Is this possible with clickonce

[Daniel]

Hey guys

Ok i have a few probs with clickonce. User must have .net2 , i need them to
also have dx and they must use Internet explorer as click once wont work in
mozilla, firefox etc

From some earlier posts i hope to have the dx issue sorted with some
pre-requisites i am yet to try.

But i had an idea and want to know if this is possible.

I need the benefit of the clickonce update and so on because it is
excellent. I was thinking, make a installer, stand alone msi, that can be
downloaed. When user runs that it will check their system for .net2, if they
do not have it connects to microsoft and downloads and installs it, then
checks for directx, if they dont have it, installs that over web as well and
then finally connects to my click once deployment url and runs the installer
as per usual.

is that possible?

 

[Fabrizio Romano]

Well, about firefox you can set up your server to let users install your
applications also with firefox.
Just google for that.

For the pre-requisites, you can specify them in your click-once project's
settings.
You can also choose wether to make your users download required components
from the vendors' sites or from your site, and the ide will take care about
publishing on your site what's needed.

IMHO this is far quicker and safe respect the way you would try.

Also, remember to provide your user with an option to make a shortcut to
your application, since if they just make it as a normal shortcut, your
application won't update. The "shortcut" used by click-once is an
application reference and you must call the apps using it if you want them
to perform the updates.

HTH
Fabrizio

 

[Daniel]

Hi Fabrizio,

I know what you mean and in an ideal world yes the pre requisites and click
once telling them, you need this first and now you need this, is fine.

The problem i have is the end user. Simply put, if they require clicking
more than one lick for a download, they don't bother. Firstly i noticed some
are scared by the word DirecX as they don't know what it is and so are
scared to install it, and don't bother to read a short one line description
of it. Secondly .net 2 framework doesn't appeal to them either.

So i need the install to be as simple as possible. So it must be ONE
application download. the msi download is what they are used to which is why
i want to go that route.

What's your view? Or does anyone else have any idea of how to get the
download to be simpler. As much as i love click once, it is not practical to
general public end users, i just WISH it would, on clicking install,
automatically download .net 2 if it isnt there and then automatically
download any other pre-requisites and then run itself as normal.