Saturday 15 May 2010

Deploying windows applications using ClickOnce (Visual Studio 2008)

ClickOnce deployment allows you to publish Windows-based applications to a Web server or network file share for simplified installation. Visual Studio provides full support for publishing and updating applications deployed with ClickOnce. ClickOnce deployment is available for projects created with Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Visual J#, but not for Visual C++.
You can publish a ClickOnce application in three different ways: from a Web page, from a network file share, or from media such as a CD-ROM. A ClickOnce application can be installed on an end user's computer and run locally even when the computer is offline, or it can be run in an online-only mode without permanently installing anything on the end user's computer.

Open visual studio 2008 IDE and create a new windows application.
img_01_new_project

Go to Project –> <Application Name> Properties –> Publish
img_02_project_properties_publish

Publish Location
Publishing folder location can be either web site (http://www.mydomain.com/installation/), ftp (ftp://mydomain/installation) or file share. If you are using other than a file share to deployment, then you can provide a Installation Folder URL, since the end users may not have the permission to access the publishing folder directly. (Since I am using a shared path, installation folder URL will not be required)

Install Mode and Settings
If you select ‘The application is available online only’, each time it is run, it will be run from the published location and no start menu icon will be created.
But selecting ‘The application is available offline as well’, A shortcut on the Start menu will be created for the application and it will enable the application to be run when the user is disconnected from the network.

Publish Version
Here you should state the publish version (Not the application version). And if you check ‘Automatically increment revision with each publish’ will make sure that the revision number will get incremented automatically when you publish your application.

Application Files
image
Sometimes it is necessary to publish other files than the application. So this is where you state which ones to include or exclude from the deployment.

Prerequisites
img_05_prerequisites
You can create a setup file to install the prerequisites, which are required by your application in order to function correctly. And all required prerequisites are selected automatically. But if you want you can either add or remove them from your prerequisites setup.

Updates
img_04_application_update
In this window you should define how your application should be updated. Check ‘The application should check for updates’. And choose whether it should be updated before or after the application starts. If you choose to update it after running the application, you can mention whether you want to check each time it runs or can mention a time period, which it should check. But it is always advisable to check before application starts, so users will get the latest updates each time they run the application.
And mention a minimum required version, so that end user will get the mentioned version of the application, if they have an older version installed on their pc.
If the updating location is other than the publish location, please mention the path.

Save settings and go to the form designer and add a label to the form.
img_06_version1_form
Save and go to Build –> Publish <Application Name>
img_07a_publish_wizard_scr_1
If you wish do any changes to the publish settings which you completed earlier click next or click on the finish button.
img_07b_publish_wizard_scr_2
Click next
img_07c_publish_wizard_scr_3
Click next
img_07d_publish_wizard_scr_4
And the deployment setup will be created in the published path.
img_08_published_files
Run the setup.exe to install the application. And click on install button.
img_09_installing
img_10_version1_running

Now close the application and change the label to ‘Version 1.0.0.1’. And go to publish settings and on the update window change the minimum required version to 1.0.0.1.
img_04a_application_update
Click ok and save settings and publish the application.
There will be a start menu shortcut from the first installation.
img_11_startmenu_installation
Click on that to run the application. You will see an update screen and the updated application will be downloaded, installed and executed.
img_10a_version2_running
Above mentioned are the basic steps which is required to deploy a .Net windows application using ClickOnce.

For further information please click here

Sunday 2 May 2010

Visual Studio 2010 and Smart Device Development - Disappointing

Visual Studio 2010 does not support mobile application development for versions of Windows Phone prior to Windows Phone OS 7.0.

For information about using Visual Studio 2010 to create applications for Windows Phone OS 7.0, see Windows Phone Development and Silverlight for Windows Phone.

For Visual Studio 2008 mobile developers, Microsoft released the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit, which works with the Windows Mobile 6 SDK.

Because Visual Studio 2010 does not support mobile application development for Windows Phone prior to Windows Phone OS 7.0, you cannot use the following features: .NET Compact Framework projects, Visual C++ device projects, smart device CAB projects, Device Emulator and Device Emulator Manager, testing tools for device projects, and Device Security Manager.

Mobile application development is still supported in earlier versions of Visual Studio, such as Visual Studio 2008. For more information about smart device projects, see Windows Mobile Developer Center and Smart Device Development in Visual Studio 2008.

VMWare – Shutting down of guests take long time - Resolved

People who uses virtual machines, using vmware might have noticed that when shutting down the guest operating system, it takes hell of a time to shutdown.
This can be fixed by adding these to the .vmx file
prefvmx.minVmMemPct = "100"

mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE" 

mainMem.partialLazySave = "FALSE"

mainMem.partialLazyRestore = "FALSE"






Above mentioned filed is located, where the .vmdk file is located.