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 Publishing Office Solutions (2007 S...
Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office system (version 3.0)
Publishing Office Solutions (2007 System)

Applies to

The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office.

Project type

  • Document-level projects

  • Application-level projects

Microsoft Office version

  • 2007 Microsoft Office system

For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

You have two ways to publish Visual Studio Tools for Office solutions:

  • The Publish Wizard, which provides a simplified publishing experience.

  • The Publish page of the Project Designer, which enables you to fully customize each publishing step.

For step-by-step instructions for how to publish solutions, see How to: Deploy an Office Solution by Using ClickOnce (2007 System).

When a Visual Studio Tools for Office solution is published, the solution files are created in the publish folder in the following structure:

  • The application files folder.

    • Version-specific subfolders that contain the version-specific application manifest, version-specific deployment manifest, and customization assemblies.

  • The Setup program.

  • A deployment manifest that points to the latest version-specific deployment manifest.

Publish Folder Structure

ClickOnce creates a new deployment manifest for each version of your Office solution. For example, for the first version of a solution called OutlookAddin1, the publish process creates a version-specific deployment manifest in the version-specific subfolder called OutlookAddIn1_1_0_0_0. This subfolder is in the Application Files folder. In addition, ClickOnce puts a copy of the deployment manifest in the top-level publish folder.

The next incremental publish creates a version-specific deployment manifest in the version-specific subfolder called OutlookAddIn1_1_0_0_1. It also replaces the deployment manifest in the publish folder with a copy of the most recent version-specific deployment manifest.

ClickOnce appends the .deploy extension to assemblies. This way, a secured installation of Internet Information Services (IIS) will not block the files because of an unsafe extension. After the files are downloaded, ClickOnce removes the .deploy extension before installing the solution into the ClickOnce cache. For more information, see <deployment> Element.

When you use the Publish Wizard, most of the options are set to the default values found in the Publish page of the Project Designer. The following table shows the default settings that the wizard assigns to the solution properties.

Solution property

Description of default setting

Publish location

Required.

The publish location is the directory to which Visual Studio copies the solution files such as the manifests, assemblies, and other files from the build. You must have write access to this directory.

Options include the local computer, a UNC file share, or a HTTP/HTTPS Web site. The path can be local (c:\foldername\publishfolder), relative (publish\), or a fully qualified location (\\servername\foldername or http://servername/foldername).

By default, the publishing location is http://localhost/projectname/ if you have IIS installed, or the publish\ directory if you do not have IIS installed.

Note:

There are more considerations if the target computer is running Windows Vista. You must be an administrator on the Windows Vista computer to use the local publish option. In addition, the default location is always the publish\ directory, regardless of whether you have IIS installed.

Installation path

Optional.

The installation path is the directory from which the end user will install the customization. It is also the path that the solution will use to check for updates. The path can be the same as the publishing folder location, but this is not a requirement.

Options include the local computer, a UNC file share, or a HTTP/HTTPS Web site. The path can be local (c:\foldername\publishfolder), relative (publish\), or a fully qualified location (\\servername\foldername or http://servername/foldername). All HTTP/HTTPS locations must be created with US-ASCII characters. Unicode characters are not supported.

If the installation path is set, the customization files must be in that location for users to install the customization. The location should be set only if you know the final deployment location.

If the installation files are in a location relative to the document or Setup program, such as with the CD option, leave this box blank.

This value can be assigned later. For more information, see How to: Change the Installation Path of an Office Solution (2007 System).

Prerequisites

Uses the settings in the Publish page of the Project Designer. The defaults are Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime, .NET Framework 3.5, and Windows Installer 3.1.

Update interval

Uses the settings in the Publish page of the Project Designer. The default is to check every seven days.

Publish version

Uses the setting in the Publish page of the Project Designer. The default is 1.0.0.0 when the project is created.

Publish language

Uses the setting in the Publish page of the Project Designer. The default is the language of Visual Studio.

The Publish page of the Project Designer enables you to configure all the Setup properties. The following table describes the properties.

Solution property

Description of default settings

Publishing folder location

Required.

The publishing folder location is the directory to which Visual Studio copies the solution files such as the manifests, assemblies, and other files from the build. You must have write access to this directory.

Options include the local computer, a UNC file share, or a HTTP/HTTPS Web site. The path can be local (c:\foldername\publishfolder), relative (publish\), or a fully qualified location (\\servername\foldername or http://servername/foldername).

By default, the publishing location is http://localhost/projectname/ if you have IIS installed, or the publish\ directory if you do not have IIS installed.

Installation folder URL

Optional.

The installation folder URL is the directory from which the end user will install the customization. It is also the path that the solution will use to check for updates. The path can be the same as the publishing folder location, but this is not a requirement.

Options include the local computer, a UNC file share, or a HTTP/HTTPS Web site. The path can be local (c:\foldername\publishfolder), relative (publish\), or a fully qualified location (\\servername\foldername or http://servername/foldername). All HTTP/HTTPS locations must be created with US-ASCII characters. Unicode characters are not supported.

If the installation path is set, the customization files must be in that location for users to install the customization. The location should be set only if you know the final deployment location.

If the installation files are in a location relative to the document or Setup program, such as with the CD option, leave this box blank.

This value can be assigned later by an administrator. For more information, see How to: Change the Installation Path of an Office Solution (2007 System).

Prerequisites

The prerequisites can be included with the Setup program or downloaded on demand during installation.

Option

Description

Download prerequisites from the component vendor's web site

Use this option to download these prerequisites from Microsoft.

Download prerequisites from the same location as my application

Use this option to package the prerequisites in your installer. Including the prerequisite files with the Setup program increases the size of the solution.

Download prerequisites from the following location

Use this option to make the prerequisites available to end users separately as another Setup program on a Web page or network share.

Update interval

The update interval determines how often the solution checks for updates. The default is to check every seven days.

Checking for updates every time a document-level customization or application-level add-in is loaded would keep it updated, but would affect startup performance.

If you are deploying by using a CD or removable drive, set this to Never check for updates.

Publish version

This is automatically incremented with each release, but can also be set manually with a numeric value.

Publish language

2007 Microsoft Office system projects only. This option sets the language of the Microsoft Software License Terms, and includes the Visual Studio Tools for Office language packs in the list of prerequisites. It does not affect the language of the customization. The language in the Setup program is determined by the installed languages of Visual Studio.

For more information about how to change the Publish language, see How to: Change the Publish Language for a ClickOnce Application.
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