CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#clickoncemanifestpublishing
NZJames
NZJames

Reputation: 5055

Process of ClickOnce and prerequisites

I have an application I want to build and deploy via ClickOnce. But we want this to be a process that can be run outside of VS through scripts, for either test, business UAT or production environment.

Each separate environment requires a different .config file to be used and a different web server to be deployed on and for update location.

The application also has prerequisites of .NET runtime 3.5 and Crystal reports.

I have looked into using MAGE to create application and deployment manifests, and if I do a code BUILD, then use MAGE afterwards as per each environment, as well as having the script copy over the correct .config file, this creates what I think are the correct manifests for each environment at the time of running the script.

But what I'm struggling to do is include the prerequisites. If done through VS, you can specify a setup.exe package which gets built with the pre-reqs and deployed alongside the application and when you click on the download link, it installs the pre-reqs from setup.exe and then the application.

But how can I do this manually outside VS? I can build the setup.exe through VS with the right URl location but then how do I link the setup.exe to the application as a pre-req using MAGE to generate the manifests?

The problems we have are 1) The users do not have admin rights to download and install packages, only to install things via clickonce so the pre-reqs have to be installed under the click once security umbrella.

Thanks

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4181

Answers (3)

Greg Jackman
Greg Jackman

Reputation: 696

codeConcussion is right, you can't ever actually have the prerequisites instill directly from ClickOnce. You should just generate it once and then you have it ready for your external ClickOnce tool.

There is an option other than Mage. You could use my companies tool, ClickOnceMore, as your ClickOnce build software. It's been designed for people who want to use ClickOnce but don't want to build with Visual Studio.

It can hook into the setup.exe generated from Visual Studio (details here) so should satisfy all your needs.

Upvotes: 1

codeConcussion
codeConcussion

Reputation: 12938

ClickOnce and prereqs cause lots of confusion. The setup.exe that Visual Studio generates has nothing to do with ClickOnce. The only minor link between the two is that the setup.exe will launch the ClickOnce application once it finishes. That's it. So thinking users will be able to install your prereqs "under the clickonce security umbrella" is a mistake. If they are not an admin and a prereq install requires admin privileges, they won't be able to install it.

My advice would be to generate your setup.exe one time. You shouldn't need to keep doing it unless your prereqs keep changing. Use Visual Studio, generate the setup one time, then use Mage for the rest.

Edit
In general you make the setup.exe available and depend on the user to know if they need to run it or not. If they already have the prereqs and run the setup.exe, nothing bad happens. It sees that everything is installed then launches the app.

Usually you're going to direct users to run the setup.exe. The next time they want to launch the app they should use the start menu shortcut (assuming you didn't go with "Online Only"). I've found this to be the least confusing set of instructions for users.

Remember how Visual Studio does extra, non-ClickOnce stuff when you publish (like the setup.exe)? It also creates a simple html page that has links to both the ClickOnce manifest and the setup.exe and an explanation. It also has some javascript that checks the UserAgent string to determine if they have the .NET Framework installed. Again, this isn't ClickOnce. It's just something nice Visual Studio does for you. If you like it, use it. I kind of like skipping it and going with the run setup.exe to install then launch from the start menu.

Upvotes: 5

jobinelv
jobinelv

Reputation: 29

Why do you want to build setup manually if everything can be done via clickonce ? You can select "Download pre-requisites from same location" option from prerequisites form if you want to include .netfx or crystalreports, download bootstrap packages for .netfx3.5 & crystalreports and add to folder (for windows 7) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages" . The deployment project will automatically include netfx & other packages along with setup.exe. hope this helps.

Upvotes: 0

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