I have been developing a small C#/WinForm utility in my spare time and have got to the point where it's ready for release. My previous project was hosted via CodePlex which allowed me to update my source code and manually upload new versions via my computer.
I've recently recieved an MSDN subscription which gives me a fairly generous amount of usage/storage with Windows Azure.
This got me thinking, I know ClickOnce allows applications to be installed via the internet but would it be possible to do so whilst using Azure to host it?
I would like to think that this would allow me to update my application and push it to Azure whilst updating my source code on CodePlex via Team Foundation Server.
Does anybody have any experience in this? Is it something that can even be done?
Thanks for your time:)
Take a look at Kazi Nadudvari's Blog and see if this post helps:
How to deploy ClickOnce applications to Windows Azure?
Related
I've created a wpf application. Now I need to make an application to download it from a web site to various client machines with no server software. What are the essential requirements that need to be installed from the web to the client in order for the application to work? I am very new to this and am learning as i go along
As stated by the others you may publish your application using clickonce. An alternative approuch is to use a third party installer like wise(yee old .msi is removed from newer visual studios). MS wants you to use clickonce for deployment it may be done manually using mage, through MageUI or visual studio directly. I only use mage.exe for deployment of WPF and XBAP applications, it's nice if you have a buildserver set up and all. Just make some scripts for the deployment that you may reuse, once deployed check your manifest file to see what's included and not.
General information about clickonce.
Mage.exe located in your windows sdk for manually deployment
MageUI, useless for any live production envirnoment...
Hope it helps you some, I know this can be a pain.
Cheers,
Stian
I am investigating the best route for me to push updates of my small WPF application to my end users using ClickOnce.
I have looked briefly at AppHarbour and see that ASP.NET MVC works straight out of the box. Has anyone tried with a WPF application, or if there is a slicker/easier/cheaper way for me to publish my app to clients from a Web location?
Also if above is achievable/feasible does anyone have any advice for slickest continuous integration techniques with this approach? i.e. set up 2 environments on AppHarbour, QA/Production, set a test environment at client site pointing to QA and a live deployment on client site pointing to live etc...?
I will be using the (currently) freebie version of VisualStudio.com TFS for source control. I know Azure does this, and is incredibly simple to use but I am a pauper and have no funds for this until I sell a few more sites!
Thanks
You can host your ClickOnce deployment in Azure blob storage. You can write a small program that will deploy it after you publish it locally, or push it up manually using something like Cerebrata tools. It's really, really inexpensive. This article explains how to do it, and this article talks about the cost. The second article has old Azure pricing; it's even cheaper now.
Looking for opinions. I'm working on a mid-sized 3-tier ASP.NET project (.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005) with an Oracle on Unix back-end, some beefy MS web servers, and IE browser clients. Performance is pretty bad, and users feel the UI looks outdated as well. We may have an opportunity soon to redesign and rewrite the entire application from the ground up, and I'm wondering what the current or recommended MS platform is.
I was involved with WPF and Silverlight on a different contract when MS downgraded support for Silverlight in favor of "HTML5" for Windows 8 and Windows Phone a few years back. I'm not trying to start a flame war between how long Silverlight or even WPF will be around, but I'm looking for some modern alternatives as of today, April 2013. The one requirement we can't get around is that we can't install something on each and every user PC throughout the client organization.
My own background is in WinForms and C# more so than any of the above, but everywhere I turn it seems developing any new LOB apps in WinForms isn't done much anymore.
Whatever happened to the Application Server platform and apps run thru Remote Desktop? Does it still make sense to develop desktop apps and deploy to app servers and just put a shortcut on each user's desktop, or even map a drive letter like we used to do back in the day?
Your $0.02 would be appreciated!
I would definitely consider doing it as an internal web site.
The UI would be HTML5 using the "single page application" (SPA) for each function you need. Each function would be on a page that is loaded when the user needs it. The javascript/ajax code in the browser would interact with the web server which feeds back the raw data needed to be displayed.
Using Active Directory, you can have full security and customization per person.
If you need lots of interactivity, then you'd also want to consider including SignalR in the mix. (That is one of the "new" MS tools!)
If you can't install anything in the end users' PCs then go ASP.Net. Anything else will require installation.
You can make a web application more appealing to the users by having a good designer and a LOT of javascript. Not remotely comparable to the power and beauty of WPF, but that's your best bet.
WPF is part of the .Net framework and will not run without it installed.
Silverlight could also be an option, but it still requires an installation (although minimal, 4 MB, less-than-2 minute install), but an install anyways.
WinRT only works in Windows 8. It's not supported in lower versions (Vista, XP, 7). So I don't think it's an option as of now (unless all your users have Windows 8, of course).
And no, winforms is not an option. It's also part of the .Net framework, and even if you could get it installed, it doesn't make any sense having to deal with the limitations of it, having many much much better technologies at your disposal.
Dear Gurus,
We have developed the win for application, which will consume WCF services. application is running smooth. now the question is deployment.
need to deply the application in such a way, once u develop the build the MSI should be transfered from machine to machine insteed of all machine hitting the server for new build. can any one guide me how to acheive the
Thanks in Advance
Use a packaging tool, there is one integrated in Visual Studio. See http://bytes.com/topic/c-sharp/answers/226587-how-create-msi
I want to use a Silverlight application in a cloud on Azure. The communication between the Silverlight application and the WebRole is a WCF-Service with Basic-HTTP-Binding.
My problem is, that the communication doesn't work. I think the endpoint-address is not correct, but I'm not sure.
Can someone help me?
Have you tried using Fiddler that will at least tell you if the end point is correct.
It should also help if there are any permissions issues.
I found these samples cited by the Silverlight Web Services team blog. The Known Issues Wiki is also very helpful. These examples use a binary HTTP binding instead of BasicHttpBinding but they get the job done.
If you are running Vista, like I am, You may need to register the WCF MIME types for IIS 7. You can do this be running a command prompt in elevated mode and executing this command:
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.0\Windows Communication Foundation\ServiceModelReg.exe -i
There is an issue with linking to Webservices in Azure. I would check the endpoint in the Silverlight application and make sure it is the same as the port used in your Azure application.
I came across the same issue when working through the Azure Labs and rewrote Excercise 3 (using WCF) so that it would work - that is now available on CodeProject (http://www.codeproject.com/articles/34612/Getting-WCF-to-work-with-Azure.aspx).
I based that on a posting from David Burela's House-o-blog and his description of the problem can be found on his blog.