Chapter 11. Deploying Code
In This Chapter
An Overview of Client Deployment Options
Publishing a Project with ClickOnce
Publishing a Project with InstallShield Limited Edition (forthcoming)
Publishing an ASP.NET Web Application
Please Note
Over the last few revisions of Visual Studio Unleashed, this chapter has traditionally covered all of the core knowledge required to package and deploy applications. This has included coverage of a free add-in from InstallShield called InstallShield Limited Edition. Unfortunately, this time around, a copy of InstallShield Limited Edition for Visual Studio 2015 was not available in time for us to include it in the print version of this book. We’ve left the section here in this chapter, and will provide content for that section via an electronic, free version of this chapter published online at this book’s website when available: www.informit.com/title/9780672337369.
Visual Studio is primarily a coding and development tool. But after you have built an application, the next problem you face is how to get it into the hands of the users. This is not an insignificant problem. Applications can have a variety of prerequisites that need to be verified. Is the right version of the .NET Framework installed? Does the target machine have SQL Server installed? Is a supported operating system detected?
In addition to prerequisites, the actual install process involves myriad variables. Some applications are simple enough to enjoy the ability to do “xcopy deployment.” In other words, you just copy the executable to the target machine and away you go. But there are certainly more complicated scenarios as well. For instance, your application might store some data in the Registry and might require Registry values to be set upon install. Or there might be a particular folder structure required. Or maybe a database schema needs to be configured, and data populated, during the deployment process.
In addition to these standard deployment scenarios, Microsoft has been advancing its strategy with respect to application “stores”: central locations where developers can publish their applications. We cover these specific flavors of code deployment in Chapters 23, “Developing Windows Store Applications,” and 24, “Creating Windows Phone Applications.”
In this chapter, we focus on the more traditional code deployment scenarios for .NET client applications and for server-based ASP.NET web applications.