So i Have this c# application that contains a button allowing a file copy from a network share folder.i use a vbscript to copy the file, this script takes the source and destination path.now i want to create a setup to install my application on any PC connected to the LAN. the thing is the path will eventually change so i'm not sure if it will work.
I never made a setup before and i'm wondering if there is a way to customise the setup to allow the installer to make the changes.otherwise any solution will be very helpfull. thank you
I don't normally like giving answers that are mostly links, but it is too much to post here. Here is a quick summary:
There are quite a few things that can do what you are asking.
The one I like is called Squirrel. I recently had to learn how to use it while deploying an application for my company.
The steps in a nutshell(see what I did there? :)
Build your application (optionally add the update checker code
first - see links for details)
Package your application into a .nuget file using Nuget Package Explorer(details in links below)
Run the squirrel --releasify on your nuget
It will output the setup files that you are looking for in the Releases directory.
More information (that you will likely need):
Github - Squirrel.Windows
Youtube - Video tutorial that I found helpful
Github - Squirrel Getting started guide
As for your vbscript, I would do the file copy inside C#. You are very likely to run into permissions issues when using vbs. In any case, why add the complexity of 2 different languages when C# can do a file copy easily.
Something like this during your application's startup.
if (File.Exists(localFileName) == false) // check to see if the file is needed
{
File.Copy(sourceFileOnLan, destinationFile); // get the file
}
If you are really set on using a vbs file, you can launch it using Process.Start() and let Windows execute it.
Also, you can store the paths in your app.config file, and update them if/when they change.
I hope it's not a duplicated question since I searched enough about it but I found nothing, maybe that's because I didn't know the appropriate words describing my situation.
The question:
Summary: Can Visual Studio build different editions of an ASP.Net Webform just by a simple wizard or something like that? Some Cs, Js Or Css files or some folders shouldn't be involved in the final output.
Detailed:
We have had a very large ASP.Net project containing lots of folders and involving lots of features, we have been offering the whole project to customers and we have been protecting it by License approach (which applies Private and Public keys mechanism).
Now the company considers to offer different editions of the application based on the customer type, so if the customer is a small business it will be offered an application with less features since he is going to pay less money.
Keep in mind that we don't want to offer customers the complete application and then based on the permission which are defined in a table in the database he can get access to just the features we tend, It's no that good, beacuse after he are given the limited edition license, he is able to change his permission by modifying the related table in databadse or if he dissemble the related Cs or dll files (I have read about obfuscation to make it safer)
They wouldn't gain anything even if they grant required permissions complately to themselves beacuse they don't have required files.
I had hared of an application which is used to manage -or better to say customize- the project build process, what is the best solution? would you enlighten me?
I would highly recomend you to look into build configurations in visual studio. There you can choose what project files to build and control the output.
Check out the following for more details:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kkz9kefa.aspx
I'm still looking for the best solution but for now, after searching a lot I found some solutions applying MsBuild, for instance to exclude some folders and some files from being published you can add following script in visual studio project file (.csproj):
<ItemGroup>
<ExcludeFromPackageFolders Include="Scripts\large">
<FromTarget>Project</FromTarget>
</ExcludeFromPackageFolders>
<ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="Scripts\mash.js.chirp.config"/>
<ExcludeFromPackageFiles Include="Content\mash.js.chirp.config"/>
</ItemGroup>
This will cause the following folder and files to be excluded:
Scripts\large
mash.js.chirp.config
You should add above script in .csproj xml config file exactly below the line which says:
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath32)\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v10.0\WebApplications\Microsoft.WebApplication.targets" />
Here's some useful links: This one and This one
Keep in mind that there is no visual studio project file in Web site so you can apply it in Web application but Website, Here is the source from MSDN.
Although here it's told that you can use MSBuild even if it's about Website, Take a look at this link so you'll learn how to create a project file for that purpose.
Accoding to Andy Wigley on this video https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/en-US/training-courses/a-developer-s-guide-to-windows-10-12618 (look in additional resources -> Localization), UPW apps download only the culture resources they need.
I'm writing an app that uses resource files not only to translate UI but also generate files for the user. User may want to generate files in different culture than the one the OS uses. How I can assure that e.g. if my system is in en-US I will be able to get resources in french?
I may use own XML files that all will be included in the app. But some of the resource for sure will be needed also in UI, so I don't want to duplicate the resources and have to translate them twice.
Rob's answer would work great for a new app, but it didn't work for me, as I had already shipped a previous version of the app as a bundled package. If you then try to switch to a non-bundled package, the store submission portal gives the error:
A previous submission for this app was released with a Windows 10 appxbundle. Subsequent submissions must continue to contain a Windows 10 appxbundle.
After reverse-engineering far too much of the build system, I found enough clues to discover this well-hidden documentation: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn482043.aspx
Following the steps there, you'll still create a bundled package, but the toolchain won't use Language as a qualifier on which to separate out different bundles. In other words, the neutral package will have all the languages in it, while still bundling satellite packages for Scale (or whatever you like).
In case the MSDN page vanishes, the punchline is that you can override <AppxBundleAutoResourcePackageQualifiers> in your msbuild file to remove the Langauge qualifier:
<AppxBundleAutoResourcePackageQualifiers>Scale</AppxBundleAutoResourcePackageQualifiers>
If you do not want to separate out resources into separately downloadable bundles then you don't need to. When you build the app package you can choose to never create bundles so all resources are included in the main package.
See step six in Create an app package at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh454036.aspx , but choose "never" instead of "always".
It's dead simple to share functionality across multiple MVC projects. You just put the code into its own project and reference it in as many solutions as your heart desires. Clean, standard, glorious.
Is there any means to do this for styling code? I'd like to have our common CSS files, the ones that give our applications a similar look and feel, in just one place. Right now I have to spawn new copies for every new application. Thus if something needs to be fixed, it needs to be fixed a dozen times in a dozen places.
Has anyone else dealt with this? I can't separate out the CSS files into their own project, nor do I really want to have a web application that's just css sitting somewhere so all of the applications can use the files remotely via fully-qualified Urls. Is there a TFS trick you can do with source control to link the files together? Is there something I haven't thought of?
Here is the "dead simple" solution for sharing web resources between projects without using CDN, LESS, SASS, NuGet, etc:
Create common Solution Folders containing the resources to be shared, or simply designate one of the projects to be the master.
Use "Add as Link" to add the shared resource files to each project as needed.
Add an AfterBuild task to each project file that will copy the linked files to project folders. This is only needed so that Visual Studio test/debug (F5) will work locally.
If you need the details on how to do this, keep reading.
Configuring Solution Folders for the Shared Resources
** Note that if you're simply going to share files directly from one project to one or more additional projects then you can skip this step.
Visual Studio solution folders do not have to reflect physical file system folders, but doing so will help preserve your sanity. So first create the folders on your local file system and copy the resource files into them. The new folders should be located under your solution folder. For example:
\MySolution
\Common
\Images
\Scripts
\Styles
Back in Visual Studio, right click on the Solution Items folder and use Add Solution Folder to replicate the new file system folders.
Next, add the files to the new solution folders by right-clicking each folder and using Add Existing Item to add the contents of the folders.
Add Shared Resources as Links
For each project that will use the shared resources, right-click the project folder and choose Add Existing Item. Browse to the common folder, select the desired files, click the drop-down arrow next to the "Add" button and choose "Add as Link".
You may get a source control warning about adding files that are outside of the project directory structure, but this can be ignored since the linked file will be under source control at its source.
Add an AfterBuild Task to Copy Files
When you publish the application to a server the linked files will copied to the project folders to which they are linked and everything works as expected. However, in the development environment the linked files do not physically reside in the project folders. So when you hit F5 to test your application in VS, the shared resources will be missing.
The simple solution is to add an MSBuild task to copy the linked files from their source after each build. This needs to be done to for each project that contains the shared resource links.
Right-click the project and choose Unload Project. Right-click the project again and choose Edit <ProjectFileName>. Scroll to the bottom and add the following (just above "</Project>"):
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<!-- Copy linked content files to local folders so that they are available in the debugger.
This is only an issue when running the application locally. The linked files should
be automatically published to the correct folder when publishing to a web server. -->
<Copy SourceFiles="%(Content.Identity)"
DestinationFiles="%(Content.Link)"
SkipUnchangedFiles='true'
OverwriteReadOnlyFiles='true'
Condition="'%(Content.Link)' != ''" />
</Target>
** Copy task adapted from this link in TheCodeDestroyer's answer.
Save the project file then right-click and choose Reload Project.
Why not just have one site host that base styling and the other sites reference those styles? I don't see anything wrong with this.
You could create a CDN application of sorts to do this, too.
MVC App #1
<link src="~/css/styles.css" />
MVC App #2
<link src="http://mvcapp1.com/css/styles.css" />
Well, I don't know much about asp.net development, so forgive me, if it's not the case, but
If resource files in your project have Build Action set to None or Content and Copy to Output Directory set to Copy..., you can easily create the Class Library type of project and place all the files there (preserving the paths), and then reference this "Class Library" in every project that needs the files. Every file will be copied to every referencing project on solution build.
For Embedded Resource build action it will also work, but, you'll need to find a way to specify the assembly, which contains these files (because it will differ from Assembly.GetEntryAssembly).
Personally I don't like or want the CDN solution as if you have many pages they depend on CDNs 100% up time. After some research I found this solution which was perfect for my use I hope whoever will look for an alternative this is one of them:
http://mattperdeck.com/post/Copying-linked-content-files-at-each-build-using-MSBuild.aspx
1 - Look into CSS template systems as mentioned :
SASS-Lang
Less
http://css-tricks.com/sass-vs-less/ (really good article to start, many related items to in his related posts widget)
These allow you to code your stylesheets in organised manners. You can quickly add dynamic configurations and global changes easily.
2 - Developer your own CSS global listing system :
If you prefer not to use the above CSS stylesheet system. Example
//cdn.com/assets/css/reset.css
//cdn.com/assets/css/main.css
//cdn.com/assets/css/page_home.css
//cdn.com/assets/css/page_cart.css
even...
//cdn.com/assets/global/form_styles.css
//cdn.com/assets/global/global_shortcuts.css
In these, the same form padding, table and tr and other padding rules. Example
.black{color:#000 !important}
.right{float:right}
.left{float:left}
I know I sound like framework mentality but it works..
You can quickly alter the global to ensure all pages are updated.
The CDN storage and compass suggestions are valid too. You see storing on a CDN will save the headache of worrying about application failure / speed / load.
Your application can simply be like
/cloud/servers/settings/global/db
/cloud/servers/settings/global/librarys
/cloud/servers/settings/global/css_config.php (example)
/cloud/servers/1/webapp.com/
/cloud/servers/1/webapp.com/model
/cloud/servers/1/webapp.com/view
/cloud/servers/1/webapp.com/view/themes/tpl
/cloud/servers/1/webapp.com/inc
/cloud/servers/1/webapp2.com/
/cloud/servers/1/webapp2.com/model
/cloud/servers/1/webapp2.com/view
/cloud/servers/1/webapp2.com/view/themes/tpl
/cloud/servers/1/webapp2.com/inc
//cdn.com/assets/css
3 - Configuration of Approach
I personally think that the question should be about the approach of your overall development methodology. Having CSS sit on a CDN application, or having a CSS on a separate server which syncs to the CDN for production live mode is a good idea - keeping it separate and maintaining it via a stylesheet language is even better. You can then quickly use skins, css libraries, image libraries and more. Keeps things organised, faster and much better and ENJOYABLE to look at and take pride in coding with.
Keeping it and using a better system is what is needed. You should use manual and the classical approach of a folder structure IMO. You won't have to worry about responsive application design for mobile/tablet and other bearing issues with updating one CSS line for all the apps or even single apps - even languages, and dealing with multi site development teams.
JUST MY HUMBLE OPINION
Would also strongly recommend a CSS stylesheet language, sure many people hate them. But they are becoming quite useful, especially SAAS it's not a hype like NodeJS was.. it actually works. And does wonders. Look at TopShop, GorgeousCouture.. Arcadia sites.. multiple languages, multiple currencies.. servers and teams working on the same cross brand and several applications for each store..
We had the same problem and for our purposes we put all general CSS/JS/Images/Layout View into NuGet package and reuse it from every application where we need it. It perfectly works for us.
If you're open to using Sass, Compass extensions might be just what you need.
http://compass-style.org/help/tutorials/extensions/
An extension, when bundled as a gem, allows you to easily include the styles contained within the gem from anywhere on the system that has the gem installed. I recently used this in my latest application (a specialized multi-user CMS where each user has their own subdomain that has a customized layout, but all of the components/widgets have the same styling throughout the application). Setting up a new subdomain's styling is as simple as running a single command and customizing the template I've setup that has a skeleton of a simple layout.
Compass extensions can be used to hold images and JavaScript files as part of a template, but deployed files aren't automatically updated like the styles are (templates from a Compass extension differ from the stylesheets, as the templates are for copying and the stylesheets are for importing).
I'm developing a C# solution where I use files as external resources.
I need to this files to be modified without building all solution again.
I used to have shuch configuration and all went well.
I don't remember what I changed but now all resources are embedded in .exe file, I cannot find a way to make them linked again.
In resource properties in all resources Persistence option is diabled and is set to Linked at compile time, so I don't think this is the problem because I think it must be this way.
I think it could be a language configuration, problem started when I changed a form language propiertie that created an language specific resx but later it returned to its original configuration.
Thanks
Take them out of resources, add (add existing file) them to the project, make sure you set the properties on each one to copy if newer, assuming you are happy to have them deployed in to the same folder as the exe/dll that depends on them.