I have developed a s/w using acces and sqlserver 2008 and now trying to make a setup file.
How could be the possible way??
I tried in VS2008 software and development. But after installing from the msi file and running the s/w it shows an error
"Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0 provider is not registered”
plz help
You have to do a few things to set up your application:
Install the .NET framework if required
Install SQL Server 2008 if required
Install your application
Define/configure the connection from your application to the SQL Server instance
Create your database/schema in the SQL Server instance.
Ignore the SQL Server problem for a moment, the easiest way to deal with the .NET framework and installing the application would be to use a setup project - which should be available from within VS.NET under Other Project Types|Setup and Deployment. There are hooks in there to give you options for installing dependencies - of which the .NET framework is one.
Ok, you have a tool to create setups (there are several others, e.g. I'm currently using WiX which I like so far, is very capable but can rapidly becomes complex) - the problem now is that the installer you need to build will depend on how and where your application is to be deployed. Do you want to ship a complete, self-contained, application on a disc? Is it to be downloaded internally within a business or distributed over the internet - each of these suggests a different set of packages at one end "everything" at the other you want the smallest possible pieces pulled down as required or perhaps even a different packaging method (e.g. clickonce).
Next up is SQL Server. You can get a redistributable package for SQL Server 2008 Express, so distributing it is not a problem however you have to determine if the user has an existing instance they want to user or if they want to install.
Once you've got an installed instance - you need to be able to create and to maintain (update) the database/schema within that instance. That I suggest you do using code (see here: How to create "embedded" SQL 2008 database file if it doesn't exist?). Which brings us to another point, you not only have to be able to install the application the first time, but you need to make sure that a) you provide a means to uninstall the application and b) that you can neatly do an upgrade in place.
I hope there are enough pointers there to get you moving - in terms of testing this, Virtual Machines are your friend, they give you the capability to create multiple environments in which to test your deployment and the ability to quickly roll back to a clean environment to test again as its virtually impossible to properly test an installer on a dev box (I've found this out the hard way) as it will already have all the dependencies for your application installed.
Pick your tools and that should let you ask more focused questions.
Related
I have create a sample ASP.NET 5 application (pretty much the example one from New Solution), and pushed it to GIT hosted on Visual Studio Team Services (former Visual Studio Online). I want to set up continuous integration to Azure Web App (former Azure Web Site). I have tried to set it up from Azure portal itself, it did create a new build definition, but it fails to build ASP.NET 5. I have found a guide how to do this, but it never really worked for me, I get errors like this e.g.
Error parsing solution file at C:\a\1\s\Frontend\src\Frontend\Frontend.xproj: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
Predefined type 'System.Void' is not defined or imported
Another problem is that it seems it really takes a lot of time to install dnvm, get packages, etc. So all in all it's a pain to make it work.
So are there real alternatives for that or more importantly is Microsoft is planning to implement something like a Build ASP.NET 5, Deploy ASP.NET to Azure and such to make it easy as I suppose it's easy with the current ASP.NET 4 apps. I really hope that it will be an option soon since it's quite impossible to work with current build system.
For "System.Void" issue, please check the runtime version in "global.json" file and make sure it is consistent with the dependencies in "project.json" file.
For dnvm install issue, since AspNet5 runtime environment isn't installed on VSTS Hosted Build Agent for now and the different users may use different runtime versions, it requires the user to add a "PreBuild" PowerShell step to read the runtime version in "global.json" file and then install it. If you can make sure that you will always only use one version (For example: 1.0.0-rc1-update1), you can deploy your own build agent and install "1.0.0-rc1-update1" on it, then you can skip the dnvm installation during the build process.
Take a look on http://riffer.eu/wordpress/?p=112. There I have a solution vor asp.net core RC_1.
Amazingly you need only two powershell scripts - there is no compiling / visual studio necessary.
I've followed this post and it's not working. Can someone tell me what else to check?
Steps I followed:
I added dll's from my current install of Oracle (11gR2_x32) to the root of my project. I did not use the basic-lite as the post stated but I assumed that the dll's would be the same, right?
oci.dll
ociw32.dll
Oracle.DataAccess.DLL
orannzsbb11.dll
oraocci11.dll
oraociicus11.dll
OraOps11w.dll
Selected each dll within my project and set the 'Build Action' to 'Content' and 'Copy to Output Directory' to 'Copy Always'
Added a reference to Oracle.DataAccess
Added 'Imports Oracle.DataAccess.Client' to my vb code.
The code works fine but it still requires the user to install Oracle. My intent was to not have them install oracle. I verified that when they install my program all the dll's are present in the program folder.
What else can I check?
The code works fine but it still requires the user to install Oracle. My intent was to not have them install oracle.
To my knowledge, there is no truly "embedded" Oracle and you cannot avoid installing the Oracle database server. If you really need an embedded database, there are several good alternatives, including but not limited to: SQLite, MS SQL Server Compact or LocalDB1, Interbase/Firebird etc...
Few years back, Oracle ran a licensing program for companies, where you could integrate the Oracle setup into your own setup and make it "invisible" to users, but this would still install the full Oracle server. That's how earlier versions of PTC Pro/INTRALINK installed for example - you didn't need a separate Oracle installation. I don't know whether this licensing program is still available, but even if it were, you are probably looking at a very significant financial investment.
BTW, Fully Managed .NET provider for Oracle is currently in beta - this will ease the client deployment even further and eliminate 32-bit vs 64-bit mismatches.
1 LocalDB is not technically "embedded" as in "in-process", but that probably won't make a difference to your end users.
Our main website is a collection of 10 separate ASP.NET projects and applications. At the moment, to do a complete deployment onto a fresh server involves running ten separate msdeploy jobs; each application is built, configured (using config transforms) and packaged, but we don't have any solution for deploying all the packages as a single operation.
I can see several possibilities that might work in this scenario, but would love to hear from anybody who has succeeded - or failed - in setting up something similar:
A folder full of packages and deploy.cmd scripts, with a "master script" that will call each individual app script in turn and deploy that app to the target server.
Using a staging server where we deploy the latest build of each package from TeamCity using the production configuration, but then use msdeploy to capture that server into a single enormous msdeploy ZIP package, which is then deployed onto each production server as a single msdeploy step.
Creating a single, enormous Visual Studio solution that references EVERY project in our codebase (perhaps via svn:externals?), compiles and cross-references them ALL, and hence supports using a single msbuild job to create a huge monolithic package containing our entire codebase, built from the latest revision in source control and configured for the target environment.
I've studied Troy Hunt's excellent "You're Deploying it Wrong" series, and Scott Hanselman's "Web Deployment Made Awesome" article, but I think I'm looking for something a step beyond either of these approaches that incorporates multiple projects and applications without necessarily building them from source in a single step - any ideas?
We had a very similar scenario in our company, and we created an installation package using WIX. Our config transform happens at installation time, so now we create a single build, then deploy that to each server via an MSI install package. WIX is very flexible, but also has a steep learning curve. We modify our configs using our own custom action, but it could be done other ways.
We use Team Foundation Server and MSBuild to do our builds. This is pretty straight forward, but did take some work to set up correctly with as many projects and solutions as we had.
Other options we looked into, and even tried were:
InstallShield - Not flexible enough.
Writing our own C# Install - WIX already thought of everything we
were trying to accomplish so why reinvent the wheel?
Just saying to heck with it all and installing things manually - 2 or
3 months of development time in WIX and MSBuild have easily paid for
the hours we would have spent of the last year doing things manually.
I think the deployment tools built into Visual Studio were designed for a single application with just a few deployments. It sounds like you need external tools, and development effort, to get your deployments quicker, and eliminate the need for doing things manually. That's why we invested in the above solution, and it has really paid off.
I'll pick Installshield.
Installshield latest versions support creating webdeploy packages.
You can define the IIS configurations for all apps in a single project and create releases if you want to create packages by separate or one single release for all web apps.
Installshield project has an object model where you can automate basically every task from build scripts, also the projects are simple xml files that you can also modify in automation scripts if required
Developers can modify update WixXML projects by separate and you can add those projects builds as merge modules to your installshield projects through your build scripts with some little tweaks to the installshield project xml (at least in 2011 version, this part is not supported by installshield but can be done)
You don't even need to modify Visual Studio Projects for groups of web apps that follow a same pattern, neither manually modify your installshield project to add new web apps for these cases, you can create packages for new web apps without intervention setting one time your build scripts for the installshield project automation task based on the root VS build output
I have the requirement as follows to create an installer for a Silverlight application that consumes WCF service and SQL Server as a database.
The goal is to create an all-in-one package that installs the application, the service and the SQL Server database on the server. Although the package should include all three the user should be able to install them separately as well. For ex. Silverlight application need not be installed on the server, and the WCF service not on the client and so on.
I'm right now trying with Wix installer, this is my first time using wix. It looks good so far, but I'm not sure if it complies with all the following requirements.
Requirement:
Customers should be confident that applications will install on Windows Server 2008 R2 without degrading the operating system or other applications.
Installer related requirements
Do not require server to restart during and after Install / uninstall
Uninstall cleanly
Comply with Windows Resource Protection (WRP)
Allow user control of installation location
Comply with Kernel mode component requirements
Install shared components to correct location
Do not overwrite non proprietary files with older Versions
Support User Account Control for installation
Correctly conñgure package identity
Follow Best Practices for creating custom actions
Follow component rules
Install / uninstall
Support command iine installation
Applications using Windows Installer must successfully install in quiet mode via a command line with /qn switch.
I would like to know if Wix is the right tool or is there any other better free tools. Visual Studio setup project doesn't seem to be flexible or may be I'm wrong.
If you want a free tool Wix should be your choice. Its no so easy to use it in the beginning, but it gets the job done. VS setup project is designed for small simple setup packages, you cannot consider it as an option based on the requirements you have.
Advanced Installer recently added dedicated support for Silverlight applications. It also covers your other requirements, including SQL Server databases. The only downside is that it's a commercial tool, so you need to get a license.
But if you want a free tool, WiX allows you to hack pretty much anything into your installer. So if you like it, you should stick with it and start implementing custom actions which cover the requirements which are not supported by Windows Installer.
Generally when I use ClickOnce when I build a VB.NET program but it has a few downsides. I've never really used anything else, so I'm not sure
what my options are.
Downsides to ClickOnce:
Consists of multiple files - Seems easier to distribute one file than manageing a bunch of file and the downloader to download those files.
You have to build it again for CD installations (for when the end user dosn't have internet)
Program does not end up in Program Files - It ends up hidden away in some application catch folder, making it much harder to shortcut to.
Pros to ClickOnce:
It works. Magically. And it's built
into VisualStudio 2008 express.
Makes it easy to upgrade the
application.
Does Windows Installer do these things as well? I know it dosen't have any of the ClickOnce cons, but It would be nice to know if it also has the ClickOnce pros.
Update:
I ended up using Wix 2 (Wix 3 was available but at the time I did the project, no one had a competent tutorial). It was nice because it supported the three things I (eventually) needed. An optional start-up-with-windows shortcut, a start-up-when-the-installer-is-done option, and three paragraphs of text that my boss thinks will keep uses from clicking the wrong option.
Have you seen WiX yet?
http://wix.sourceforge.net/
It builds windows installers using an XML file and has additional libraries to use if you want to fancify your installers and the like. I'll admit the learning curve for me was medium-high in getting things started, but afterwards I was able to build a second installer without any hassles.
It will handle updates and other items if you so desire, and you can apply folder permissions and the like to the installers. It also gives you greater control on where exactly you want to install files and is compatible with all the standardized Windows folder conventions, so you can specify "PROGRAM_DATA" or something to that effect and the installer knows to put it in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data or C:\ProgramData depending on if you're running XP or Vista.
The rumor is that Office 2007 and Visual Studio 2008 used WiX to create their installer, but I haven't been able to verify that anywhere. I do believe is is developed by some Microsoft folks on the inside.
I agree with Joseph, my experience with ClickOnce is its great for the vast majority of projects especially in a corporate environment where it makes build, publish and deployment easy. Implementing the "forced upgrade" to ensure users have the latest version when running is so much easier in ClickOnce, and a main reason for my usage of it.
Issues with ClickOnce: In a corporate environment it has issues with proxy servers and the workarounds are less than ideal. I've had to deploy a few apps in those cases from UNC paths...but you can't do that all the time. Its "sandbox" is great, until you want to find the executable or create a desktop shortcut.
Have not deployed out of 2008 yet so not sure if those issues still exist.
Creating an installer project, with a dependency on your EXE (which in turn depends on whatever it needs) is a fairly straightforward process - but you'll need at least VS Standard Edition for that.
Inside the installer project, you can create custom tasks and dialog steps that allow you to do anything you code up.
What's missing is the auto-upgrade and version-checking magic you get with ClickOnce. You can still build it in, it's just not automatic.
I don't believe there is any easy way to make a Windows Installer project have the ease or upgradability of ClickOnce. I use ClickOnce for all the internal .NET apps I develop (with the exception of Console Apps). I find that in an enterprise environment, the ease of deployment outweighs the lack of flexibility.
ClickOnce can be problematic if you have 3rd party components that need to be installed along with your product. You can skirt this to some extent by creating installers for the components however with ClickOnce deployment you have to create the logic to update said component installers.
I've in a previous life used Wise For Windows Installer to create installation packages. While creating upgrades with it were not automatic like ClickOnce is, they were more precise and less headache filled when it came to other components that needed to be registered/added.