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Smart Client Updating Technologies - ClickOnce and the Application Updater Block

I had a customer recently ask me for information regarding technologies that can be used to automatically update Winforms/SmartClient applications.

For deploying Smart Client applications there are two technologies you should be concerned with:

Visual Studio 2005 Click-Once Deployment

Click Once Overview: http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/understanding/windowsforms/2.0/features/clickonce.aspx
MSDN Magazine Overview of Click Once: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/05/clickonce/default.aspx
Click Once Lab: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/tryit/hosted/vstudio2005/clickoncedeployment/
MSDN TV Overview of Click Once Deployment: http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/msdntv/episode.aspx?xml=episodes/en/20040108ClickOnceJC/manifest.xml
Original PDC 2003 Overview of Click Once: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwinforms/html/clickonce.asp

For technologies older than Visual Studio 2005, the Updater Application Block is important:

Updater Application Block - Version 2.0
The Updater Application Block is a .NET Framework component that you can use to detect, download, and apply client application updates deployed in a central location. By using the Updater Application Block, you can keep smart client applications up to date with little or no user intervention. You can also extend the Updater Application Block to use custom classes for downloading files and for performing post-deployment configuration tasks.

Updater Application Block Download: http://msdn.microsoft.com/practices/compcat/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/updaterv2.asp
Updater Application Block Community: http://www.gotdotnet.com/codegallery/codegallery.aspx?id=83c68646-befb-4586-ba9f-fdf1301902f5
Updater Application Block Webcast: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032255995&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Published Tuesday, September 06, 2005 4:45 PM by scottker

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# re: Smart Client Updating Technologies - ClickOnce and the Application Updater Block @ Friday, December 30, 2005 7:48 PM

hi,

we are currently using the application updater block and would like to use the click-once instead. we tried migrating the application to 2.0 and it works fine with the clean install.

But what we want is that existing users should get an update for already installed apps which are using the application updater block.

Is it possible that we can do it somehow so that for clients its just another update, the updater can and and install the framework 2.0 and also launches the clickonce somehow.

We want a seamless way so that the when users get an update next time, it should switch from application updater to click once and installs the framework 2.0 and use the click once from thereon.

Do you have some white papers which cater to this need?

I would greatly appreciate any help on this.

-Amit

amit purohit

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