Our Quick Start Guide will have you building ClickOnce deployments in minutes!
Before You Start
Before you start work with this guide you need to create a .Net application, either using Visual Studio or an alternative .Net development environment. Once you have built your test application you can make a start on creating a ClickOnce deployment package for it.
Getting Started
Start ClickOnceMore, and if you haven't already done so follow the on screen instructions to activate the software with either an evaluation or activation code.
Now create a new ClickOnceMore project, using the File menu, and selecting New. A ClickOnceMore project can be used to create ClickOnce manifests for one of your applications. If you have several applications you wish to deploy you will need to create one ClickOnceMore project for each one.
Basic Settings
To create a ClickOnce deployment package you only need to enter a few pieces of information.
On the General page, enter the name of your application in the application section, and the name of your company in the publisher section.
On the Signing page, select a certificate file. If you do not have a certificate you can create one very easily using the makecert application which is supplied with Visual Studio. (See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bfsktky3.aspx for more information.)
Including Your Application Files
The only other information you have to enter before you can create your first ClickOnce package is the list of files that are required to run your application.
On the Application Files page, you need to enter the main executable file of your application in the Entry Point field. Use the browse button to browse to it in your system.
If your application requires a configuration file, enter the name of that in the Config File field.
Now add a new File Inclusion Rule to include any other assemblies that make up your application. Click the Add button in the File Inclusion Rules section. Enter a name for the rule (the name is just to remind you what the rule does) and then select to use a directory and file patterns. In the directory field enter the main directory of your built application (E.g. xxx\bin\Debug, where xxx is your applications Visual Studio project directory). In the include pattern enter *.dll to drag in the assemblies required for your application. Click OK to add the rule.
Back in the Application Files page you should see a list of your application files at the bottom of the page. This list updates, whenever you change the rules, so that you can see the files that will be included.
Ready To Build
You are now ready to build your first ClickOnce package. By default the manifests will be output to C:\Inetpub\webroot\[ProductName] to be integrated with an IIS web server. The [ProductName] macro will be expanded to the name of your application at build time. See Macros for more details. You can change this output directory on the output page if you want to.
Whether you change the output directory or not, you will need to make sure that the output directory exists before building the ClickOnceMore project. This helps to ensure you have entered the correct output directory name.
Build
Once you are happy with the output directory name and you have ensured it exists, click the Deploy button on the tool bar.
If you have not already done so, you will be prompted to save the project now. You must save the project before it can be built.
In the status bar you should see "Building" and then "Build Successful". At this point your default web browser should open with a deployment page for your new ClickOnce application.
Running The Application
In order to run your ClickOnce application from that web page you will need to correctly set up virtual directories in your local web server. This guide does not cover how to do that. Please refer to your web server documentation.
In the mean time you can run the ClickOnce application by opening the output folder you specified. In that folder you should see two .application files and two .htm files. After each build ClickOnceMore creates a copy of each .htm and .application file and labels them with the current version number. This allows you to easily roll back to a previous version.
Double click the .application file to launch the installation.
Well done, you have successfully created a ClickOnce application.
What Next?
Now that you have successfully created a ClickOnce application you may want to spend some time familiarising yourself with the various options available within ClickOnceMore. For a start, have a look at Advanced, Automatic Updates and Requirements to see how you can control the ClickOnce application.
If you want to integrate ClickOnceMore into your automated build processes then take a look at the Command Line Tool.
You might also want to consider the certificate you are using. If you are using one created with makecert then it is intended as a test certificate and you probably want to look into getting a more appropriate certificate before allowing people to install your application.
Help?
If you need any more help, remember you can press F1 at any time in the application to launch the latest online help. And if you can't find the answer to your question there, please contact our Support Team.