />
        </InstallExecuteSequence>

        <Feature Id="Main">
            <ComponentGroupRef Id="ApplicationComponents" />
        </Feature>

        <Feature Id="TDGF" Level="1">
            <Level Value="0" Condition="FORCE_INSTALL_TDGF = &quot;False&quot;"/>
            <ComponentGroupRef Id="TestDataGeneratorComponents" />
        </Feature>
    </Package>
</Wix>

The idea here is that the custom action CheckIsVte runs at the beginning and checks if certain conditions are met, if so FORCE_INSTALL_TDGF is set to true - otherwise false. But the Level seems to evaluate to False.

I can see in the MSI logs:

SETTING FORCE_INSTALL_TDGF TO: True
MSI (s) (08!34) [23:40:03:846]: PROPERTY CHANGE: Modifying FORCE_INSTALL_TDGF property. Its current value is 'False'. Its new value: 'True'.

----

MSI (s) (08:6C) [23:40:03:862]: Feature: TDGF; Installed: Absent;   Request: Null;   Action: Null

How can I do this`or it's a bad idea in the first place

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[robmen]

At quick glance, everything seems okay. Maybe there are other hints in the log file? Also, using "True" and "False" is harder than using presence or lack of presence (aka: no value) of the property. It's probably something silly but subtle.