Simple deployment solution without using Windows Store - deployment

We have a system which has Windows 8.1 store app and iPad solutions as frontends and a MVC web as the backend.
We have lot of clients and they prefer hosting the web on premise due to sensitivity of the data. (So no cloud hosting)
Each client runs on different versions of the backend and for those we provide according frontend version as well.
Eg: 3.15.5 backend we have 3.15.5 frontend iPad app. (Backend provides a download link to iPad app, it will automatically update the existing app in the iPad)
(We can't make the frontend apps backward compatible due to high maintenance)
But for our Windows 8.1 app also we have relevant versions but we don't know how to deploy it simply.
We can't ask the customer to run powershell scripts either.
We can't use the Windows store because every time we publish the latest version of the app all our backends need to upgrade as well. Which is not possible due to large no of clients we have.
So my question is how do I provide a simple download solution for Windows 8.1 app that can be operate by a non IT personal?

Related

Is there a way to prevent a Windows application from running under Citrix?

If I have two versions of a Windows application, one version having additional security features, and I want my customer to use the more secure version if they're going to deploy it to a cloud-based Citrix server, is there a way to have the less secure version refuse to run under Citrix? Can it detect Citrix?

Distributing Windows Application through internet

We have window application developed in .Net and want perfect deployment technology
which enables easy application installation and upgrading.
The client can be accessed from anywhere in the world where an Internet connection is available.
In future we want the same deployment technology for provide support user's who use Window 7 and
Window 8
Looking at the the initial requirement we have decided to use Click Once technology
but found many issues in the deployment. They are below
You will need to sign a Click Once application with trusted certificate
otherwise it is blocked and instantly removed by Antivirus program.
ClickOnce may not be supported by all browsers , the behavior are different in IE and
other browser
ClickOnce to doesn't install components into the GAC , doesn't installed in the program
files rather it install and maintain user wise in the client machine.
ClickOnce has issue with proxy network and unable to customize the setup screen.
Community has faced many issues with ClickOnce Setup and does not have enough solution or
updates on Click Once technology solution
Do we have perfect deployment solution for window app over internet other than ClickOnce? Which methodology is widely used for window app deployment over internet?
Which deployment technology provide better success rate for easily maintenance and version update for the Window app over internet ?
You could build it as a standard executable and create an installer. A good way to make an installer is InnoSetup. However, the user has to have .Net Framework already installed.
As of Windows Vista, version 2.0 is included, Windows 7 includes 3.5, and Windows 8 includes 4.5. If you change the target .Net Framework of your application you can target these systems. Go to Properties > Target Framework > Choose 2.0, 3.5, or 4.5 (client profile if available).
As for updates, you should implement this in your application on your own or get another third-party updater. I don't know any good ones though.

View TouchDB mobile database in desktop

I launch TouchDB database from my iOS application. It works as http server via TouchDB framework class - TDListener and it provide REST API for external access.
How can I view database from my desktop?
Are there some frontend applications which can be adopted for viewing my mobile database?
I've considered couchdb-futon but I don't know how tune it for my issue.
There are a few options mentioned here:
https://github.com/couchbaselabs/TouchDB-iOS/wiki/Tools-for-TouchDB
Your best best is probably TouchDB Viewer:
"TouchDB Viewer — "Official" GUI app for viewing TouchDB databases. Runs on Mac OS. Can view local database files (including ones in the iOS Simulator) or remote ones given their URL (useful if you enable the listener in your iOS app.)"
-- https://github.com/couchbaselabs/TouchDBViewer
I'm sure you could get futon talking to TouchDB, but it'd probably involve delving into the futon codebase.
EDIT:
TouchDB is the legacy 1.0 version of the project now named Couchbase Lite. So, the "TouchDB Viewer" has been converted to support Couchbase Lite databases (which has '.cblite' extension) and also it has been renamed to "CouchbaseLiteViewer - Mac app for viewing/modifying Couchbase Lite databases".

Enterprise Library 4.1 Apps and Enterprise Library 5 apps run on the same server?

Are there any issues with having some apps utilizing EL 4.1 and some 5? Meaning if I decide that a new app will use 5.0 and the majority of the web apps existing is using 4.1, when I deploy to production or even in any situation would there be conflicts or problems if you have apps using different versions?
You cannot use multiple versions in the same application, but I have never had an issue using multiple versions of Enterprise Library in separate applications. There is only one thing I can think of that you might need to watch out for. If any of the web applications using the new version is a child of another using the old version, you might run into some issues due to configuration inheritance.

How can I remotely deploy a rich client in .Net?

Currently we run our web applications on a thin client browser IE 6 and it is slow.
We are a non-profit organization. All our offices are linked via VPN.
Opera 10 browser allows one to convert one's PC into a server.
I am thinking of deploying our application and Opera 10 on every client, meaning that the every client would run a server which in turn would run our application.
Therefore, the clients would connect only to our database. This would speed things up.
However, I would need to deploy updates to our application from time to time.
How can I deploy a web application to the clients PC's remotely?
Our app is .Net.
You might want to take a look at click-once deployment which can handle auto-updating applications (I believe however, they should be .Net based)