Desktop-Setup for CF?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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G

Guest

Hello NG!

I wonder if there isn't a setup-tool for the MS .NET CompactFramework that
can be executed from the Desktop-PC. I think copy and execute cab-files
isn't the right enduser-solution. Especially if there are MANY different
cab-files for the CF...

Nearly every other developper tries to create a desktop-setup for his
application that uses the application-manager. Why not MS too? On one hand
they try to spread .NET all over the world, but on the other hand they force
every .NET developper to create his 'own' CF-setup-tool?

Or are there big fat tomatoes on my eyes?

Thanks, D.Barisch
 
Daniel,

I don't know about the tomatoes, but I think most people who need complex
installers write their own using Rapi since it is so easy to do. I don't
see this as reinventing a wheel that somebody should have already built, but
more as a way to get exactly the behavior you want. It would be pretty easy
to write a Rapi app that reads a file that describes which cab files to copy
and install in which order, and then you've got your generic installer.
There is a Rapi class on www.opennetcf.org.
 
I don't know about the tomatoes, but I think most people who need complex
installers write their own using Rapi since it is so easy to do.
Click to expand...
I don't want a complex installer. I want an easy one. Developping
applications with .NET CF is very easy (Thank you MS!!!) but why deployment
is that complicated?

In my opinion in 99% the deployment would be like
Step1: Installing MS .NET CF on the device, if it isn't already installed
Step2: Installing the own application

Now thousands of developpers should learn how to use Rapi to develop Step1?
I can't say anything about the effort to do so, because so far I did not
have a look on Rapi. But I don't even want to and I think to include a
MS-signed setup-tool into my product would be much easier.

And if it is that simple why there isn't a sample at the MSDN and why there
are many questions like "which cab for which device" - even after there is
an article within the CF-FAQ's, which is in my opinion more confusing than
clearing.
There is a Rapi class on www.opennetcf.org.
Click to expand...
In the aera of Windows XP you really expect endusers to use a
console-application?

Thanks, D.Barisch
 
Daniel,

I don't understand what a console application has to do with Rapi. My Rapi
apps are all normal Windows apps (although you can test the concept with a
console app if you want to.)

Ginny Caughey
..Net Compact Framework MVP
 
There are several commercial installers available, just like tere are for
desktop applications. For example I use Wise Installer, which makes a
desktop deploiyment EXE, which in turn invokes ActiveSync's installer. It's
nice becasue I can deploy thinks like documentation and/or samples to a
directory on the PC and the app and support files to the device.

InstallShield has similar capabilities.

Of course either will cost money. If you're looking for free, then you'll
have to roll your own. It's not terribly difficult as there is plenty of
online documentation for every step of the process, from customizing the INF
files to build your CABs to making custom installer DLLs to using RAPI for
copy and execution.
 
I don't understand what a console application has to do with Rapi. My Rapi
apps are all normal Windows apps (although you can test the concept with a
console app if you want to.)
Click to expand...

I just followed the link you gave meand searched for Rapi. What I found was a picture of console-application.

Sorry, maybe that was a little bit to fast, with a minimum of spending some
thoughts to it...
 
If you're looking for free, then you'll
have to roll your own. It's not terribly difficult as there is plenty of
online documentation for every step of the process, from customizing the INF
files to build your CABs to making custom installer DLLs to using RAPI for
copy and execution.
Click to expand...

After a little practise I learned how to customize the INF and how to get
the CAB's I want. All I've searched for was a possibility to get all CAB's
in one desktop-setup-tool, like all other developpers do. What I found was
an example within the MSDN. So I learned how to add files to a setup-projekt
and how to handle the events AfterInstall and AfterUninstall and to call the
application-manager of AS within an extra installer-component. But I've
never read the word Rapi....

So I wonder why I should need it for the installation of the CF. At the end
I've created an additional setup-project, that includes the CF-CAB's in the
same way I did it for my application - without Rapi.
But there's one thing left, that makes this solution not really fit my
demands: I have to create different setup-projects for every os-version
(ppc2002 and wm2003) and the user has to decide which one to execute.

And one additional issue:
XScale supports ARMv5 but AppName.ARMv4.cab is the right one
StrongARM supports ARMv4, but AppName.ARM.cab is the right one
???
I think that's very confusing to developpers who try to create their first
ppc-setup...

Thanks for your help!

D.Barisch
 
Daniel,

Tha's ok, and maybe a Rapi app is overkill for your scenario. But they are
very powerful and pretty easy to put together.
 
If u pay attention in the console RAPI code, you would be able to use the
opennetcf RAPI Class to build your own software-personalized Compact
Framework installer software.

Yeah, it will take a little worktime doing that. But if u need that so much,
i think its worth the cost.

Anyway, the RAPI class of opennetcf is very easy-to-use, and u dont hav to
waste time with API declares, calls, structures, and such things.

U just hav to waste some minutes looking at the Console example.

Anyway, if u find that it is too much work, then u can buy any comercial
software.
U can find many of these in a google search.

Cya,
Felipe T.
 
I am using RAPI for an application installation.

Advantages:

1. Full control over the installation process.
2. Decreased cost of an installation. Our client can have > 10-50 devices
connected to the same desktop computer as guests. When device is connected
to a desktop for the first time the desktop program automatically installs a
device software and does a smoke test.
3. Automatic upgrades of a device software.

Alex.
 
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