We have a WPF XBAP application that we want to change the configuration on the server after it is deployed. Since the config file is embedded in the deployment files, how is this possible?
For example, we want to change the database connection strings the deployed app is connected to or we want to update the WCF service binding settings that it is connecting to? We want to update the config file on the server and not have to recompile and redeploy each time.
Thanks!
In the SDK directory is a program called MageUI.exe. This program lets you create and edit application deployment manifests. You can update your config file, then use MageUI to edit your deployment manifest and import the new configuration file.
Depending on the size of your application, it may just be easier to hit Publish in Visual Studio than go through the effort of using MageUI and editing deployment manifests.
Alternately you can have your application look on your deployment server via an HTTP request for a config file (renamed to something other than .config, since ASP.NET by default blocks those files) for the updated configuration.
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we are working on a WPF application which we want to publish as a click once smart client application.
We are able to publish the application on local machine using Visual Studio 2012 and configured it in IIS.
Now we want to upload the published smart client installer to windows Azure Virtual Machine with Windows Server 2012 and IIS 8. We cannot upload the locally published components as the URL configuration in the manifest and deployment file is that of local server. We tried to edit the entries using text editor but once we do the editing the files become unused and it shows xml parsing error when we try to install from the location.
we tried to publish the application direct to the Virtual Machine but it shows an error as Front Page Extension is needed in IIS. We tried to find Front Page extension but couldn't find an version for IIS 8 in Windows Server 2012.
Can any one help us to publish the application in Azure Virtual Machine.
The problem you are having has nothing to do with Azure per se.
In the first case (of editing the XML files), you can do that but it's best to use MageUI to do the edit, because you can then re-sign the manifests. If you just edit the files, it messes up the security on them, and they will not work (as you have found). If you want to edit them with a text editor, you can do that, but then you must re-sign them (using mage); you can create a script to change the installation URL.
Or you can use MageUI. You need to do it in this order:
Open the application manifest in the versioned folder and then save it, re-signing it with your signing certificate.
Open the deployment manifest (yourapp.application) in the top deployment folder. Change the Start Folder to be the right Installation URL. Go to the "Application Reference" tab and re-select the application manifest in the versioned folder. (I know, it hasn't changed, but trust me, you have to do this.) Save this manifest and sign it with your signing certificate.
Copy the deployment manifest from the top folder to the versioned folder. It's always good to keep a copy, so you can go backwards a version if you need to.
NOW you can copy the files to your VM and they will work fine.
In the second case, the Front Page Extensions are required if you are using HTTP to publish the application, yet they are no longer available past about Windows Server 2008(?). So don't use HTTP. Use FTP. Set the publish file location using FTP, like ftp://myserver.mycompany.com/myfolder and set the Installation URL to the HTTP equivalent of it. Then publish it. It will put the files on your VM (assuming FTP is enabled on both sides), and the HTTP link should work.
By the way, you can also host your deployment in Azure blob storage. It is dirt cheap, and you can use something like Cerebrata Cloud Storage Studio or even write your own code to publish it (which I did). This article explains how to put the files out there, what the MIME types need to be, etc. If you do this, then it will work even if you need to replace your VM or redeploy it or the VM becomes unavailable for some reason.
here is a reference to Avkash Chauhan's blog post explaining in detail How to deploy ClickOnce Application using Windows Azure Storage in very simple steps?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/avkashchauhan/archive/2011/05/09/how-to-deploy-clickonce-application-using-windows-azure-storage-in-very-simple-steps.aspx
He also gives an code example of a windows form (using Wpf) that he shows how to deploy on azure using one click deployment.
hope this helps
I have a new WinForms application that I'm trying to deploy with the ClickOnce method. However, the app.config file that is needed for the application is not included with the installation.
The application is installed properly from the server, and launches the exe, but as soon as I try to login by hitting my WCF Server, I get.
"Could not find the file 'C:\Documents and Settings\Adminstrator\Local Settings\Apps\2.0\7KAA3h20\app.config"
I can manually copy the file from my development machine to this folder and the application works fine.
Any ideas?
The application settings are included in the ClickOnce application as yourappname.exe.config. Are you accessing the app.config through a different mechanism that the global app settings?
Config file is included by default. Are you removing it for some reason?
You can choose files to be deployed on properties page (application files) if you are using Visual Studio.
If file is not in the list, you can add it to project and set build action to "Content" and it will show up in this list.
I am working on Restful Web application. I am maintaining different project for web client code and Google app engine server code.
When ever i made changes in the client code, i rebuilt the client code and places inside the war folder of server project through build scripts.
Here i dont want to place all files directly to war folder and i wanted to put them under folder called 'Publish' for better maintainence. How can do it?
Is there any better way to maintaining client code and Google app engine server code?
The structure also works well for Mobile application in future.
I am still new to this too, but there is versioning. If you change the version number in your project manifest file, it does not become the default (i.e., visible to your original public URL). It is public and accessible for you to test. When you are ready to "publish" just switch the new version to be the default. Use the Manage section of the Dashboard and set the Version to be the default when you are ready.
To test any of the earlier versions, you access through the Manage and click on the specific version. I don't know if the persistent storage is versioned with this same mechanism -- I can image problems if you have a huge DB.
I've found a very small sample showing Silverlight SQL connection (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/silverlight/CntDbSlght.aspx), I've tested it and it works fine on local system, also I've changed its connection string so that it shows data from my remote database, but when I upload files to my host, I cannot see any SQL data, it seems that something is broken, how should I configure my web.config?
What are CrossDomain.XML and ClientAccessPolicy.XML files? should I upload them? If so, where should they be? How should I bind my service? what am I doing wrong? I click on VS2010 publish (in build menu) and select file system, then I upload all files existing in this folder, I use C#.
If you are trying to access an external Silverlight web service from your local dev environment you certainly need a ClientAccessPolicy.XML file on the website. This tells the site services where requests can come from (normally only from the same site the SL app was run from).
Your ClientAccessPolicy.XML file needs to go into the actual root of your website i.e. 'mydomain.com/ClientAccessPolicy.XML.
*Note: You do not also need a CrossDomain.XML if you have ClientAccessPolicy (which is the SL specific one). CrossDomain.xml is an older flash compatibility file that sometimes exists on sites.
I have solution containing silverlight project, wcf service project and other projects of C# i want to have one app settings file from where all projects can load settings. Which will be useful in case of db interaction, logging etc..
Currently i m changing all app settings file in all projects.
I have used Nini successfully for some time now. It allows you to put all your config settings in a central file which can then be referenced from all your server-side projects, be it web applications, scheduled jobs, wcf services etc. For the Silverlight client apps, I created a WCF configuration service. All the different Silverlight apps access this service at startup to load their settings. This means that the server-side apps only need to know the location of the Nini configuration file, and the Silverlight clients only need to know the url to the configuration service (transferred through the in the .aspx page). The configuration service then accesses the Nini config file and returns a collection of ConfigurationSettingEntity objects. These just contain a key and a value. Of course it is of extreme importance to make sure that all sensitive settings (e.g. db connection strings) are never transferred over the configuration service. Nini allows you to divide your config file into sections. I have three sections currently. One for the Silverlight clients ("ClientSettings"), one for server-side settings only ("ServerSettings") and one that contains any shared settings ("CommonSettings"). This way you can make sure that the configuration service never returns anything from the ServerSettings section. This has worked really well for my purposes.
Have a look at Configure Silverlight 3 Applications using the Web.config File from ASP.NET