I'm done with a c# application vs2012 and now I need to install it to the client which already has sql server express installed I'm including the appname.exe found in bin/release and the app.config file only. Are these files enough?
I haven't installed any external libraries, but I have a dbml file as I'm using linqtosql, and some images used in the references files should these be included as well.
And just one more thing, should I change anything in the app.config or not necessary since its a db on sql express
Visual studio doesn't need to be installed in the client PC, right?
Related
I'm coding a C# Console Application that connects to a database and runs some queries where my database Engine is Microsoft SQL Server 2016 and I code in Visual Studio 2015. I have already installed and activated InstallShield Limited Edition on my visual studio and I'm able to make an installation(setup) file for my C# Console Application.
I don't want to to install Sql Server on my customer's PC and attach the database to that manually, instead I want to give everything in an installation file that includes .Net framework 4.5 and my database. The first part(.Net Framework) is done by InstallShield easily, but I don't know how to attach my database to the installation file.
Please explain how to do this and if any other version of InstallShield(Express, Professional or Premier) is needed let me know and explain the steps in that version.
Note that I want to give the installation file to the customer and make every feature of the app function well after he/she installs the program without needing to do anything manually.
Sql server 2016 cannot be installed automatically as it needs to be configured by the user, he must set the instance names, permissions and so on, which makes it unusable for your scenario.
What you need to use is Sql Server LocalDB, this is a subset of Sql Server Express for your concrete scenario, something which can be installed without the need of configuration and capable of attaching a database file also without user interaction.
You can find information about LocalDB here, as you see it can be downloaded as a .msi, in this way you can add this msi to your installshield project and chain it (more info on how to chain an installer here), it will not ask to the user about complex configurations, just a simple installer. To download the .msi you get the sql server express installer on your development machine and instruct it to download media and select the LocalDB package, that will give you the .msi.
Finally you will add the database file as part of your project files, then you only need to specify on the connection string the path to the file.
I had developed a WPF application, and its backend is a SQL Server CE .SDF file. In setup and deployment project I added .SDF file in it
The issue is: to access and get records from the .SDF file we require an additional software. Please find the below Link
https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=17876
It has 2 exe files
64 Bit
86/32 Bit
Visual Studio directly installs this software when we install VS
On a client system, I didn't find these files so I am unable to access the .SDF file and get records from it
I need to Copy these files in Application folder and Automatically Install it if the above software is not Present in the PC
Now I am Manually Installing these software(exe ) in Each PC
You're mistaken - to deploy a SQL Server CE 4.0 based application, you do NOT need to deploy and/or install any additional software to your client system - it suffices to include the necessary, relevant SQL Server CE 4.0 DLL's into your application (into the bin or lib folder or something), and just ship those files with your application. That's all you need - no server-side or client-side install needed ! (That's the WHOLE POINT of using SQL Server CE, after all!)
See these links for in-depth descriptions of how to do it:
Right here on Stackoverflow:
How to deploy SQL Server Compact 4.0
Another way to do it:
How to deploy the SQL Server Compact Edition software locally
Official MSDN documentation:
How to deploy a SQL Server Compact 4.0 database with an application
How can I publish a C# project with a .mdf database? I would like that it can be setup easily and need not install a sqlserver. Do I need to change to .sdf?
The Project only uses it in local.
.MDF files are SqlServer main data files, i doubt you can use them without SqlServer installed, as for SqlServer Compact Databases (.sdf) they can be used like you want but converting from one to another isnt just a matter of changing the extension, they are db with different formats.
You would need to create a new .sdf and replicate the schema you have in your .mdf and then copy your data somehow, also you would need to adapt your project since access to data on an .sdf is different than an .mdf not to mention .sdf doesn't support all the things that .mdf does
Why don't you simply deploy your application with .mdf file along with a SQL Local DB installation on user machine who doesn't havd Visual Studio installed?
Make sure you install proper LocalDB. i.e. x86 version of installer on 32 bit and x64 installer for 64 bit machine. There is two different installer for both achitechture.
Sql Server is not installed as part of Windows installation, so you cannot use an *.mdf file in your app unless Sql Server has been installed and you have appropriate permissions for it.
It is possible to distribute either Sql Server Express Edition or Sql Server Compact Edition (recommended) with your app.
MDF files are part of SQL server databases. Without SQL Server (or Express), you can't use them.
If you need an embedable database, SQLite is a good option. Firefox also ships with an embedded SQLite instance, so it's a good/proven option. SQLite also integrates well with ADO.NET; I wrote an article on that here.
I am following a nice tutorial titled: Walkthrough: Adding a SQL Server Compact Database to an Application and Deploying it, from MSDN. Since this application will require SQL Server, .NET Framework and SQL Compact to be installed on the machine; I opted for the "Download prerequisites from the same location as my application" because I don't want to assume the user has internet connection.
I went and downloaded the prerequisites software and saved them under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages and placed them in the relevant folders e.g. .NETFramework under its folder etc etc (as suggested in the tutorial).
However! When I click publish now, Visual Studio 2012 Professional displays the following:
"Error 105 To enable 'Download prerequisites from the same location as my application' in the Prerequisites dialog box, you must download file 'SQL Server Compact Edition 4.0\SSCERuntime_x86-ENU.exe' for item 'SQL Server Compact 4.0 SP1' to your local machine. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=239883. SQLCompactWalkthrough"
And I have already downloaded the prerequisite files and placed them under packages folder. What else could I possibly be missing here?
Tumelo, make sure the prerequisite files you downloaded are indeed the .exe files and not the .msi files.
You can download the .exe files here
I have a .net application in c#. I am using SQL Server 2005 as database. I want to create setup for it. I want that when I run setup it automatically installs SQL Server 2005 which I add in prerequisites.
Please help how to create setup...?
The paid versions of Visual Studio come with the ability to create installer packages, however, that feature is miserably lacking and is being removed in VS11. I have used it, and I can say, its not worth using. There are other free deployment tools out there. I recommend Windows Installer XML.
VisualStudio does have New project -> Other project types -> Setup and Deployment -> Setup Project. As Kendall noted this is a very limited/basic installer solution. However if really all you want to do is have SQL Express as a prerequiste and you app installed then it can manage that (but not much more).
To setup a prerequist:
Go to project properties (right click on setup project -> properties)
and you will find a "Prerequisites" button on that dialog.
This brings up a dialog that lists all the bootstrapper packages that are
located in "Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper"
folder. Select/cehck "SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 x86" if
thats what you want.
If you want the full version of SQL server then you will need to find a bootstrapper package for it - googing that (sql 2005 full bootstrapper package) should yeild a result.
Note that SQL server 2005 will limit you to an x86 install - if you want a x64 install use SQL Server 2008 Express/full.
You could create a Setup project in Visual Studio.
It can create an offline setup, which can include prerrequesites or be configured to download said prerrequesites from an online location when installing the offline setup.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2kt85ked.aspx
Before going into this, though I would like to share my very bitter experience using SQL Server as a prerrequesite, and why you should really avoid it (whichever deployment system you use, actually).
See, the prerrequesites that are available to your Visual Studio instance depend on a folder present on the same machine where VS is installed:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages
(this is for VS 2010, replace v7.0A with v6.0A for VS 2008, and replace Program Files with Program Files 9x86) if you're on 64 bits).
You can go check it now, you will most likely see a list of folders, called bootstrapper packages, which have this basic structure:
product.xml : an xml file describing the prerrequesite to Visual Studio. This file is the most important one. It lists:
the files that are needed to install, upgrade or uninstall a prerrequesite
the conditions to evaluate in order to decide which action to undertake. For instance: is the system x86/x64? is the system xp, server 2003, etc? is the prerrequesite already installed? which version? which language?
the actions to undertake depending on these conditions. Generally, the command line arguments to use with the exe file you are installing.
a bunch of executable files (msi, exe): the files needed to install the prerrequesite (there can be none if the product.xml refers to online locations where to get these files).
optionnaly, some folders with a locale name: the localization for your prerrequesite.
Now there are two major categories of issues with this system:
drawbacks of this setup system:
First, the product.xml file is very difficult to build. It will most likely imply you to calculate checksums, create certificates, explore Windows Installer install log files, use a very buggy tool called the Bootstrapper Manifest Generator. You will find yourself googling problems, and the only result will be your own unanswered Stack Overflow question. Trust me, I've been there.
Second, this whole boostrapper thing is litteraly out of (source) control, and an insult to the concepts of team work and continuous integration. Having your project install configuration in Program Files means:
it has to be the same prerrequesites for all your projects.
no versioning.
you must keep the whole prerrequesite folder consistent across all machines that could build the solution, including the CI server (which can be a massive hussle if it is used by several teams).
drawbacks of SQL Server as a prerrequesite:
At first sight, the SQL Server install command line seems quite straightforward. You decide the name of the instance, if it's an install or an upgrade, access rights, etc. The thing is, I cannot count the number of issues you will encounter on your path when you actually try that in real life:
SQL Server won't upgrade from a language to a different language.
SQL Server won't upgrade from SQL Server x86 to SQL Server x64 on an x64 system.
SQL Server not en-US won't install on en-US Windows.
More generally SQL Server will most likely fail to install if anything close to SQL Server has already been installed on the same machine.
If you run the setup manually, it will tell you why. But if you try to do it as prerrequesite, it means that you have to foresee every single configuration issue that could possibly happen. Believe me, you will never see the end of it: there's a reason why the SQL Server Setup is so complex...
Now what could you do?
Ask your clients to have SQL Server installed. It is a decent option, and they have to manage the SQL Server license anyway, since they are the ones using it. Maybe they already have it.
Install it yourself.
Use a different version of SQL Server, like SQL CE. Very lightweight, some less functionalities but if your just want a local database it can do the trick.
Use a different RDB system. I don't know them, maybe they are easier to install.