I know that I can publish a ClickOnce setup that can check for application updates. I will have to provide a location where it will check for updates. I want to know how does it actually check?
My scenario: I would like to distribute my ClickOnce setup.exe from my locked-web-portal (needs user to signin). Can I just host a particular manifest at http:/www.mywesbite.com/public_dir/something_here or do I have to host the entire ClickOnce stuff at that public link?
I do not want to host my ClickOnce setup.exe on a public link because I need users to signin to access that setup.exe
Let me know if my question is vague.
Related
Scenario:
I have Window Application to be installed/updated from website. User needs to enter some information for user and configure the application during the installation. Application will uninstall/rollback, if user fails to provide the required information.
ClickOnce Deployment comply to install and update application automatically from website. But I am not able to get user input (or execute my custom WinForms) prior Application installation.
Question:
How to execute custom WinForms before installing Application with above requirements?
OR
How to uninstall ClickOnce Application, If user fails to provide the mandatory information?
OR
Any other to implement above?
Finally, We have added a separate layer to get user input and process data. User will be able to download and execute that exe without installation it. Application will be downloaded, If everything goes well..
Regards,
Aman
I work in a service organization where users of our internal tools are often disconnected. It is often the case that service engineers on service assignments are "stranded" with an outdated version of some internal tool.
These tools are deployed using ClickOnce publish VS2010 .NET4 . If the users run all their apps while still connected to corporate network, they would get a notification that a new version was available. As the number of various tools increase, the chance increases that some app is not updated.
Is it possible to automate this process, by a batch file or something?
So that the engineers just need to run one file when connected to corporate nw to get all the newest versions of their installed tools?
Added:
An easier way of saying it would be to have "something like Windows update" operating on corporate net, but for internal ClickOnce apps.
Very interesting question. I can't think of a quick way to do this, but it's definitely possible.
I would create another ClickOnce app whose job is to update the other ClickOnce apps. This app needs the url of each app's .application file. If all engineers are supposed to have all apps, that's easy. If not, maybe you could look through their start menu and find all the ClickOnce Application Reference files. Those files contain the url.
Next, just launch the url and pass a query string argument...
http://server/MyApp/MyApp.application?UpdateOnly=true
In the startup of your applications, you can check the query string argument and shut down the app if it's run with UpdateOnly=true.
One side note. If you set the minimum required version of each of your apps to the latest version, users won't get prompted with the new version dialog. Seems like you'd want to do that or the user would still have to pay attention and do a lot of clicking.
I've developed a WPF application. A large company is trying to make my application available to users' desktops. The traditional way to do this would be to point the users' browsers to:
http://www.MySite.com/MyApp.application
But the I.T. group at this company has configured their proxy server in such a way so as to block .application files for security reasons. They do, however, allow .exe files to pass through their proxy server and execute on client workstations. The irony of allowing .exe's from the Internet while blocking .application text files "for security reasons" isn't wasted on me but let's put that aside for a moment.
What kind of workaround would you recommend that would allow my app to launch from client desktops given that .EXEs are allowed? My first thought is to write a mini launcher app that does nothing more than download a .zip'd version of the .application file and all dependencies to a temp folder on the user's machine and then launch the .application file from there. Is there a better solution?
FWIW: Google has figured out a way to deploy their Chrome browser to Windows desktops in corporations like this one, despite the fact that ClickOnce is their deployment mechanism. If you view the source code at:
http://www.google.com/chrome/thankyou.html?&oneclickinstalled=
...you'll see they're pointing to an installer at:
/update2/installers/clickonce/GoogleInstaller_en.application.
That's a clickonce file. But somehow they've figured out a way to wrap it in an .exe in order to bypass proxy restrictions on .application files. I not familiar enough with JScript to understand what they're doing but it works. I'm trying to emulate this behavior for my own app.
This may not work for your situation. However, one possibility is to xcopy your exe and any dependencies to a folder on your webserver. Add a link in a webpage to your exe so your users can launch the app by clicking the link. In order for any of the users to be able to run the exe the first time, a caspol script needs to be run on each user machine to allow your app to run. Whenever you update the app, just xcopy the new version to the same folder on the webserver.
I have a smart client app (WinForms/WPF) currently deployed using ClickOnce.
A particular client has expressed the desire to silently deploy the app to it's intranet network users as part of its nightly/weekly client PC update service - presumably via MS Systems Management Server (SMS) and Group Policy or similar (I don't understand the exact mechanisms). As such, they've requested a .MSI installer instead.
So a few questions for confirmation (along with my thoughts on answer - am more than happy to be wrong!):
Can a ClickOnce app be silently installed en-mass by admin???
My thoughts: No, because ClickOnce is a per-user installation this would be difficult unless the user is actually logged in at time of remote installation.
Is there a tool to convert a ClickOnce app/project's settings to a simple MSI installer project (e.g. Visual Studio Deployment Project)???
My thoughts: Not in the box, but would love a tool to repeatedly copy/use settings from the ClickOnce config to the deployment project - e.g. ProductName, Version, File Associations etc. This way we only maintain one set of deployment settings.
Any other alternatives for this scenario to get 'er done quick...?
I don't think you can install a ClickOnce application silently, certainly not with SMS. And I don't know of any tool that does that, but it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. ;-)
The idea of deploying a shortcut is an interesting thought. Have you ever noticed that if you leave a shortcut on the desktop even after the application is uninstalled, if the user clicks on it, it reinstalls the application?
I know this has some crossover to Serverfault.com but the advice on meta.stackoverflow was to ask it here (first) as it requires a .NET dev to answer more than likely.
I am having some problems publishing to my website a Click Once App, I am getting an error message saying (something like) IIS not running, I'm not currently at home to give an exact error message, i'll edit later if it is required to answer this question.
My ISP is lunarpages the plan I am on is this one IIS is definitely running as I have BlogEngine.NET running just fine. Anyone know what is required configuration wise (both server and client) to make this work?
The files that the ClickOnce publish create can be run on just about any web environment (include Apache/Linux.) It simply generates an html page along with the application manifest and your application files. Maybe you can deploy to a local folder and upload the files to the server?