.NET 2.0 embaressment

[Steve Hall]

Hi everyone.

I have a .NET 2.0 application that has been released using clickonce
installation both online and from CD. I have no control over the end user
systems and I am being flooded with complaints that the application fails to
install on XP SP1 machines and NT4 systems.

I understand that these two operating systems are not on the .NET framework
2.0 compatbility list. However the application will install and run on XP
SP1 if I remove the MDAC 2.8 dependancy. However removing the MDAC 2.8
dependency means that windows 98 and ME systems will fail if MDAC has not
been installed.

The application was been very well received but the installation issues have
left me red faced.

I would like to redistribute the application but this time I do not want the
installation to fail if the OS is not supported. I am OK about not
supporting NT4, but I would like conditional support for XP SP1 installs
using MDAC 2.7.

Steve

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

You have a few directions you can head.

1. Create individually installable packages with a bootstrap installer that
calls the correct package based on the OS.
2. Create a factory setup that uses different libraries depending on the OS.
Make it configurable and write out the correct configuration. This can
handle the MDAC 2.8, MDAC 2.7 issue.

The difficultly is the click once. There are two ways to solve this.

1. Initial install is a bootstrapper type program that pulls the bits it
needs after it gets installed.
2. Different links for different OSs

#2 is less coding, but prone to user error.

No matter which way you go, you will be creating custom installers. You
should also set up some Virtual Images (VMWare Server is now free and
Virtual PC ships with MSDN) with the different OSs to test installs.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

*************************************************
Think outside of the box!
*************************************************

 

[Steve Hall]

Thanks Gregory,

I am concerned about releasing a single version with different builds. I
have seen the error "different computed hash specified in manifest" occur
when I have attempted to do a reinstall of a different build with the same
version number (In this case it will be a build with MDAC 2.8 and a build
without).

I was hoping someone may have rewritten a product.xml file to deal with this
issue.

I have now modified the package.xml file in the <C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages\MDAC28\En> directory and
added the lines

<!-- Bypass install on XP-->
<BypassIf Property="VersionNT" Compare="VersionGreaterThanOrEqualTo"
Value="5.1"/>

This appears to work by bypassing the MDAC 2.8 installation on XP systems



Steve