Templates & placeholders

One definition per template

.crproj and .iss are produced by defaults.rs on the Rust side (encrypt_config / package_script). The frontend only collects switches and calls render_encrypt_config / render_package_script to rebuild them.

The project tracks the difference with generated: bool:

Value	Meaning
generated: true	the switches are the only source of truth; every change regenerates the template
generated: false	you edited it under “advanced”; the template wins, not a character is touched

When generated: false, the UI shows a banner with “overwrite template with current options” so control can be handed back at any time. Both “restore default options” and “restore default template” set generated back to true.

Placeholders

Templates reference project values with ${key} syntax, substituted at run time (not while you edit). ${key} rather than {key} avoids colliding with Inno’s own {app} and {#define} constants.

Placeholder	Meaning
${id}	project id (GUID)
${name}	project name
${root}	directory containing the executable
${exe}	executable filename including extension
${exe_stem}	executable filename without extension
${exe_path}	full path to the executable
${output}	installer output directory
${version}	version string
${password}	installer password
${ignore}	packaging excludes (merged assemblies plus the backup, comma separated)

Clickable placeholder chips at the top of the advanced area insert them at the caret.

The shape of the packaging script

The generated .iss contains two Source lines:

Source: "${root}\${exe}"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion
Source: "${root}\*"; Excludes: "${ignore},${exe}"; DestDir: "{app}"; Flags: ignoreversion recursesubdirs createallsubdirs

The second line must exclude the executable (${exe}), or the same file is packed twice — Inno reports a duplicate and the size accounting double-counts. ${ignore} always contains the backup, so the string never starts with a stray comma.

How the ConfuserEx config is generated

Protections inside <rule> are emitted in a fixed order (model.rs::enabled_protections). The UI summary uses the same order, so reading them side by side never goes out of step:

anti ildasm → anti debug → anti dump → anti tamper → constants
→ ctrl flow → invalid metadata → rename → harden → ref proxy → resources

Protections with parameters emit <argument> elements, and values are written explicitly even when they equal ConfuserEx’s own default — the tool’s position is that the UI switches are the single source of truth, and the template should show what each switch produced:

Protection	Arguments
anti debug	mode
anti tamper	mode, key
constants	mode, elements, cfg
ctrl flow	type, predicate (switch only), depth (expression/x86 only), intensity, junk
rename	mode, password (reversible only, when set), renameArgs, renEnum, renPublic
ref proxy	mode, internal
resources	mode
everything else	no arguments; self-closing <protection id="…" />

<module> carries path and optional snKey / snKeyPass; <project> carries outputDir / baseDir and optional seed / debug; <packer id="compressor" /> appears when compress is on.

Two implementations, one fixture

The browser preview has no Rust, so preview/render.ts mirrors defaults.rs. Once they drift, the template shown in the preview is not the template users get — and drift looks plausible in a preview; it only surfaces on a real machine.

pnpm run check:render-parity compares the Rust dump against the TypeScript output character by character. The fixture (docs/fixtures/render-fixtures.json, 22 cases) is committed, so the second command runs without Rust installed.