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click once or windows installer or update block?

Hi All,

I asked this question in clickonce forum and no one seems to answer so
I thought I will ask a border experts.

I have an application, which uses 2 different set of files based on the
use. On one instance the application might use both the file sets and
in some other installs it might use either one of them the file set but
not both. Right now, I have these 2 files in zip file format and when
ever the application requires one of them, I copy them from a web
server and unzip and put it for use.

These 2 set of files change now and then and I have to develop my
program intelligent to check and see if new files are available in the
server and then update the file sets.

2 important points though, these files zipped are around 30MB or 80MB
and these set of files are only data files and no application
associated with that. These files also does not reside in traditional
program files folders.

I want to know couple of things
1. Is there a way I can use any of the above technologies to copy down
and install the files and check for updates automatically when launched
from a .net application? (I am thinking of writing a dummy application
with all the data files in it)
2. Is there a way, I can make it to continue downloading from the place
where previous download fails.

Thanks all in advance for your time.

Jun 7 '06 #1
4 1965
DBC User,
It sounds like you want to make the ClickOnce Installation do this, but
really I would think you want to make the application itself do it.
When run, the app can make a call to a webservice and transmit it's current
file type and version number, and the webservice would return information
about whether and how it should download a new zip file.
Then, your app would download this file and unzip it into the correct
relative folder.
All this can be done with .NET code, probably you'd want to look at
ICSharp.ZipLib for the zip operations.

Hope that helps!
Peter

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com


"DBC User" wrote:
Hi All,

I asked this question in clickonce forum and no one seems to answer so
I thought I will ask a border experts.

I have an application, which uses 2 different set of files based on the
use. On one instance the application might use both the file sets and
in some other installs it might use either one of them the file set but
not both. Right now, I have these 2 files in zip file format and when
ever the application requires one of them, I copy them from a web
server and unzip and put it for use.

These 2 set of files change now and then and I have to develop my
program intelligent to check and see if new files are available in the
server and then update the file sets.

2 important points though, these files zipped are around 30MB or 80MB
and these set of files are only data files and no application
associated with that. These files also does not reside in traditional
program files folders.

I want to know couple of things
1. Is there a way I can use any of the above technologies to copy down
and install the files and check for updates automatically when launched
from a .net application? (I am thinking of writing a dummy application
with all the data files in it)
2. Is there a way, I can make it to continue downloading from the place
where previous download fails.

Thanks all in advance for your time.

Jun 7 '06 #2
Man, that's a ton of work to handle things that ClickOnce already
handles for you.

I would mark these files as optional, and include them in the manifest
for the application. Then, you can use the DownloadFileGroup method on the
ApplicationDeployment class to download the file as needed.

Before the DownloadFileGroup method is called, I would take note of the
last modified time on the zip. If the time changes after the call to
DownloadFileGroup returns, then you know you have a new file, and then you
can unzip it as necessary.

Note that when incrementing the version of your application, you will
have to handle the migration of these files as well and that the files are
also in the data directory for the application (for ClickOnce apps, that
is).

Hope this helps.

--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mv*@spam.guard.caspershouse.com
"Peter Bromberg [C# MVP]" <pb*******@yahoo.nospammin.com> wrote in message
news:06**********************************@microsof t.com...
DBC User,
It sounds like you want to make the ClickOnce Installation do this, but
really I would think you want to make the application itself do it.
When run, the app can make a call to a webservice and transmit it's
current
file type and version number, and the webservice would return information
about whether and how it should download a new zip file.
Then, your app would download this file and unzip it into the correct
relative folder.
All this can be done with .NET code, probably you'd want to look at
ICSharp.ZipLib for the zip operations.

Hope that helps!
Peter

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com


"DBC User" wrote:
Hi All,

I asked this question in clickonce forum and no one seems to answer so
I thought I will ask a border experts.

I have an application, which uses 2 different set of files based on the
use. On one instance the application might use both the file sets and
in some other installs it might use either one of them the file set but
not both. Right now, I have these 2 files in zip file format and when
ever the application requires one of them, I copy them from a web
server and unzip and put it for use.

These 2 set of files change now and then and I have to develop my
program intelligent to check and see if new files are available in the
server and then update the file sets.

2 important points though, these files zipped are around 30MB or 80MB
and these set of files are only data files and no application
associated with that. These files also does not reside in traditional
program files folders.

I want to know couple of things
1. Is there a way I can use any of the above technologies to copy down
and install the files and check for updates automatically when launched
from a .net application? (I am thinking of writing a dummy application
with all the data files in it)
2. Is there a way, I can make it to continue downloading from the place
where previous download fails.

Thanks all in advance for your time.

Jun 7 '06 #3
Peter,

I am doing exactly what you mentioned below at present.

What I would like to see is if I can seperate the two filesets as files
instead of zip and make them on their own application with their own
version number (even though there is no application associated with
that). One reason is, the data files changes more often than the
application. Application very seldom changes. So from my main
application, I launch the data file application which will
automatically check the version (I hope with clickonce) and ask the
user if they want to install or not. Once the install complete, I get
the control back and I continue with what I am doing. With this
approach I can delegate the version control and file download and
associated function to completly another application. I may be wrong,
please correct me.

One another advandage I am thinking is with the download seperated from
the main application, I can make it as a windows service or somesort
so, it can download automatically the updates every night or something
like that.

Thanks for the comment.
Peter wrote:
DBC User,
It sounds like you want to make the ClickOnce Installation do this, but
really I would think you want to make the application itself do it.
When run, the app can make a call to a webservice and transmit it's current
file type and version number, and the webservice would return information
about whether and how it should download a new zip file.
Then, your app would download this file and unzip it into the correct
relative folder.
All this can be done with .NET code, probably you'd want to look at
ICSharp.ZipLib for the zip operations.

Hope that helps!
Peter

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com


"DBC User" wrote:
Hi All,

I asked this question in clickonce forum and no one seems to answer so
I thought I will ask a border experts.

I have an application, which uses 2 different set of files based on the
use. On one instance the application might use both the file sets and
in some other installs it might use either one of them the file set but
not both. Right now, I have these 2 files in zip file format and when
ever the application requires one of them, I copy them from a web
server and unzip and put it for use.

These 2 set of files change now and then and I have to develop my
program intelligent to check and see if new files are available in the
server and then update the file sets.

2 important points though, these files zipped are around 30MB or 80MB
and these set of files are only data files and no application
associated with that. These files also does not reside in traditional
program files folders.

I want to know couple of things
1. Is there a way I can use any of the above technologies to copy down
and install the files and check for updates automatically when launched
from a .net application? (I am thinking of writing a dummy application
with all the data files in it)
2. Is there a way, I can make it to continue downloading from the place
where previous download fails.

Thanks all in advance for your time.


Jun 7 '06 #4
Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for the input thats kind of thing I was looking for. Couple of
questions,
1. I want to put these data files in a completly different directory
than the default application data directory, can I do this? Sometimes,
I need to put it in c:\foo\data folder for example not in the
traditional program files folder.
2. In my situation, the data file changes more often than the
application, so in that case I need to deliver the complete application
and increase the release number and update will automatically download
the changed files?
3. I am brand new to clickonce, is there any examples that I can use
for Downloadfilegroup or any sample simple programs I can use??

4. On the side note, can I create a dummy application (which does
nothing but look for updates) for checking updates for data files? If I
can create one, if I launch the app from my main application, will the
application check for updates and perform required updates?? (I read
somwhere, Clickonce will not do that when launched from another
application)

Thanks a lot for the help.

Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP] wrote:
Man, that's a ton of work to handle things that ClickOnce already
handles for you.

I would mark these files as optional, and include them in the manifest
for the application. Then, you can use the DownloadFileGroup method on the
ApplicationDeployment class to download the file as needed.

Before the DownloadFileGroup method is called, I would take note of the
last modified time on the zip. If the time changes after the call to
DownloadFileGroup returns, then you know you have a new file, and then you
can unzip it as necessary.

Note that when incrementing the version of your application, you will
have to handle the migration of these files as well and that the files are
also in the data directory for the application (for ClickOnce apps, that
is).

Hope this helps.

--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mv*@spam.guard.caspershouse.com
"Peter Bromberg [C# MVP]" <pb*******@yahoo.nospammin.com> wrote in message
news:06**********************************@microsof t.com...
DBC User,
It sounds like you want to make the ClickOnce Installation do this, but
really I would think you want to make the application itself do it.
When run, the app can make a call to a webservice and transmit it's
current
file type and version number, and the webservice would return information
about whether and how it should download a new zip file.
Then, your app would download this file and unzip it into the correct
relative folder.
All this can be done with .NET code, probably you'd want to look at
ICSharp.ZipLib for the zip operations.

Hope that helps!
Peter

--
Co-founder, Eggheadcafe.com developer portal:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
UnBlog:
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com


"DBC User" wrote:
Hi All,

I asked this question in clickonce forum and no one seems to answer so
I thought I will ask a border experts.

I have an application, which uses 2 different set of files based on the
use. On one instance the application might use both the file sets and
in some other installs it might use either one of them the file set but
not both. Right now, I have these 2 files in zip file format and when
ever the application requires one of them, I copy them from a web
server and unzip and put it for use.

These 2 set of files change now and then and I have to develop my
program intelligent to check and see if new files are available in the
server and then update the file sets.

2 important points though, these files zipped are around 30MB or 80MB
and these set of files are only data files and no application
associated with that. These files also does not reside in traditional
program files folders.

I want to know couple of things
1. Is there a way I can use any of the above technologies to copy down
and install the files and check for updates automatically when launched
from a .net application? (I am thinking of writing a dummy application
with all the data files in it)
2. Is there a way, I can make it to continue downloading from the place
where previous download fails.

Thanks all in advance for your time.


Jun 7 '06 #5

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