Re: Deployment with Visual Studio 2008
- From: Varun Khosla <varun.lists@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:13:38 +0530
Personally I like Windows Installation package which can be built
right from VS 2008 because it is highly accessible (as I find it) and
it provides a wealth of features like registry editing, custom desktop
and start menu shortcuts, custom application program structure, launch
conditions and custom actions and a decent set of dialogs to customize
setup user interface.
With custom actions, you can run a script or even an executable
(behind the seen) during installation to configure something that
cannot be done with features the package provides.
The minimum prerequisite for an application is .NET framework. Beyond
that, you have full control what to specify as a prerequisite; in case
of an optional prerequisite, just don't specify anything for it in the
installation, instead, when the application runs, at appropriate
place, determine whether or not it is available and take action based
on that.
HTH!
On 3/25/10, Donald Marang <donald.marang@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Can you create a Windows Installation package within Visual Studio 2008 or
> is it an external tool? Do most of you developers use a Microsoft
> Installation packager tool or do you prefer a different tool, like Inno
> Setup? What would a installation packager do in the case of the MODI
> prerequisites on a computer that does not have Microsoft Office 2003 or
> 2007? Would it still fail if my application had an option to select between
> multiple OCR Engines, thus making MODI not a true prerequisite?
>
> Don Marang
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Varun Khosla" <varun.lists@xxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 6:06 AM
> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: Deployment with Visual Studio 2008
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> The publish command you have seen is for creating click once
>> installation for applications that are downloaded and installed in a
>> special subdirectory under documents and settings and are subject to
>> real-time updates as and when they are available.
>>
>> The other type of installation is windows installation in which a
>> package file (.msi) and a bootstrapper file (setup.exe) are created
>> and can be distributed offline and never look for update — although
>> you can achieve the same with click once — but it's not ment to be
>> used that way.
>>
>> Well, you can run an executable file from anywhere in your computer
>> and on any other machine if the specified system has all the
>> dependencies installed. The foremost one (as you mentioned) is the
>> .NET framework (the version must be greater than or equal to the one
>> used to build the application).
>> As you mentioned, you are using Office Imaging app for your
>> application, so the same must also be available on the host system.
>>
>> Yes if you have all the dependencies present on a system, you do not
>> need to install the application; however, installation helps in cases
>> where you are distributing the application and you do not know whether
>> the potential user's system satisfy all the dependency requirements
>> and thus you do not want such users to see "fail to run the
>> application because ..." or "it's not a valid win32 application ....".
>> Instead, the installer automatically installs the required
>> dependencies.
>>
>>
>> HTH!
>>
>> On 3/25/10, Donald Marang <donald.marang@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> I have an alpha version of my QuickOCR application ready to post to a
>>> personal website. It was written in Visual Basic .Net using Visual
>>> Studio
>>> 2008. It is meant to be a quick and dirty method to efficiently OCR
>>> screen
>>> snapshots and files. Currently it relies on the Microsoft Office
>>> Document
>>> Imageing (MODI) tools in Office 2003 and 2007. It does more than I
>>> expected, like MODI officially only supports MDI and some TIFF files. In
>>> practice, it handles many others.
>>>
>>> I would appreciate feedback and I have a few design and deployment
>>> questions. The source is at:
>>> http://mysite.verizon.net/marangs/QuickOCR.html
>>>
>>> There is an "QuickOCREnhancements.rtf" file that lists the known
>>> deficiencies and expresses my future ideas for this application.
>>>
>>> I have not figured out the strange Publish options in Visual Studio. It
>>> clearly provides for deployment from a CD or an IIS web server. The most
>>> common deployment, a single executable setup file copied or downloaded
>>> from
>>> anywhere is not so clear. Could someone give me some pointers or
>>> direction?
>>>
>>>
>>> I have not created Windows applications in over a decade. What are the
>>> advantages to having the application installed and involved in the
>>> registry
>>> fiasco vs just a stand-alone application? Is it possible to have a
>>> simple
>>> Windows application with a Graphical User Interface which does not
>>> require
>>> installation? How is this done? Is the executable in the Debug
>>> directory
>>> useable elsewhere on my computer? Can it be distributed to other
>>> computers?
>>> I assume at the least, .Net 3.5 must be installed on their computer.
>>> Would
>>> this be different if the application had no interface, just command line
>>> options?
>>>
>>> I have a design layout question as well, but perhaps that should be a
>>> separate message.
>>>
>>> Don Marang
>>
>>
>> --
>> Varun
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--
Varun
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