I'm currently searching for a way to make it possible to deploy and update a C# .NET application over SFTP. Background is that most of my users do not have admin rights, internet access rights or common file structures/group policies. The best I could actually get was the ability to also use the SFTP-infrastructure the application already uses for data transfers.
So I tried using Visual Studio publish, which can deploy the application initially, however it does not support the update mechanisms (it only supports URLs and File Paths). A manual update/deployment process is out of the question, however, purely through the sheer size of the userbase (1000+ users).
I then had a look at wyBuild, a third-party build-tool that can actually use sftp to upload Updates. It can not, however, download them via sftp.
So I'm reaching somewhat the end of my rope here. Writing an updater myself seems like a large time investment, but I could not find any other solution. How would this problem be solvable? Thanks for any help in advance.
Oh, and before somebody flags for "asking for a tutorial", I tried hard to stay within the guidelines stackoverflow provides here
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I want an auto updater that detect modified game files (by comparing files on the client-side and a server) and only download modified files.
The scenario is that there's about one thousand clients in a network, that use same application. If a new version of the application is available, they all have to get the new version.
I see a www.aldera.to game if you install the files their Aelra_patcher application auto patch the files from the server side. It do the exact thing I want:Getting the newest files from server when the patcher is run. But the problem is that clients wrote in C#, and I can't use IcePatch2 inside my application.
So far, the best solution I found is to get .NET Application Updater Component and customize it to fit my needs. But I prefer a solution that dose not require me to maintain another application.
Any idea?
Managing file locks is fairly simple. The process should go something like this:
The game application downloads the installer, if there is any
The game application runs the installer and exits
The installer starts doing the work of updating files as needed. If any files are locked it may wait a short while and try again, or ask the user if it is ok to close the application that have locked the files.
But the topic of minimizing update time and bandwith is a fairly complex. You might want to read Raymon Chens articles on Windows Update Formats to get some appreciation for the various issues.
I'm not familiar with IcePatch2, but it seems to be a fairly generic file synchronization tool. This may be appropriate for your specific use case, but I would expect some use cases to benefit from a more specialized approach. You could for example use knowledge of things like file or resource versions to avoid much of the work a more generic tool has to do.
I've got a small program I made to improve on simple work efficiencies. In effect it's just an application that has direct links to applications and websites, allows text input and formats it appropriately so this information to be stored and recalled quickly.
This has been running for years on our corporate machines (running Windows 7 and 8) just by emailing the .exe to myself with a password protected zip and starting it on the machine, but we're now upgrading to Windows 10 machines and these are locked down to the point where no foreign software can be ran. I know the reasons for this are security, but I am looking for a way around it or alternative way of deploying the software.
I am looking into getting the software authorised for use, but in effect this will be unlikely given how often I update and change things on it (or business changes frequently in terms of process and operation) - it would just be inconvenient.
It's a C# program. NET 4.5.
I can't get admin permission on these machines. Is there anything I can do?
Thanks!
If you cannot run untrusted applications, then instead build your solution within another product that you can use.
For example-- you can probably do all of your direct links to websites and any text input / reformatting you might need with javascript entirely within an html page. Open the .html file with your browser and there you have it.
You can also do many things with VBA scripts in Excel or Word documents.
You may also be able to use powershell to do your automation.
How Can a Web Page Display What Version a File is In Program Files Directory?
For example, if I wanted to send a user a URL that would show the user what version of our software is installed (version number and release date) on their Windows PC. I'm just talking about file properties, not actually running something.
Is there a way to do this with .Net/ASP.Net?
The answer is no.
The best you can do with HTML5 or Javascript is to let the user select a file and even then you have very limited access to properties (at most name, size and type) without having the user upload the file.
The most efficient solution right now would be to serve a very basic clickonce application which would locate the files, read the properties and send the information back to the server. From there you can choose to redirect the user back to your website with the information you collected.
Generally access to the Programm folder is limited at best. There used to be a time when we even would write data like Configuration files there. That was Windows 95/98. And it was frowned upon back then.
With the introduction of NTFS with Windows NT (and later XP in the Consumer area), enforceable rules were put in place. Rights tend to be highly limited. This is even more true of Webservers, as they tend to be prime targets for hacking. The only rights you can expected a Webserver to have is read rights to it's programm and the content directory. Maybe if the admin is really nice and it really helps with performance, it might have write rights on a Temporary subfolder of Contents.
Reading out your version from a file is propably possible with only read rights, but not the right way. Usually you just let the compiler hardcode (insert as constant) whatever Version is given in the Project file or by the Version Tracking Software.
So the first thing is that you need some approach of Version Control. And then your answer depends "however this Version control mechanism does tracking of the Compiled version". There is some limited version tracking support in Visual Studio itself. But there is also full, 3rd party Version tracking Software.
I'm using SharpDevelop to create a WinForm-based C# application. After studying my target audience, I believe it is in my best interest to use a no-install application. While creating my HelloWorld! program to get to know SharpDevelop (I have just switched from VBExpress), I found that the file it outputs is a .exe without any setup process. However, I'm worried that some of the features I want won't be compatible with this format. I don't want to get deep into this app and find out users are going to have to keep the program in the same directory as 548 other random files.
Here are the features I'm concerned about:
+Save user data (XML) in AppData.
+Access internet feeds (XML and/or JSON).
+Minimize to tray on close.
Also, are there any common pitfalls with this type of deployment method?
EDIT: I understand the enduser will need the .NET framwork for C# programs. I am not worried about this.
It will execute with the same privileges.
The only thing you will want to look out for is making sure the end user has the correct .NET framework installed since you don't have an installer to do that for you. But now reading the end of your message it appears you already have that covered.
If you are concerned about the deployment technique you can test it on a non-dev machine, though the results should be the exact same.
One of my favorite things about owning a USB flash storage device is hauling around a bunch of useful tools with me. I'd like to write some tools, and make them work well in this kind of environment. I know C# best, and I'm productive in it, so I could get a windows forms application up in no time that way.
But what considerations should I account for in making a portable app? A few I can think of, but don't know answers to:
1) Language portability - Ok, I know that any machine I use it on will require a .NET runtime be installed. But as I only use a few windows machines regularly, this shouldn't be a problem. I could use another language to code it, but then I lose out on productivity especially in regards to an easy forms designer. Are there any other problems with running a .NET app from a flash drive?
2) Read/Write Cycles - In C#, how do I make sure that my application isn't writing unnecessarily to the drive? Do I always have control of writes, or are there any "hidden writes" that I need to account for?
3) Open question: are there any other issues relating to portable applications I should be aware of, or perhaps suggestions to other languages with good IDEs that would get me a similar level of productivity but better portability?
1) There shouldn't be any problems
running a .NET app from a flash
drive.
2) You should have control of
most writes. Be sure you write to
temp or some other location on the
hard drive, and not on the flash
drive. But write-cycles shouldn't be
a problem - even with moderate to heavy
usage most flashdrives have a life
time of years.
3) Just treat it
like's it any app that has xcopy
style deployment and try to account
for your app gracefully failing if
some dependency is not on the box.
If you want to use com objects, use reg-free com and include the com objects with your program.
You should always have control of your writes. Applications should be loaded into RAM at startup, and then memory past that is allocated in RAM, so nothing is written to the flash drive.
The most important thing for a portable application is that basically no installation is necessary for your application. You do not want to be dependant on registry values especially, since your application will not be 'installed' on other computers.
One of the issues with portable applications you may consider is data persistence. Generally, you write to a user's Application Data folder to save data. If this is the case, any data saved will only apply to the user on that computer. If you want some local application data, you may wish to create a Seralized XML file for your settings and store it locally within your application's directory. This file writing would then likely be the only write actions you'd need to worry about.
For your .NET portability issue, you could also write a small entry program in C++, which checks if the computer has .NET installed. .NET has registry values you can check to see the versions installed, so if .NET is installed, run your application, else display a message stating that .NET needs to be installed first.
Edit: I'd like to add that I do application development for Ultrasound machines using XAML in C# 3.0. The application I write works perfectly from a USB Flash Drive, while all user settings are stored on a local AppData basis, so nothing is written to the USB. While the application can be installed through an .exe installer, the installer does not write any registry values the application depends on.
I don't really have answers for #1 or #3. But for #2, the .NET CLR shouldn't be writing to an app's "installation" folder (i.e. the flash drive) unless your code specifically tells it to or is using and modifying file-based settings (ini, xml, etc) that live with the app.
Number 1 is really the kicker if you're not just writing things for personal use. Obviously hosting a portable copy of the full CLR on the thumb drive is impossible. But there are tools that can scan your assembly for its dependencies and package them up into a standalone .exe so that the CLR doesn't necessarily need to be installed on the target system.
I don't actually have any experience with this so it might be best to take what I say with a pinch of salt. But here is my take on it:
You don't need to do anything special.
It is not really a consideration of an application developer as to how and when writes are made to a drive, that is something that is far better controlled by the OS. I know that Windows caches writes to USB drives so I would trust it do handle that.
The only thing you need to consider is that your application will not be installed. So you need to make sure that you design it to run entirely self contained within the directory it is deployed to. You could optionally also make some writes to the users home directory but this needs to be done through the appropriate environment variables.
I would get writing and see if there is anything special about a flash drive that the OS doesn't handle.