davecocks
asked on
Check desktop for updates for an application in Visual Studio
Hi,
I'm building an application in Visual Studio 2008 VB.Net ( .Net 3.5 )
I want to get my application to check for updates from a folder on the desktop.
It will be installed on many different machines so I need the folder reference to be generic i.e. applicable on all machines.
I've got an example of some code I've used before to make a generic destination folder. I'm presuming I need something similar for the update checks.
How do I get the application to check a generic desktop locations for application updates?
Thanks
I'm building an application in Visual Studio 2008 VB.Net ( .Net 3.5 )
I want to get my application to check for updates from a folder on the desktop.
It will be installed on many different machines so I need the folder reference to be generic i.e. applicable on all machines.
I've got an example of some code I've used before to make a generic destination folder. I'm presuming I need something similar for the update checks.
How do I get the application to check a generic desktop locations for application updates?
Thanks
'Creates the desktop as a folder location
Dim strDesktopFolder As String = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables("%userprofile%") & _
"\Desktop\DASdataFiles"
ASKER
Just to confirm I'm hoping for updates for the actual application / software.
Not necessarily for files in the folder.
Not necessarily for files in the folder.
So this would update the application when the update file appeared in the folder? Is the update file going to have a standard name each time? how does it get to the users folder?
For updating all machines it might be better to have a file on a central server rather than each persons desktop, in that scenario someone will have to put the file on each persons machine.
The file could contain the latest version number of the application which could then be checked against the current version.
Or for a more simple approach have you looked into the Click-Once installer for .net - it makes updating an application from a central place very easy although it does have its own issues.
For updating all machines it might be better to have a file on a central server rather than each persons desktop, in that scenario someone will have to put the file on each persons machine.
The file could contain the latest version number of the application which could then be checked against the current version.
Or for a more simple approach have you looked into the Click-Once installer for .net - it makes updating an application from a central place very easy although it does have its own issues.
ASKER
I was hoping non-expert users would be able to place the update in a folder on the desktop. It would have a different version number.
The machines do not have internet access so require manually updating.
Visual Studio does have a publish wizard which asks for a update location. My concern is that this will be unquie to my machine. To get round this I was hoping that during run time / after the install I could input a similar code
Environment.ExpandEnvironm entVariabl es("%userp rofile%") & _
"\Desktop\DASdataFiles"
into the update location in the application, that way it resolves all issues. It maybe possible to put this into the update check location before publishing but I'm uncertain how to do this.
Thanks for your patience.
The machines do not have internet access so require manually updating.
Visual Studio does have a publish wizard which asks for a update location. My concern is that this will be unquie to my machine. To get round this I was hoping that during run time / after the install I could input a similar code
Environment.ExpandEnvironm
"\Desktop\DASdataFiles"
into the update location in the application, that way it resolves all issues. It maybe possible to put this into the update check location before publishing but I'm uncertain how to do this.
Thanks for your patience.
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ASKER
Appologies for the long time I've taken to clean up this question. The closest thing I found to what I needed was this.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/install/DDayUpdate_Part1.aspx
I haven't yet tried it yet, but I think it fits in with GuitarRich's suggestion about the 'lauching program'
Cheers
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/install/DDayUpdate_Part1.aspx
I haven't yet tried it yet, but I think it fits in with GuitarRich's suggestion about the 'lauching program'
Cheers
http://articles.techrepubl
http://msdn.microsoft.com/