Installation/setup path for publishing application

I am relatively new to VS2008 and only have the free Express version and have also run into this difficulty. I am used to earlier systems (e.g. VB6 Package and Deployment Wizard, or Wise Installer) that could install the application to a known folder path. I would willingly give this up for the supposed benefit of ClickOnce i.e. to "manage automatic updates", if only I could find out how make it do automatic updates over the Web.

If I tick the box to check for automatic updates, then it wants a "web page with Microsoft Front Page Extensions", but there is nowhere that I can find a step by step guide on how to create a web page to deliver automatic updates in this way. I don't even know if it is *possible* given that the company uses a Linux based Web server.

Can anyone point me in the right direction on this? Or if it is not possible, is there a straightforward third party install package that could work with VB2008 and put it in program files in the old way?

regards

Julian

Split from this thread into its own thread.

I don't do much ClickOnce deployment, but FPSE is still offered by many Apache-based hosting services. Should be in the "features checkbox" or you can email support to ask.

As far as I know the Express tools supporting ClickOnce handle the uploading when you click the Publish option. You might have to enable FPSE on a folder by folder basis through your hosting company's "control panel" pages.

Hi Dilettante,

Still trying to make some progress on this. The guys who administer the company Linux web server have no knowledge of FPSE, so that route is closed. I guess I can find some other web hosting service that does offer the facility and provide a signpost to it.

However what is really baffling me is that when I try to compile the application and tick the box to check for automatic updates, it will not let me go any further unless I provide the URL for the actual page it is going to get them from. So it appears that the page has to have been built before the app can be compiled in this way. But I have absolutely no clue what HTML or other content the page has to have, and cannot find any advice anywhere on this. What I need is some directions as to what to put on the page to get it ready for whatever VB2008 is going to send to it, or preferably a sample.

Does anyone out there know where I can look?