In our company we have all programs in one central directory which is shared over the network. (Drive "X:")
Advantages:
configuration files are centralised
simple deploy of programs
Problem: We are using librarys (dll) for central functions. When a program which refers to one of the dll's is opened on a client, it's not possible to replace it with a newer version since the file is locked.
At the beginning it was possible to bypass the lock by renaming the file. But since Windows 7 appeared, the file can only seldom be renamed. We currently have to disconnect all clients to unlock and replace the file.
I searched for hours on the web for a solution to unlock the file. But found nothing which was working.
Do you have ideas how we could bypass/resolve this issue? We are using .NET (C#).
Related
Goal:
I am trying to make a setup file for my app. Futhermore the app must be able to be updated from a server or OneDrive.
Solution:
I am using windows application packaging project for this.
The issue:
The installer works fine when the installer location is on my local harddrive. But when i try to change the installer location to my online file manager or a public OneDrive folder I am unable to download and install the update or App for that matter.
My question:
Has anyone been able to use windows application packaging project where the app downloads updates from a server / OneDrive by uploading the installation file to a server / OneDrive and entering the path to the location, or am I on the wrong track?
Alternatives
The alternativ is of course to use Setup Project and perhaps AutoUpdaterDotNET (from NuGet) which works fine, but now I am interested in a solution which does not require several different third-party programs, and windows application packaging project seems to be the solution.
Have you tried creating an .appinstaller file? This XML file (which you can write in any code editor - you don't need VS or Advanced Installer to generate it, although that way is easier) should allow the OS to cache all the necessary information to auto-update the app accordingly.
I'm fairly new to windows forms and I was recently tasked with creating a simple software which will be deployed by USB drives to other companies. I made this software so during first run I check for a config.xml file. If it doesn't exist, I will send the user to a form to configure their first time setup. Next time I run the program, it skips this step since the config.xml file is found with its values. The problem is when I debugged this, I found the config.xml file alongside the executable, however when I ran this on a different computer, it stored it into the appdata virtual store. I read up on this and found out it has to do with write permissions.
Is there any way I can get around this without prompting the user to do anything extra on their part such as run as administrator? I also plan on saving the resulting reports generated by the use of this program and was hoping I can have XML files which can be easily found within the application folder.
*Note, I am aware of the built-in settings system but this also stores into appdata and if the executable is moved to another directly, it loses sight of that config and wants to create another.
EDIT : Please be aware I am trying to AVOID writing to the AppData folder. The software is packaged with Visual Studio Installer - Setup Project. A msi file is created which stores the application in C:\Program Files (x86)\\. Inside this directory I have the executable, the exe.config file which is generated, and any DLLs needed. This is the folder I am trying to also store the config.xml file but due to some windows magic, the code thinks its storing it here but in reality it is being stored in the virtualStore folder located in AppData.
Have you thought of using the C:\ most computers have this unlocked. alternitively use Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData);
the AppData folder is stored in the username space and requires no permission. (just remember to create a folder for your program to avoid conflicts)
It is a known issue due to security concerns that write permissions are limited.
More can be learned here.
Since no one was able to answer this, I will post my solution. Instead of packaging the solution using Visual Studio Installer tools. I install the application by copying the resulting executable from the build. This version of the application has write permissions that would have not existed if the application was installed using the resulting .msi from the Installer tools.
I'm trying to figure out a way to deploy .NET Core project containing files that are acting as data storage. I'm using .csv files. I will be modifying these files, both manually and programmatically. This project could potentially be deployed to Windows, Linux, and Mac, so I don't know where these files should be located. I've attempted to make them embedded resources and access them via scoping to the assembly, but any changes to these files don't seem to be represented when accessing this way.
How would I go about achieving what I want?
The location to store data files like that varies between systems. For the most part, you're supposed to use environment variables to store data in a subfolder of the appdata folder on Windows or a subfolder of a user's home directory on Linux. (And probably OS X too, though I don't know that one)
Alternatively, you can write a program that is "portable" or doesn't need to be installed to run, and you can store your data files in the same folder your application is run from.
I've been trying to research this the last couple of days and it doesn't seem like there is very good support for beginners. All video tutorials I find don't answer the questions I'm asking.
What I want:
I have an application I've written with .NET 4.6.1 in Visual Studio 2015 and I want to distribute an .exe that automatically checks if there are updates. It seems like this is exactly what OneClick is intended to do.
Where I'm at right now:
I want to publish to a shared drive among multiple people. It seems like I put that file path in the "Publishing Folder Location" which produces Setup.exe, MyApp.application, publish.htm, and Application Files. When you go to publish.htm there is an install button that downloads Setup.exe.
Where I'm stuck:
When you download the Setup.exe file onto your local machine and try running it gives an error. The details say it wasn't able to find the MyApp.application file. It seems that file is responsible for knowing what version of MyApp is currently installed on the users machine so that it can be compared to the download location (in my case the shared drive) to see if updates are available.
What am I missing? Do I misunderstand the purpose of OneClick publishing? Shouldn't users be able to visit the publish.htm once to get an .exe and that .exe is used to launch my application and look for updates first? I really appreciate any insight on this topic!
PS I've read over all the MSDN documentation, but it isn't user friendly to beginners in my opinion. Or maybe I'm just slow : )
You understand it exactly right, but when a user navigates to the html page, it downloads multiple files. The .exe, the .application and other supporting files.
You are correct in assuming ClickOnce is what you want. What I've found is the .net dependencies are very particular when using click once. You have to make sure each machine has the correct version of the framework and then they can use the htm site.
What I prefer doing is distributing the .application file to the users machine and just letting them run that. It will check for updates on the server every time it is ran and copy all the necessary decencies to the users Local directory.
You have to direct the users to the .application-File.
That one is responible for versioning (Updating) and executing your Application.
If you execute the .exe it will look for the .application-file to find the infos about the version, which should be installed/downloaded.
NOTE
Not all Browsers (in case of internet/intranet-deployment) support ClickOnce. But there are extensions for almost every browser
I've written a c# application which is intended to be ran on multiple computers within a network. The problem im trying to figure out is how I can share some common files between all the computers within the network.
I was handling this before by installing the software on one computer, storing a path string as an application scope setting during install, and then creating exe shortcuts on all other computers in the network which point back to the original installs exe.
Application deployment to network drive
I read this link and they talked about how it would be better to use clickonce rather than using a network share. The network share was the only way I could think of to have a common files directory. Are there any other ways to accomplish this?
Part of the installation process should ask the user for the path where the shared files will go. As long as each user enters the same path your good. That's the trick...
One way to solve that is to provide a silent installer mode that can be run with a preset of values the installer will need. You can then push the installer via group policy to all of the machines in your network.
I'm not sure what installer tech you are using, but WIX will create MSI's that support silent installation.