Ideas/Best way to package/deploy for clients

[squatman]

Hi there,

I developed and application for the company I work for, I had no knowledge prior and have remained using ClickOnce and publishing to a shared drive on our server.

We are now looking to develop a new version of the application to take to market.

I've looked in the pinned FAQ but it looks dated and some links don't work, so I want to make sure I'm getting the best modern solution advice.

I want the application to have a professional looking installer like most software we install today, e.g. the install progresses through a series of stages for you to set certain details i.e. SQL Server instance and credentials.

As multiple companies will use I need a central secure webserver that they point to for updates. With the ability to check for updates within the application, rather than just during load/close.

I hope it's clear what I'm asking, any direction/advice will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

[jmcilhinney]

Does ClickOnce currently do all you need or does it not enable the user to provide certain required inputs? If it works then I'd suggest that you just stick with it. There's nothing unprofessional about ClickOnce. If you need more, you can make sure that the Microsoft Visual Studio Installer Projects 2022 is installed and create a Setup project. I think that extension might be installed by default but I'm not sure. That Setup project uses the standard Windows Installer via an MSI file. It will be enough for most people.

[squatman]

Thanks JMC, I'll take a look at Installer Projects. I haven't seen a way of for users to provide inputs during install. I suppose when the application loads I could check for the inputs and if they are not present then display a form for the user to provide.

With regard to publishing the ClickOnce. If I have the install location hosted on a webserver, how do I limit access to this to just customers? I would also need to look at a certificate.