Deployment from a website

[furjaw]

Visual Studio 2005 Professional:

I wrote a Windows app that I intend to sell via a website.
I successfully used a Setup project to deploy the project from a CD.
Now, I would like to have customers be able to download it from a website.
Do I simply compress it to a zip file and upload that to the website?

[randem]

It should already be compressed. Just zip it and upload it and set links to the file for download.

[furjaw]

The CD has 4 .mdf (database) files on it, 28 other data files, setup.exe, setup.msi, MyApp.exe, autorun.inf, MyApp.ico.

It also has subdirectories for dotnetfx, WindowsInstaller3_1 and SQLExpress.
I suppose that I could eliminate those 3 prerequisites when installing from a website. I added them to the CD so it would work without an internet connection.

[randem]

Why aren't those other files deployed and includeed in your installation exe? Are they deployed by the setup.exe or does the user need to manually deploy them?

[furjaw]

Good idea! I didn't think of that!

They are deployed by the Setup.exe.
I will include them in the Setup.

I think that what I have to do is create a second Setup project.
The first one is for deployment via a CD.
The new one would be for deployment from a website.
I think that that is one of the options when you create a Setup project.
ClickOnce will automatically check and install updates when a new version is available.
I don't know if Windows Installer has that capability.
I really hate it that ClickOnce hides the installation.
I think that they did that on purpose so you buy the Professional edition.

[randem]

That is a bad idea if ClickOnce checks for updates. It will update itself? How is that going to help your application. There is way for ClickOnce to know you have an update...

[furjaw]

You are right!
I don't want customers to always get free updates!
Do you use ClickOnce or Windows Installer?

[randem]

Neither, I use ********** and Inno Setup.

[furjaw]

>Why aren't those other files deployed and included in your installation exe?

I want to include all files in my installation exe. How do I do that?

[randem]

Use an installation package...

Look at ********** and Inno Setup or one of the other packages in the FAQ's

[furjaw]

On my website, I click on the "Download 30 Day Free Trial" button.
It downloads the program, but, it is not giving me any indication that it is doing it.
How can I have it display a progress bar?

[randem]

You can't..

You would need to create your own program (Add-In) to download and show the progress there. Otherwise you will have to count on just what the browser has.

[furjaw]

I changed my "Download 30 Day Free Trial" button to link to my Setup.exe file.
When I clicked on it, and selected "Run", I got the unknown publisher message. I never got that message when installing from CD.

[randem]

That message is specific to IE. It wan't you to sign the file. You should have it a zip file and download that, unzip it then execute it. The exe will not run from the website anyway.

[furjaw]

I am trying to make it as easy as possible for my unsophisticated customers.
Downloading a zip file is a little too complicated.
If I could get everything in my installation exe, I think that it would simplify things.

Where could I find an example of a VB program to download an app?

[randem]

Search the forum for Winsock or Inet. Both can be used to download a file then you can execute the file yourself.

[furjaw]

I found the following program which does display a nice progress bar.
My download button links to this program.
But, the customer has to know to press "Save" rather than "Run".
After downloading this program, then he has to know to click on "Run".
It then downloads the zipped project with a progress bar.
Then he has to know to click on the zip file, click on "Extract All Files" and finally click on "Setup1.exe".
Too complicated! I want simple!

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
My.Computer.Network.DownloadFile _
("http://www.OrthoLabRx.net/OrthoLabRx.zip", _
"Desktop/OrthoLabRx.zip", _
"", "", True, 500, True)
Close()
End Sub

Public Sub DownloadFile( _
ByVal address As System.Uri, _
ByVal destinationFileName As String, _
ByVal userName As String, _
ByVal password As String, _
ByVal showUI As Boolean, _
ByVal connectionTimeout As Integer, _
ByVal overwrite As Boolean)
End Sub

End Class