Click Once Deployment

     I have been to busy and have gotten out of the habit of doing blogs. So now I am going to restart up my blogs. The post will be on how to create a click once deployment with CSharp. Click once provided a means to deploy applications to you users and then it allows the user to update when you make changes. This is nice if you have a lot of clients and want to ensure they get the latest releases.
    The first step is to go to properties page and click publish on the bottom left. For the location I user the \\servername that the client will have access to.

     If you click on prerequisites you can select any items needed. Normally the default setting will install all the required items.

 

 

    Under updates I normally select the application should check for updates before it starts. This will check for new versions and allow the user to update the application is they want to.

  Under options I select description and for the publisher name this will end up being the main menu item group under the start short cut. The product name will be the name of the program. So when the program is installed the start menu will have a short cut called MTCode->TestDeployment.

  The other change I normally make is to click options and under manifests select create short cut on desktop. I find this a good option as some users have trouble finding it otherwise.

 

 

   Once all the setting are done then the next step is to save and deploy. The property page has a deploy option on the bottom, but sometimes this dose not seam to work and give an error. So normally I go to the build tab and publish form there.

 

 

 

  Once deploy is successfully done you will see the proper directory on your server location with the setup files. Then the user just needs to run the installer and the program installs. After that every time they run the program is will check for new updates and allow the user the option to upgrade if needed.