ClickOnce frustration

[Andy_P]

I am trying to deploy a VB2005 Express app using ClickOnce.

I want this app to be deployed from a CD, with no checking for updates, and no downloading prerequisites from the internet or even network locations. All from CD.

This is how I have the prerequisites dialog configured:



When I publish the app, I get an error, stating:

The install location for prerequisites has not been set to 'component vendor's web site' and the file 'DotNetFX\instmsia.exe' in item '.NET Framework 2.0' can not be located on disk. See Help for more information.

I am confused by this, because MSDN states:

Download prerequisites from the same location as my application
Specifies that the prerequisite components are installed from the same location as the application. This copies all the prerequisite packages to the publish location. For this option to work, the prerequisite packages must be on the development computer.

Presumably I must have Dotnetfx.exe on my PC, but it does not get copied anywhere to my publish directory. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for any help.

[randem]

As far as I know you need to rename the .net installation to Dotnetfx.exe

Framework 1.1 - 3.0 all have different names.

What exactly does it download...

[Andy_P]

After some searching I might have a bit of success, mainly from the help from this link:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...94464&SiteID=1

It seems the Express version of VB, and for that matter C#, are somewhat incomplete with regards to making a distributable app solely via CD, with no internet requirement for downloading prerequisites or updates.

To summary some info from the link:

I have manually copied the following files to the following paths:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFX
1. dotnetfx.exe (V2.0 .NET framework redistributable)
2. WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe (MSI installer V3.1 redistributable)
3. InstMsiA.exe (MSI installer V2.0 redistributable)

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bootstrapper\Packages\WindowsInstaller3_1
1. WindowsInstaller-KB893803-v2-x86.exe (MSI installer V3.1 redistributable)

All the above files can be downloaded from Microsoft.

My app now compiles and publishes without any errors, and importantly, the prerequisites (dotnetfx.exe and the two Windows installer files) are copied to a dotnetfx directory below the publish directory.

I still have to test this out completely, but it looks promising.

[randem]

Very good. One should not rely on the user having a fast internet connection to install your app.