Distributing .net "Shrink Wrap" Applications

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marcus Clark
  • Start date Start date
M

Marcus Clark

I am currently in the process of evaluating the C# and VB.NET portions
of the latest release of Visual Studio 2003 .NET (I have already
written a few production apps using VC++ 7 that DOES NOT target the
framework. What I would like to know is if anyone has successfully
(or NOT) written an installable .NET application using either C# or
VB.NET (or both) targeting a variety of OS's (XP, 2000, and possibly
NT4 and 98) without considerable pain. I have search many post and
have only found post discouraging such solutions.

Any success stories??

Any stop signs besides the obvious one of needing to have the
Framework installed on the client machines??

Any Products in any markets currently being developed and sold as a
completely .net solution??

Any comments would be appreciated!!!
 
VB .NET or C# there is not difference in terms of distribution.
We have it on clients running : 2000, XP, Server2003
And here we have it on Win 98 internally in the office in case some client
still is on 98.

No difference what the OS is as long as it's MS.

Our solution is completely .NET and it's a beauty to distribute compared to
what we where using before.

Don't know why those post were discouraging since it's simple XCOPY deploy
(except for the framework which they install from windows update or from the
supplied .NET 1.1 redistributable package).

For us .NET is a great relief.
Hope this helps.

Chris.
 
(e-mail address removed) (Marcus Clark) wrote in
framework. What I would like to know is if anyone has successfully
(or NOT) written an installable .NET application using either C# or
VB.NET (or both) targeting a variety of OS's (XP, 2000, and possibly
NT4 and 98) without considerable pain. I have search many post and
have only found post discouraging such solutions.
Click to expand...

I dont think the framework works on NT4.


--
Chad Z. Hower (a.k.a. Kudzu) - http://www.hower.org/Kudzu/
"Programming is an art form that fights back"


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If you just use native framework calls and target just 1.1 that will make it
easy. If you require a lot of pinvoke and Win32 native calls, you will need
to check versions to see if os supports that api, and if not, do something
different. However that issue is not new and you had to do that before
..net. If you support targets in different languages, you need to test each
one (as normal). I ran into a user that failed to parse a double (for
example) having something to do with language differences. If you target
just one language (i.e. english version ) then testing should be easier.
XCOPY deploy and go. One issue that is not really easy from user's side, or
your side, is security and .net framework. If you run from network drive,
all clients need higher rights for that assembly to run from network drive.
Other security issues may need rights management. Not a big deal, but
things you need to handle and test before you just point people to a share
or url for download/install. The Setup project seems to work well to roll
everthing up when your done (have not worked with it too much however to
know any issues with it.)
 
Ho just one thing might be a little of trouble is configuring .NET security
if you are deploying your app on a Web server since you don't get full trust
if your app is coming from the Intranet or Internet. It's not easily done in
an unattended mode. You can use caspol to change these but I don't remember
if you need to be admin on your pc. You can also get the .NET wizards to
generate an .msi that changes security settings but I think it overwrites
any other settings that might have been set in there by the user.

Chris.
 
William Stacey said:
Does for me. Not sure how well as have not tested apps on it much.
Click to expand...

Works for me too. There are however limitations, the biggest being no
ASP.Net, but for desktop Apps that should not be an issue. Another area
I know of surrounds the EnterpriseServices namespace since this is
essentially COM+ which only came along in W2K, and was substantially
different to what you had with MTS in NT4..

Anything new in W2K+ at an OS/API level will obviously not work on NT4,
but I haven't found a concise list.

--
Darren Green (SQL Server MVP)
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Chad, NT4 service pack 6 is required for the framework, however asp.net
won't run on NT, as asp.net requires IIS5 and up.
 
Markus, we are using it on all operating systems you mentioned. Win98 does
not have all features, like the directory watcher, but that was the only one
I used so far not included (check your documentation for classes not
supported by Win98).
 
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