How are applications made in C# Windows Forms updated, with version control?

Question

What would be the step by step of such update so that the software after going through some change or update this is reflected to the systems that have the same software?

Answer 1

Create a Windows Forms project in your Visual Studio:

File -> New -> Project

When opening your application right-click on the name of your project in my drop-down goes to the item Properties (Properties of your project).

From now on are very basic settings for your application to be updated via internet.

Choosing Publish for such settings

In the text box Publishing Folder Location a local folder will be configured which is a folder that my server IIS has configured a Site (note that it has ftp and web server yet for such configuration, for example, if your folder is remote can be configured an FTP).

Folder path: C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Update

In the text box Installation Folder URL, will be the http address containing the files required for online installations and updates of your systems. Obs: in our case will be done on the machine localhost but, can be done on a site normally following the same idea

Path to the URL: http://127.0.0.1/Update/

With these two settings will be the screen like this:

On that same screen is a button Updates

Click on it and enable the settings The application should check for updates and for now only this configuration is enough for this simple example.

After leaving this set confirm the screen on the button OK. On the previous screen has the button Publish Now that at that time should be clicked to have a build and Publish succeeded.

Install for the first time via Web

Type in your browser the URL: http://127.0.0.1/Update/setup.exe and follow the installation instructions

After installation it is simple the software already installed on my machine with the screen that actually has nothing

Now I go in the project and I will add on this screen a button and I want after new publication to be done an automatic online update of the application, being again clicked on Publish Now to generate the new version.

After that I click again on the program and see what happens:

You can give a OK or Ignore the new software update. By clicking OK the screen will suffer button update:

How would the folder of all these updates look:

It happens to increase every time we give one Publish Now, because the configuration Automatically increment Revision with each Publish is marked.

Reference

• Deploying Windows Forms applications with Clickonce

• Clickonce in Visual Studio 2010

• Clickonce Deployment for Windows Forms Applications

• Clickonce Security and Deployment

• Clickonce Deployment Overview

• Choosing a Clickonce Deployment Strategy