I am looking to use click once to deploy an application for internal use, When publishing to the network share it creates several files and folders. (manifest, ApplicationFiles etc)
Is there a way to bundle this up as a single file, I do not fancy the idea of allowing other users access to the application Files folder that is created, I would rather just give them the exe and have it take care of everything else.
Does anyone have experience with this, or am I stuck with the application Folder, Application Manifest, and setup file all being in the same directory for installation.
There is not a way to package the whole application folder and files into one file, like an MSI with ClickOnce.
You could code something on your own to have a shell app that use ClickOnce and its only file would be your app compressed. The shell would download that compressed file to the client's machine and would unzip etc.
You could also InstallShield Limited Edition that comes with VS 2012/2013 in the Other Projects, Setup and Deployment but that does give you the ClickOnce easy of deployment features. You could use the InstallShield setup to be your compress file in your shell clickonce app and then just use Process.Start to launch the InstallShield setup. It should work.
Related
I am working through how to automate the build and deploy of my Service Fabric app. Currently I'm working on the package step and while it is creating files within the pkg subfolder it is always creating a folder hierarchy of files, not a true package in a single file. I would swear I've seem a .SFPKG file (or something similarly named) that has everything in one file (a zip maybe?). Is there some way to to create such a file with msbuild?
Here's the command line I'm using currently:
msbuild myservice.sfproj "/p:Configuration=Dev;Platform=AnyCPU" /t:Package /consoleloggerparameters:verbosity=minimal /maxcpucount
I'm concerned about not having a single file because it seems inefficient in sending a new package up to my clusters, and it's harder for me to manage a bunch of files on a build automation server.
I believe you read about the .sfpkg at
https://azure.microsoft.com/documentation/articles/service-fabric-get-started-with-a-local-cluster
Note that internally we do not yet support provisioning a .sfpkg file. This is a feature that will be coming in soon (date TBD). Instead, we upload each file in the application package.
Update (SF 6.1 - April 2018)
Since 6.1 it is possible to create a ZIP file (*.sfpkg) and upload it to an external store. Service Fabric executes a GET operation to download the sfpkg application package. For more infos see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-package-apps#create-an-sfpkg
NOTE: This only works with external provisioning, the Azure image store still doesn't support sfpkg files.
The current way I'm packaging my application is to deploy it on a running ColdFusion server, and export is as a .car (Coldfusion ARchive) through the admin console, but this manual process is usually prone to errors.
That's why I'm looking for a tool (or any solution) to build this final .car from the command line (so without requiring a ColdFusion server up and running).
Note: because of the complexity and the size of this legacy application, I cannot work with .war files, and I'm not aware of any other packaging format than .war or .car for ColdFusion applications.
Hi unfortunately Coldfusion is not built to use in this way but you can use API or the admin console.
I invite you to read this page : http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/10.0/Admin/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbf3638e6-7fc5.html for more details.
From coldfusion 9 servers, CAR files are zip files. You can unzip them, edit the files, and zip them back up and deploy them on coldfusion10 servers. The zip contains a folder called "{WorkingDir}" with curly brackets.
Structure looks like
{WorkingDir}
server_settings.xml
archive_settings.xml
I am building an app for windows store and I need some default and example data to be in the localstate folder (Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.current.localFolder) when the app run the first time.
The folder and files structure is a bit complex and I tryed to copy the files at the start of the application, but I can't manage that way.
Is it possible to have files being copied automatically from the installation folder to the localstate folder during the store app installation?
Unfortunately, customization of the app install process isn't currently supported. You have to do this as part of your first run processing.
One possibility is that you include the data in your package as a .ZIP or other compressed file and use an appropriate library to expand that file into a folder structure on startup. That could simplify your logic considerably. (I don't have a library to recommend; it's just an idea.)
I have a Java rich client desktop app. that I want to distribute on some computers at work, but I've never done something like this before. People aren't too computer-savy at my workplace and since it is a student job, I won't be there for much longer and I'd like it if I could make my program easy to run by making it runnable when people double-click on it.
I also don't want to have to manually install a JRE to have it run. Basically, what I'd like to know is how to make my java application runnable easily by double-clicking (even if it's only on windows, it's okay). I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to package the correct JRE version alongside, but I don't know what's the correct way of doing this.
I read on some sites that you should not package a JRE along with your program because it makes people have multiple different versions, some of which are outdated, and it causes security issues, but this is not a problem in this case since the computers that are going to run my application are not connected to the internet and are only used to run this program anyway.
Somewhat related question: Since my application is currently an Eclipse project, I get my resources such as icons, images, SQLite database (for read and write), etc. using relative paths (e.g.: img/test.png).
Am I going to have to change any of those paths to have them keep working even while packaged?
What you're looking for is a JAR file. In eclipse, it's quite easy to make a Jar file. Specifically, you'll want to right click on your project, go to Export, and then select "Runnable Jar." Be careful with paths to folders. You may need to keep a resources folder next to the Jar file. You may need to provide some more specifics to get an exact answer on that. Typically, a Resources folder is located in the same spot as the JAR file (in the same folder on your computer).
A better option for easy install of a Java app. with a GUI is to launch it using Java Web Start. For the user, JWS is the 'one click' installation option that can (install & launch the app. then) add desktop shortcuts and menu items. A JWS launch would mean some more work for you, but it is a breeze for the end user.
To ensure a suitable JRE is present to run the app., use deployJava.js (see the JWS link for more details). The script would need to be reconfigured to get the JRE installer from your local network - the default is to get it from Oracle.
Most of the resources should be packaged in Jar files and supplied along with the app., but for the DB, use the JNLP ExtensionInstallerService to call the DB installer.
..Java Web Start is kind of a link (or I can make it a shortcut on the desktop) that the users will click to either install the JRE and run the program if the JRE isn't installed, or just run the program if the JRE is present on the computer.
The way it would work is to have a web page on the local intranet. When the user visits the page, the script checks for a suitable JRE.
If it is present, it writes the link to the launch file.
If there is no JRE, or the version is too low, it will guide the user through installing it (just a matter of them clicking 'OK' when prompted). Then it will put the link to the app.
I can then configure the link to grab the JRE from the server on our network.
That's the part where you need to reconfigure the script. AFAIR the script exposes an URL at which to look for JREs - that can be changed to point to a place on the intranet.
..So "Web" is only just in the name, the computers don't have to be connected to the internet to have this work, right?
Yes. JWS is a great launch technology for Java rich clients, but is a poorly chosen name.
To make the problem run by double clicking it you can distribute it as a jar file or a batch file to call the jar file.
For the installation part you can make a batch file that checks if java is present and then call the installer if it isn't.
Edit:
The batch code:
IF DEFINED JAVA GOTO ok
java-installer.exe
GOTO end
:ok
your-application.jar
:end
If you are finding it tough to implement the above mentioned methods. You can proceed with this simple approach.
Create a folder lib at a location. Place all the jars that your application uses into this. If you are able to create a jar for your application, you can very well place your application.jar into the lib folder too. Create a batch file at the same location that will contain the java command for your main class in it. The text within your batch might look something similiar to this :
set path="\lib\"
java -cp %path% package1.package2.MainClass
If you have any other dependencies, for ex: if you use images in your code under img/icon.jpg. Then you just have to shift the img folder to this location too.
Just zip these files using winrar and share it across. Running the batch file after extracting the zip would launch your java MainClass irrespective of the location in which it is placed in the client system.
PS : If you are unable to create a jar for your application and placing it in lib folder, just copy your bin folder with class files and paste it in the location and change the batch file accordingly to look for classes inside bin.
I've written an HTA file frontend for our web app that allows the web app to run without web browser status bars etc, and allows it to access the local system for certain tasks.
I need a way to deploy this to customers. I need an installer to supply an hta file, an ico file, and add a link to them in the start menu and on the users desktop. I looked at building an installer with NSIS, but I couldn't figure out how to assign the icon to the shortcuts - The icon had to be a standard HTA one.
Can this be done with NSIS, or should I be using another installer?
P.s. I've got no particular preference for NSIS, it's just something I once used a very long time ago. When I download stuff, I think I prefer them to be msi files that launch with windows installer (it feels more like downloading a .rpm or .deb on linux which I am used to) but I know nothing about how those are created. I'm a web/linux guy who knows very little about windows programming.
Check out the NSIS Scripting Reference for CreateShortcut. You should be able to do something like this:
SetOutPath $DESKTOP
CreateShortcut "$DESKTOP\MyShortcut.lnk" "$INSTDIR\MyHTAFile.hta" "" "$INSTDIR\MyIconFile.ico"