Share via

How to: Publish an Initial Version of an Application

  • Article
Retired Content

This content is outdated and is no longer being maintained. It is provided as a courtesy for individuals who are still using these technologies.
This page may contain URLs that were valid when originally published, but now link to sites or pages that no longer exist.
To create client business applications using current Microsoft technologies, see patterns & practices' Prism.

To use ClickOnce for deployment, you must first publish the initial version of the application and have users launch it by using a link to the Setup.exe file (bootstrapper). This will ensure that any required prerequisites are installed. With a simple Windows Forms or Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application, this can be done by using Visual Studio to publish the application. With a Composite UI Application Block application that dynamically loads modules not referenced in the Visual Studio Shell project, you have to perform some extra steps to prepare the published application for deployment. This topic explains how to publish an initial version of a Composite UI Application Block application by using either the Manifest Manager Utility or the Mage tool

To publish an initial version of a Composite UI Application Block application by using the Manifest Manager Utility

  1. In Visual Studio, publish the Shell application to a local folder.
  2. Open the Manifest Manager Utility, and then open the deployment manifest.
  3. Select the additional files you need to add to the application.
  4. Save the manifests.
  5. Copy the deployment files to the Web server.
  6. Give your users a URL to the bootstrapper (the Setup.exe file). If you are certain they have all of the prerequisites installed, you can give them a URL pointing to the default deployment manifest instead.

For more information about this procedure, see Publishing an Initial Version of an Application (Automated Process).

To manually publish an initial version of a Composite UI Application Block application by using the Mage tool

  1. In Visual Studio, publish the Shell application to a local folder.
  2. Copy the modules that will be dynamically loaded into the shell to the publish folder.
  3. Delete the deployment manifest from the versioned folder.
  4. Run MageUI.exe and update the application manifest to include the modules and any associated file resources.
  5. Save and sign the application manifest.
  6. In MageUI, open the default deployment manifest, and then refresh the application manifest reference.
  7. Save and sign the default deployment manifest, and then copy it into the versioned folder in case you need it later.
  8. Copy the deployment to the Web server.
  9. Give your users a URL to the bootstrapper (Setup.exe). If you are certain they have all of the prerequisites installed, you can give them a URL pointing to the default deployment manifest instead.

For more information about this procedure, see Publishing an Updated Version of an Application (Method 2-Manual Process).